"You're all man to me! All man..."
I just finished watching Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven and am very impressed. The film is a modern take on the melodramas of the fifties, most notably Douglas Sirk whose All That Heaven Allows is heavily borrowed from. The film has a look and feel that is very very fifties.
The story is banal in the most melodramatic of manners, but keeps you interested especially because of the interesting characters and great performances, especially by Dennis Quaid and Julliane Moore.
The Music is great and fits perfectly.
The real star of the film though is the cinematographer, Edward Lachman, and the art direction of the film. It's absolutely gorgeous to look at just like the Sirkian melodramas of the fifties. The color choices are all very specific and beautifully planned out. They use lots of complimentary colors (especially Red and Green or Blue and Orange being the two most often used in this film) to great effect. Everything is meticulously planned out and executed, the costumes, lighting, set design, it's incredible!!! Everything our professor at school raved about when lecturing us on Sirk's films is beautifully rendered here in Haynes' work. I wasn't a big fan of Sirk's film, but I thought Far From Heaven was great. (8/10)
Hmmm... Kind of makes me wonder, a great film like this I give an 8 and I gave Minority Report a 7... I think I'm going to go back and change my previous vote to a 6...
