Tuesday, January 20 at 7pm
Safe – 30th Anniversary Restoration Screening!
Directed by Todd Haynes (U.S., 1995) 119 min. DCP. With Julianne Moore, Peter Friedman, Xander Berkeley.
Before May December (2023), Carol (2015), Far From Heaven (2002), and many other seminal films, Todd Haynes began his artistic partnership with Julianne Moore when he directed Safe, the unnerving story of a woman’s descent into malady that now reverberates uncannily as a tale of two plagues – one that preceded the film (AIDS) and another that came decades later (COVID). Moore gives an astonishing performance as Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife whose affluent environment turns against her in the form of an inexplicable illness. What begins as sudden allergic reactions to everyday chemicals, fragrances and fumes turns increasingly violent, transforming the laminated safety of Carol’s existence into a terror of everyday life. When she is diagnosed with an immunity disorder called “Twentieth Century Disease,” and sets off to New Mexico in search of treatment, Carol’s journey turns inward. And, in the crisis of identity that results, Safe reveals the ways in which disease infests our basic sense of who we are.
“Seductive… Scarily confident, beautifully acted. It will seize any viewer who dares to surrender to its spell. Feel free to laugh or scream.” -Richard Corliss, Time Magazine