Edd-N-Furter

Hartford, Connecticut, 1957. Frank and Cathy Whitaker are what people might name "The American Dream come true": he's a successful salesman, she's a devoted housewife in charge of a perfect house in the suburbs and two lovely children, and committed to the social causes of the time. But this will fall apart when Cathy discovers a shocking truth about Frank, and she finds solace in Raymond, the black gardener, which will make her the center of the town's gossips.

Todd Haynes has declared himself as a great admirer of the highly stylized melodramas made back in the 50's (especially the ones directed by Douglas Sirk: Imitation of Life and All that heaven allows). His third feature Far from heaven is an open homage to these movies, and it's also a compelling approach for younger audiences to an often forgotten genre.

Haynes' splendid screenplays offers a sharp gaze to social troubles that sadly still remain just like in the 50's: sexual preferences treated as a disease and racial discrimination towards black people (let's remember they basically had zero rights at that time). In addition to this, tells a poignant story about forbidden love following the rules of melodrama (a plot that appeals to the heightened emotions of the audience, suffering protagonists (usually heroines) facing tremendous social pressures, threats, repression, fears, etc), escaping its clichés and conventionalities skilfully.

As mentioned, in Far from heaven, Haynes' intention is to accomplish a faithful recreation of the old-fashioned period dramas in which production values become another character of the movie (an essential one). Thus, Haynes' creative team is able to put together a visually-striking gem: from Edward Lachman's exquisite cinematography, Sandy Powell's alluring costumes and Elmer Bernstein (in one of his final works) and his evocative music (it's not an accident the fact that Haynes chose him to score the movie, since he worked in several of those period pieces): all of them are perfectly assembled without overshadowing the final result.

The third element that makes this movie so powerful and compelling is the acting: Haynes trusts in Julianne Moore's tremendous range and she portraits Cathy's tribulations with an affecting honesty (this is one of her top performances, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film festival and received an Oscar nomination, among many other awards). Then there's Dennis Quaid, delivering the best performance of his career: as Frank he embraces his confusion and pain brilliantly, and creates empathy for a man whose "sin" to live a lie and hide his true desires. And behind them, there's a firs-rate supporting cast, including Dennis Haysbert as Raymond, the gardener who will comfort Cathy (even though this might cause him some pain) and Patricia Clarkson and Viola Davis in strong turns.

With this movie, Todd Haynes let us know his superb skills as director by taking in a misunderstood genre, infuse it with new life and keeping its essence at the same time.

There are directors with the rare skill to make movies that don't require big, loud moments to leave a lasting impression in the audiences. Andrew Haigh is one of the best examples of this, and after his critically acclaimed debut Weekend, he's back with 45 years, in which he explores relationships from an engaging point of view: the marriage of two people who've been together for almost half a century.

In the eve of Geoff and Kate's 45th anniversary wedding, he's informed about Katya, his girlfriend who died in an accident in the Swiss Alps: her body has been found. And what seems like a curious anecdote from Geoff's past, slowly will become a painful shadow, poised to threat their happiness.

With this movie, Haigh confirms himself as a storyteller with a great sensibility, able to show a wide range of emotions using few resources. Taking as reference David Constantine short story In Another Country, he constructs with an unusual elegance and delicacy for a director as young as him, an absorbing study about two characters in a tranquil environment, which is about to fracture abruptly, due to an invisible (and yet, very visible) presence, that will uncover secrets and untold truths.

Haigh's mastery in the use of long sequences, close-ups and building pace reminds of Bergman's work (especially in Scenes of a Marriage) and like him, relies upon his actors who must be able to unfold the characters' internal conflicts and reactions in such situations. British legends Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay offer a master class in acting: two supreme performances that depict Kate and Geoff's struggle with the past with a raw honesty and creating and affecting empathy for both. Is Rampling, nevertheless, the one with the bigger emotional burden: Kate's distress grows as Geoff becomes more absent than ever: she knows her husband is chasing a ghost and he's kind of becoming one as well, and her frustration and resentment as she finds out more details about Katya are beautifully displayed by Rampling, especially in two specific scenes with the potential to become iconic moments of modern cinema.

Another element brilliantly used by Haigh is the music, there's no original score, but he makes an exquisite selection of songs that work as emotional accompaniment of Geoff and Kate's predicament (this selection includes among others Leonard Cohen, Dusty Springfield, The Moody Blues and Aaron Neville) and the best example of this is The Platters' Smoke gets in your eyes, which plays in one of the film's most powerful moments.

45 years is one of the best movies of 2015, a smashing affirmation of Andrew Haigh's status as one of the best new filmmakers working nowadays, and a sensational reminder of the talents of Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay.