Todd Haynes

Born: 1961-01-02

Todd Haynes (/heɪnz/; born January 2, 1961; Los Angeles) is an American filmmaker. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender roles. Haynes first gained public attention with his controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which chronicles singer Karen Carpenter's life and death, using Barbie dolls as actors. Superstar became a cult classic. Haynes's feature directorial debut, Poison (1991), a provocative exploration of AIDS-era queer perceptions and subversions, established him as a figure of a new transgressive cinema. Poison won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and is regarded as a seminal work of New Queer Cinema. Haynes received further acclaim for his second feature film, Safe (1995), a symbolic portrait of a housewife who develops multiple chemical sensitivity. Safe was later voted the best film of the 1990s by The Village Voice Film Poll. His next feature, Velvet Goldmine (1998), is a tribute to the 1970s glam rock era. The film received the Special Jury Prize for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Haynes gained acclaim and a measure of mainstream success with Far from Heaven (2002) earning his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He continued to direct critically lauded films such as I'm Not There (2007), Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017) and Dark Waters (2019). He directed his first feature-length documentary, The Velvet Underground (2021). Haynes directed and co-wrote the HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011) for which he was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.


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At the Video Store

as Self
Released: 2019-10-11

Equal parts personal essay, intense rumination, and playful satire, this movie laments the death...

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Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema

as Self
Released: 2006-02-12

A chronological look at films by, for, or about gays and lesbians in the United States, from...

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At Sundance

as Self
Released: 1995-01-01

A group portrait of filmmakers attend the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Featuring Matthew...

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Swoon

as Phrenology Head
Released: 1992-09-11

Teenagers Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb share a dangerous sexual bond and an amoral...

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Great Directors

as Self
Released: 2009-05-19

Features conversations with ten of the world's greatest living directors: Bernardo Bertolucci,...

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Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

as Todd Donovan
Released: 1987-07-15

The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by...

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Xavier Dolan: Bound to Impossible

as Self
Released: 2016-09-20

Actors Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément, Monia Chokri, Gaspard Ulliel, Vincent Cassel, Niels...

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Eine Zärtlichkeit wie bei Sirk - Todd Haynes über Fassbinder und das Melodram

as Self
Released: 2006-01-01

In his film "Far From Heaven", Todd Haynes refers very respectfully to Douglas Sirk's "All that...

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Douglas Sirk – Hope as in Despair

as Self
Released: 2022-08-03

An investigative portrait of the master of cinematic melodrama, Douglas Sirk. His life was the...

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Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud

as uncredited
Released: 1985-01-01

The violent love between poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.

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Infinite Pleasure: Todd Haynes on Max Ophuls' Le Plaisir

as Interviewee
Released: 2006-09-18

Filmmaker Todd Haynes talks about Max Ophuls' 1952 film Le Plaisir.

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Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter

as Self
First aired: 2023-12-31

THR’s famed Roundtables are reimagined for broadcast and offer a fresh perspective on a classic,...

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