Far From Heaven + intro

Towner Cinema marks Black History Month with this one-off screening of Todd Haynes’ 2002 take on the Douglas Sirk melodrama, Far From Heaven. The film particularly from 1955’s All That Heaven Allows and 1959’s Imitation of Life (playing at Towner Cinema on 21 September). However, in the early 21st century, writer and director Haynes was able to make explicit themes that were not possible for Sirk to confront head on in the 1950s. 

Far from Heaven stars Julianne Moore as Cathy, a Connecticut housewife married to a successful executive at a company selling television advertising. But all is not what it seems. Cathy’s husband Frank (Dennis Quaid) is struggling with his sexuality while Cathy embarks on a relationship with her black gardener, much to the horror of the local community.

The film is an impeccable homage to the genre, costumed by Sandy Powell and awash with colour and high emotion.