Todd Haynes never wants his audiences to leave the cinema feeling content after watching a movie, where all the pieces are neatly tied up in a bow at the end, with no reason for any further discussion.
He’d much rather disturb his audience and force them to have uncomfortable conversations.
His latest drama, May December does not disappoint, leaving cinemagoers with a sense of disquiet and a host of unanswered questions.
After all, Haynes insists he wouldn’t be doing his job if his characters all sailed off into a cheerful sunset.
“It’s almost hard to think of great movies that aren’t ambiguous,” suggests Haynes, 62, whose films include Safe, Carol, Far from Heaven, I’m Not There, Velvet Goldmine, and most recently, documentary The Velvet Underground and the Mark Ruffalo starring Dark Waters.
“Tell me one great movie that isn’t ambiguous? I can’t think of one. Every Hitchcock or Sirk movie is ambiguous because of the level of subversiveness that they stir up – those levels are not closed down comfortably by the end of the movie. Or, if they are, you’re left with a feeling of disquiet, you’re not thinking, ‘Oh, everything worked out great. That Hitchcock movie made me feel so happy and content’,” he tells us at the 19th Zurich Film Festival, where May December enjoyed a Gala Premiere.
Starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, Haynes tackles an all-American sex scandal, very loosely based around the story of schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau who seduced her 12-year-old pupil, Vili Fualaau.
Ultimately mothering two daughters by Fualaau, the couple were married upon Letourneau’s release from prison.
In Haynes’ version, we meet Julianne Moore’s Gracie Atherton-Yoo – a woman who has served her time and is married to her former 13-year-old lover with whom she has a family of three.
It’s 20 years after the shocking events, and the couple’s peaceful existence is shaken when Natalie Portman’s Elizabeth Berry – an actress doing research in order to portray Gracie in a movie – arrives in town on a mission to get to know all the players in the scandal.
Ask Haynes if he is making a statement about toxic relationships and manipulation, he pauses momentarily. “Yes, I think it is, but again, even that statement is countered… the fact that elders can abuse their power in relationships with minors, I think is we all know to be the case. And we all know that often happens more with men or we expect it more of men than women. And even that is a contradiction because of the way a woman is treated when she transgresses sexually versus how a man would be treated when he transgresses sexually is different.
“Without a doubt, Gracie abused her power at the time when she met Joe and was arrested and served her time and they married when he was of age, and they raised an entire family with three kids who seem like they’re going to be okay. So, again, you’re holding all these things. People make mistakes. Are they they marked by that for the rest of their life? In some ways? Yes. Do we ever get a chance to redeem ourselves? I don’t know. Do you ever forgive people? These are questions that the movie doesn’t answer,” he says.
Talking about how much of a factor the Mary Kay Letourneau story was in crafting his film – based on a script by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik – he says, “This came up when Julianne and I were talking about Gracie and how could this original crazy relationship with her and Joe have happened? What was behind it? Specific insights did come from the Mary Kay Letourneau story that helped clarify and make concrete certain things about that relationship that helped Julianne; that helped me in turn,” he says of Moore, May December marking their fourth screen collaboration.
If their film explores various uncomfortable issues, he says, “I think, mostly it’s just the way people survive the crises in their lives by shutting down self-examination. And although Elizabeth claims to be seeking the truth and getting to the truth, and she’s going to tell the true story and all that – she’s hardly somebody who looks at herself with scrutiny.
“And so, both female characters put up these ways of not examining themselves in order to survive and to protect their will and their desire. It’s an unusual movie in that how much of the story is driven by female desire, that is getting satisfied – at any cost,” he teases.
Subtly pitting the two women against each other, there’s no winners in this game. “The power dynamic between the two women keeps shifting. And when they’re in that makeup scene, they’re almost as intimate and as open with each other as they ever are in the film and, in fact, it’s Gracie asking questions about Elizabeth’s life – and not the other way around.
“Something feels like it’s opening up between them and there’s even a sense of lurking, submerged, even possible erotic interest; some attraction is also at least present in the atmosphere of the room. You don’t know where it’s gonna go. Like so many of these scenes, you’re kind of like: ‘What is going on here? This is really strange, but I can’t take my eyes off the two women’. But then, by the very next scene – when Elizabeth comes over for a baking instruction – and gives her a little hug, Gracie just stiffens. So, whatever little boundary you think they might have progressed with each other… You’re like no! They’re back to being very cautious around each other,” he says.
If Haynes first gained public attention with his controversial 1987 short film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which chronicles the singer’s life and death using Barbie dolls as actors, May December is arguably another examination of celebrity – or infamy in this case.
“Superstar was so much about the vulnerability of a young girl being thrown into the media spotlight at an early age and how that affects her relationship to her body. So, you’re really watching it all happen in real time, although it’s all layered through the use of dolls and different stylistic modes of discursive modes that make you constantly turn over the themes in your head. But I mean, in that way, I guess there are similar feelings that might be comparable between the two films, but I guess the theme of the actor and the making of the film was just one of the elements of the narrative that was intriguing to me. It wasn’t the driving focus,” he says.
Raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, Haynes’ cosmetics importer father and drama student mother were happy to expose their son to a wide range of films. “I saw all kinds of strange movies when I was a kid because most movies were strange. And good movies were strange. And my parents trusted that I could handle that. Not all parents do, but mine did,” he says.
May December will release in cinemas 1 February 2024
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