Safe in Manhattan

Every day this weekend, on New York City’s Lower East Side, the Metrograph will give moviegoers the chance to see Todd Haynes’s 1995 film Safe in a 35 mm print. An elliptical drama suffused with existential dread, Safe revolves around California housewife Carol (Julianne Moore), who comes down with a mysterious malady that seems to be linked to the very environment in which she lives, the ill-defined illness eventually causing her to withdraw further and further into isolation. The film, which has been interpreted as a commentary on the empty bromides of self-help culture as well as an allegory of the AIDS crisis, became a breakthrough for both Haynes and Moore, who would go on to collaborate on such ravishing period pieces as Far from Heaven and Wonderstruck (which premiered at Cannes last month). For a glimpse of the dynamic between Haynes and Moore, watch the below outtake from a supplement on our release, in which the two discuss some of the influences behind Safe—including Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, and the work of frequent Haynes reference point Douglas Sirk—and the independent-film scene from which it emerged.