Safe

Tip from Laura

SAFE by Todd Haynes is an allergic nightmare. Julianne Moore plays a housewife who becomes allergic to everything and seeks a cure in a New Age cult. Horror film or satire? Perfect for hypochondriacs, sceptics, mindfulness haters and, of course, allergy sufferers.

The way she is lying there, under her husband, having sex, it is clear at first glance how this relationship is going. Later she will blab; when asked what she does, she almost slips out the word ‘housewife’, only just able to correct it to ‘homemaker’. In her circles - McMansion in the suburbs, the man brings home the money, the Latino domestic help takes care of the rest, the trophy wife has time for perms and manicures - a woman is not a housewife.

The psychiatrist asks because Carol is complaining of discomfort, but everything is actually fine physically. Actually. On the sound level (machine noise) and by means of framing (isolation of the character), Haynes, who is filming his own screenplay with SAFE, makes it clear from the start that Carol's existence is wrong. She falls ill because she has nothing to do, knows nothing to do with herself and can no longer stand her husband. She becomes ill because the perfect interlocking of the two systems of patriarchy and capitalism has brought her little cog to a standstill. Perhaps she has always been a weak character who couldn't defend herself. But because she doesn't fight back, the body is now fighting back.

With this story of disengagement, Haynes addresses a phenomenon that is still present - alienation leads to illness and, with esoteric saviours, calls the immanent guarantors of stagnation onto the scene - and embeds it in a comprehensively socio-critical context without giving the impression of overload.

The role of Carol marks both Julianne Moore's first major leading role and the first of five collaborations with Haynes to date; Haynes in turn celebrated considerable international success with SAFE.

(Text: Alexandra Seitz)