Arts Writing

Todd Haynes, Artforum

Amy Taubin, “Daughter Dearest: Amy Taubin Talks with Todd Haynes,” Artforum, March, 2011.

Todd Haynes, Mildred Pierce, 2010–11, five-part miniseries on HBO, approx. 330 minutes. Production still

Todd Haynes specializes in two kinds of movies: analytic music biopics (Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story , Velvet Goldmine , I’m Not There ) and revisions of the genre that Hollywood dubbed the “woman’s picture” (Safe , Far from Heaven ). We can now add to the latter Mildred Pierce, a five-part miniseries that premieres this month on HBO. Fans of Michael Curtiz’s 1945 movie starring Joan Crawford will be surprised to discover that in this new version—which faithfully adheres to the eponymous James M. Cain novel on which the earlier film, too, was based—there is no murder mystery.

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