Todd Haynes followed his audacious arthouse breakthrough Poison (1991) with this masterpiece about a middle-class suburban housewife, Carol (Julianne Moore) who contracts a mysterious illness and gradually descends into sickness and possibly madness.
Described by Haynes as a “horror movie of the soul”, Carol’s unexciting passionless existence is disrupted when she becomes increasingly afflicted by the sounds, odours, and chemical substances of her contemporary Los Angeles life. Haynes tracks her degeneration in calmly distanced, perfectly composed scenes that recall the work of Stanley Kubrick. Everything is open to multiple interpretations. The ambiguous nature of Carol’s affliction and lack of concrete solutions slowly increase our uncertainty and horror. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “There’s a dark power, a tremor that runs through the movie like the rumble of a secret dread.”
As relevant today as when it was made, and featuring a remarkable performance by Julianne Moore, Lost Reels is pleased to present a rare 35mm screening of Safe to mark the 30th anniversary of its UK release.
