Far from Heaven, Safe, and Superstar

Three Screenplays

Todd Haynes

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781555847777
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film Screenplays

Three acclaimed screenplays from one of today's most provocative filmmakers, including the Oscar nominated screenplay Far from Heaven. An award-winning auteur and a pioneer of the New Queer Cinema movement, Todd Haynes has achieved both critical acclaim and box office success with his original, intelligent, and often controversial films. Collected here are three of his most celebrated screenplays. Far from Heaven: Winning fifty critics' prizes and appearing on two hundred Top Ten lists, Far from Heaven was also nominated for four Academy Awards. Inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk, it tells the story of a 1950s housewife who is alienated by her neighbors when she pursues an affair with her African American gardener after learning of her husband's homosexuality. Safe: Haynes's breakthrough feature was voted Best Film of the 1990s by the Village Voice Film Critics Poll. It tells the disturbing story of an affluent suburban housewife whose life is shattered by a mysterious illness. One character suggests that perhaps she is "allergic to the twentieth century." Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story: Told with a cast of Barbie dolls, this short film about Karen Carpenter's battle with anorexia was named one of Entertainment Weekly 's Top 50 Cult Movies in 2003. Though the film was ordered destroyed after a lawsuit by the Carpenter estate, it remains an underground classic and "the most talked-about, least-seen film of the '80s" ( The A.V. Club ).

Far from Heaven

Screenplay by Todd Haynes

Cast

Cathy Whitaker
Frank Whitaker
Raymond Deagan
Eleanor Fine
Sybil
Dr. Bowman
Mrs. Leacock
Stan Fine
David Whitaker
Janice Whitaker
Sarah Deagan
Billy Hutchinson
Mona Lauder
Doreen
Nancy
Dick Dawson
Esther
Photographer
Reginald Carter
Elderly Woman
Man with Mustache
Spanish Bartender
Red-Faced Man
Farnsworth
Soda Jerk
Tallman
Kitty
Hotel Waiter
Blond Boy
Julianne Moore
Dennis Quaid
Dennis Haysbert
Patricia Clarkson
Viola Davis
James Rebhorn
Bette Henritze
Michael Gaston
Ryan Ward
Lindsay Andretta
Jordan Puryear
Kyle Smith
Celia Weston
Barbara Garrick
Olivia Birkelund
Stevie Ray Dallimore
Mylika Davis
Jason Franklin
Gregory Marlow
June Squibb
Laurent Giroux
Alex Santoriello
Matt Malloy
J. B. Adams
Kevin Carrigan
Chance Kelly
Pamela Evans
Joe Holt
Nicholas Joy

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, 1957

EXT. NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE—DAY

The bells of a Gothic church are ringing down upon a comely square near downtown Hartford. The crisp fall day is alive with color, as cornflower skies burst through the autumn reds and golds, setting off the clean brick buildings and freshly painted homes that so proudly distinguish this New England township.

Music over OPENING CREDITS.

We see a powder blue 1956 Chevrolet turn onto the main road on its way into town.

EXT. VILLAGE STREET—DAY

The Chevrolet stops in front of a small dance school just off State Street, and an attractive, red-haired woman in her mid-thirties emerges from the car, wearing sunglasses and a scarf. She says hello to a mother and a daughter exiting the school on her way inside, returning a moment later with a strawberry-haired girl in ballet clothes. CATHY WHITAKER, having collected her eight-year-old daughter JANICE from ballet class, is finally returning home from another busy day.

EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET—LATER

Cathy’s car is turning onto a well-tended, residential street, full of traditional black-shuttered, white wood homes, all set back on spacious lawns against the blaze of autumn color.

EXT. WHITAKER HOUSE—LATER

She turns into the driveway of a large, fastidiously landscaped two-story home with a slate roof and flagstone walkway. DAVID WHITAKER, a typical eleven-year-old boy with dark hair like his dad’s, is circling around the front of the house on his bright red Schwinn.

DAVID: Mother! Mother! Can I sleep over at Hutch’s tonight? Mrs. Hutchison gave permission.

CATHY: (from the car) Not tonight, David. Your father and I are going out and I need you to look after your sister.

DAVID: Aww, shucks.

CATHY: Now move your school bag, David, so Mother can park.

The Whitakers’ maid SYBIL, a handsome black woman in her early thirties, is just coming down the front steps to the car.

JANICE: (hopping out) Sherry Seeger says they only cost something like five or six dollars. Please, Mother, please, can I?

CATHY: (opening her door) Oh Sybil, thank heavens!

SYBIL: Well I knew you were going to the grocery—

CATHY: David, please help Sybil unload the car.

DAVID: How come Janice doesn’t gotta?

CATHY: Doesn’t have to. Because Janice is carrying in all her belongings and marching straight upstairs into the bath.

Janice steps out of the car loaded down with laundered clothes and packages.

CATHY: Your father and I have an engagement so I want you both to have a nice early dinner. And help Sybil.

DAVID/JANICE: (not exactly in sync) Yes, ma’am.

CATHY: Sybil, did Mr. Whitaker call while I was out?

SYBIL: No, Mrs. Whitaker. Not since you’ve been gone.

CATHY: How do you like that guy? Big-time executive and he still can’t remember a single social obligation!

JANICE: So Mother, can I? Please can I get them?

CATHY: Janice, I said we’ll discuss it with your father.

Now hurry on inside. David, put your bike away and help Sybil with the groceries! Where’s your jacket?

DAVID: Inside.

CATHY turns to see her best friend, ELEANOR FINE, a lean, blond woman in her early forties, just turning up her drive in a shiny green Imperial.

CATHY: Well hello, stranger! Aren’t I seeing you in about three hours’ time?

ELEANOR is stepping out of her car.

ELEANOR: You are. But I just left the caterers this instant and I had to dash over.

CATHY: You have the samples?

ELEANOR: You bet.

CATHY: Ooh. Come inside.

They start into the house.

ELEANOR: I can only stay a second.

CATHY: You just caught me, acually—David! What did I tell you?

DAVID: I’m getting the last bag!

Dissolve to:

INT. WHITAKER LIVING ROOM—MOMENTS LATER

Inside, JANICE is practicing some ballet steps by a large stone fireplace.

ELEANOR is in the midst of showing CATHY color samples for the big company party that is their annual tradition to host.

ELEANOR: And imagine with the table setting I showed you. The aqua trim? Is that smart?

CATHY: Oh yes.

ELEANOR: You like?

CATHY: Mmm-hmm.

ELEANOR: (starting to put things away) All right. So I’ll call the caterers in the morning and you confirm with Dorothy on the deposit—and honey, we’re in business.

CATHY: Magnavox ’57, here we come.

ELEANOR: You betcha.

*[JANICE: Mother, look!

CATHY: Janice, I thought I told you to go start your bath! You know your father and I—

JANICE: Just this one part, pleeease.

CATHY: All right, but lickety-split.

JANICE performs a few steps for her mother and ELEANOR as DAVID po...