Home Sickness, Pt. 1 — Safe (1995)

We continue our shelter-in-place film series with a pair of films featuring magazine-perfect housewife archetypes struck by mysterious illnesses that are inextricably linked to their oppressive environments: Todd Haynes’ 1995 feature SAFE and Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ debut film SWALLOW. In this half we dig into the many shifting metaphors at play in SAFE, how they reflect both the film’s era and our current moment, and how they’re all held together by Julianne Moore’s remarkable central performance. And what to make of that ending? Is there any sense of optimism or closure to be drawn from Haynes’ film? All that, plus some feedback that uses specific movies as jumping-off points for some big, sprawling questions about film.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about SAFE, SWALLOW, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Show Notes

Works Cited:

• “Todd Haynes on the unsafe world of Safe,” by Scott Tobias (thedissolve.com)

• “Safe: Nowhere to Hide,” by Dennis Lim (criterion.com)

Outro Music: Tom Lehrer, “Pollution”

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