Todd Haynes

Directing

Todd Haynes

Born

1961-01-02 (65)

Place of birth

Los Angeles, California, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

62 titles

Todd Haynes (/heɪnz/; born January 2, 1961; Los Angeles) is an American filmmaker. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender roles. Haynes first gained public attention with his controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which chronicles singer Karen Carpenter's life and death, using Barbie dolls as actors. Superstar became a cult classic. Haynes's feature directorial debut, Poison (1991), a provocative exploration of AIDS-era queer perceptions and subversions, established him as a figure of a new transgressive cinema. Poison won the Sundance Film Festival'…

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 4 titles

2010s · 3 titles

2000s · 7 titles

Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema poster
5.4

A chronological look at films by, for, or about gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005, Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" to "Brokeback Mountain". Talking heads, anchored by critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich, are interspersed with an advancing timeline and with clips from two dozen films. The narrative groups the pictures around various firsts, movements, and triumphs: experimental films, indie films, sex on screen, outlaw culture and bad guys, lesbian lovers, films about AIDS and dying, emergence of romantic comedy, transgender films, films about diversity and various cultures, documentaries and then mainstream Hollywood drama. What might come next?

Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema

2006

No artwork available
NR

Behind the scenes of Todd Haynes' 2002 film Far from Heaven.

Far from Heaven: "Making of"

2003

No artwork available
NR

Todd Haynes, who considers Max Ophuls’ THE RECKLESS MOMENT (1949) one of his ten favorite films of all time, gives a wonderful 22 minute introduction of the film, titled "Maternal Overdrive," a term he uses to describe the state of the protagonist, Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett).

Maternal Overdrive

2006

Great Directors poster
6.1

Features conversations with ten of the world's greatest living directors: Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles. The film documents Ismailos' voyage of discovering the creative personalities behind the camera.

Great Directors

2009

Infinite Pleasure: Todd Haynes on Max Ophuls' Le Plaisir poster
NR

Filmmaker Todd Haynes talks about Max Ophuls' 1952 film Le Plaisir.

Infinite Pleasure: Todd Haynes on Max Ophuls' Le Plaisir

2006

No artwork available
NR

Jennifer Montgomery tracks down three old friends (Joe Westmoreland, Lisa Cholodenko, and Todd Haynes) who borrowed and never returned pieces of her super-8 film equipment.

Notes on the Death of Kodachrome

2007

Eine Zärtlichkeit wie bei Sirk - Todd Haynes über Fassbinder und das Melodram poster
NR

In his film "Far From Heaven", Todd Haynes refers very respectfully to Douglas Sirk's "All that Heaven Allows". Fassbinder was also strongly influenced by Sirk's work. Haynes now explains this double fascination.

Eine Zärtlichkeit wie bei Sirk - Todd Haynes über Fassbinder und das Melodram

2006

1980s · 4 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

May December poster
6.6

Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.

May December

2023

Dark Waters poster
7.5

A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.

Dark Waters

2019

I'm Not There poster
6.5

Six actors portray six personas of music legend Bob Dylan in scenes depicting various stages of his life, chronicling his rise from unknown folksinger to international icon and revealing how Dylan constantly reinvented himself.

I'm Not There

2007

I'm Not There poster
6.5

Six actors portray six personas of music legend Bob Dylan in scenes depicting various stages of his life, chronicling his rise from unknown folksinger to international icon and revealing how Dylan constantly reinvented himself.

I'm Not There

2007

Carol poster
7.5

In 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.

Carol

2015

Far from Heaven poster
7.1

In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.

Far from Heaven

2002

Far from Heaven poster
7.1

In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.

Far from Heaven

2002

Wonderstruck poster
6.1

The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

Wonderstruck

2017

Safe poster
7.0

Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.

Safe

1995

Safe poster
7.0

Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.

Safe

1995

Velvet Goldmine poster
6.9

Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.

Velvet Goldmine

1998

Velvet Goldmine poster
6.9

Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.

Velvet Goldmine

1998

Poison poster
6.0

A trio of interweaved transgressive tales, telling a bizarre stories of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice, a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague, and the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.

Poison

1991

Poison poster
6.0

A trio of interweaved transgressive tales, telling a bizarre stories of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice, a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague, and the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.

Poison

1991

The Velvet Underground poster
6.8

Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.

The Velvet Underground

2021

The Velvet Underground poster
6.8

Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.

The Velvet Underground

2021

The Velvet Underground poster
6.8

Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.

The Velvet Underground

2021

Six by Sondheim poster
7.1

This intimate documentary explores the life and career of the stage legend Stephen Sondheim through six of his best-known songs.

Six by Sondheim

2013

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story poster
7.0

The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

1987

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story poster
7.0

The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

1987

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story poster
7.0

The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

1987

Tommy's poster
7.0

A state employee tasked with photographing road conditions tracks a mysterious man (played by Steve Buscemi) who leaves suspiciously large garbage bags along a snowy country road.

Tommy's

1985

Dottie Gets Spanked poster
6.1

A six-year-old boy in pre-hippie 1960s United States endures ridicule from his schoolmates and worry from his father over his fixation with a TV star named Dottie.

Dottie Gets Spanked

1993

Dottie Gets Spanked poster
6.1

A six-year-old boy in pre-hippie 1960s United States endures ridicule from his schoolmates and worry from his father over his fixation with a TV star named Dottie.

Dottie Gets Spanked

1993

Anemone Me poster
NR

The only black American family in Maine has a son, a blind bodybuilder, who falls in love with a white "mer-boy."

Anemone Me

1990

No artwork available
NR

Richard Rent, a volatile LAPD cop, and Joe Thomas, a boarding schoolteacher, become targets of the city’s corrupt political machine and are forced to flee to Mexico. In the humid jungles of the country’s Pacific coast, an unexpected affair unfolds. As passion turns to reckoning, both men must confront the violence they fled and the illusions that once defined who they were – and who they fear they might become.

De Noche

—

No artwork available
NR

Richard Rent, a volatile LAPD cop, and Joe Thomas, a boarding schoolteacher, become targets of the city’s corrupt political machine and are forced to flee to Mexico. In the humid jungles of the country’s Pacific coast, an unexpected affair unfolds. As passion turns to reckoning, both men must confront the violence they fled and the illusions that once defined who they were – and who they fear they might become.

De Noche

—

A Man in Your Room poster
NR

A priest wakes repeatedly from a dream in which he sees attractive, partially-disrobed man in his room. The hypnotic repetition and anxiety of his vision gains tension from the minimalist score.

A Man in Your Room

1984

Muddy Hands poster
NR

A dramatic story of childhood trauma and mystical bonds telling of Matthew, a young boy haunted by a traumatizing memory of witnessing a suffocation death of another child (possibly a friend or playmate). He withdraws and has nightmares about what he saw. He struggles to relive his experience through play and fantasy in the face of an increasingly hostile world while his uncomprehending parents struggle to understand him. During one of his frequent trips to a building site near his house, Matthew meets Anna, a strange mysterious girl with whom he forms a mystical bond that forces him to confront the memory that has obsessed him.

Muddy Hands

1988

Natural History poster
NR

The parents of an adult infant named "Child", played by Todd Haynes, attempt to expel him from their home, by casting magical spell seen in a television documentary about Malaysian rites of passage.

Natural History

1989

Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud poster
4.0

The violent love between poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.

Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud

1985

Cause and Effect poster
NR

Ordinary people of both sexes, and of varying ages, races and ethnicities, tell stories that sound familiar. But each is a construct to plumb reality in a considered, theoretical, and, ultimately, playful fashion, as Delson continues the filmic experimentation begun during her collaboration with Jill Godmilow an the genre-bending Far from Poland.

Cause and Effect

1988

The Suicide poster
5.6

A young boy, abandoned by his father and supported by a blindly optimistic mother, struggles to fit in at his new school.

The Suicide

1978

The Suicide poster
5.6

A young boy, abandoned by his father and supported by a blindly optimistic mother, struggles to fit in at his new school.

The Suicide

1978

The Suicide poster
5.6

A young boy, abandoned by his father and supported by a blindly optimistic mother, struggles to fit in at his new school.

The Suicide

1978

Goo poster
5.7

In 1991, a long-form music video version of Goo was released on VHS and LaserDisc. A music video for each song from the album was included; the track listing was identical to that of the original album.

Goo

1991

No artwork available
6.8

This bizarre parody of the animated religious children’s show Davey and Goliath uses actors but looks like Claymation because of the stop motion, distorted voices, giant prosthetic ears and hair and sets that make Pee-Wee’s Playhouse look realistic. Davey’s father whips him with a belt for saying that he saw a bear, though he really did see a bear, while his sister looks on in glee. His dog Goliath, actually a leopard-skin footrest with a grotesque tail, tries to help but gets whipped too. Oedipal dream sequences and Davey’s revenge are also highlights in this unforgettable and darkly hilarious suburban nightmare.

He Was Once

1989

Image Book poster
NR

When asked to create something for the “Où en êtes-vous?” (“Where Are You?”) collection commissioned and posed by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Haynes’s response was this behind-the-scenes film made during the production of May December, which evokes Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and Jean-Luc Godard’s Two or Three Things I Know About Her in its metacinematic exploration of identity.

Image Book

2023

American Lunch poster
NR

A cunning storyteller presents a curious tale of blackmail to two friends invited to lunch. As the story unwinds we realise that the blackmail plot is merely a cover-up for a far more sinister plot involving revenge and murder. This fast-paced, ironic black comedy provides the spectator with a challenging puzzle of events whose meaning always lies just beyond the frameline.

American Lunch

1988