Safe, featuring Julianne Moore -- What Makes This Movie Great? (Episode 134)

Disclaimer: All reasonable comments are welcome, including reasoned disagreements. You will be banned for foolish talk, harassment, and hate speech on sight; it's a tremendous waste of life. I believe in freedom of association and, by extension, freedom of dissociation from you.

[vulgarlang]

Julianne Moore's performance is on another level in this movie. Maybe one of my favourite performances in history.

[mulder]

Just watched it on The Criterion Channel and then watched a recent interview with Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes. Her performance was outstanding. The way the film is framed and shot is also a character in itself. I found the 2 last scenes (Her speech) and the last one of her starting into the mirror absolutely heart-breaking. I wouldn't call the place she went to, a Sanitorium, felt more like a Cult.

The leader had a big, huge, lavish house away from everyone.

[naomisdiary]

the ending reminds me of midsommar… you feel happy that they were able to reach happiness in some way but sad because it’s to the detriment of their own selves

[tobiasrlittle]

I’ve just watched this movie for the first time, been on my watch list for many years. I thought it was incredible, and as you noted, the ambiguity in the cause of her condition is one of the movies greatest strengths, along with Julianne Moore’s amazing performance. Such a powerful film.

[clgoodson]

Even more relatable today. Transformative performance that deserved the Oscar by Moore. One for the books. Slow burn. Beautiful. Made me think about nature, humanity, environment, psychology, witchcraft? I noticed early on with the gorgeous color schemes and production design what I think is heavy Dario argento influence. And then Susie banyon herself shows up, Jessica Harper, and as a huge suspiria fan I’m left speechless. How I am I just watching this 3 days before my b day in March 2024?! ❤

[airmark]

I saw it on first release in the theater & recently again.
Amazing how much of it's subject & content are still very relatable.

[aamirkhan]

This is one of the best performances I've seen in a long time. Emotionally, everything felt so... real.

[BigBadMF]

The meaning of this movie is that she is emotionally repressed and disconnected that her emotional distress is being expressed thru her reaction to everyday chemicals. Its psychosomatic illness, but its very real. Her system is overtaxed from repressed unhappiness that she can't even consciously comprehend. She has alexithymia. People with alexithymia express emotions thru psychical symptoms because they don't have the words to explain how they feel

[PaulAdler]

This is one of your very best analyses. Admirable how you embrace the film's ambiguity without picking a side.

[messengerpdx]

Spot on analysis! "Safe" is one of my all time favorite films for its relevant subject material and realization into a film with brilliant acting, cinematography, framing, script, editing, music. There are SO MANY stellar scenes and characters that add to the progressive crescendo of Carol's anxiety, confusion, isolation and nightmarish experiences. Hayne's use of ambiguity and subtext will transfix and engulf any discerning viewer appreciating complex, layered films. When the covid pandemic began in 2020, I immediately thought of this movie as an antidote and a raw, honest representation of what was occurring personally and socially in emotional and physical contexts. It's not necessarily a prophetic film because Hayne's touches on the fears and stigmatization of an earlier pandemic (AIDS) in a subtle but powerful scene with Carol and her friend. Many things make this film great but Julianne Moore's acting as the lead role was paramount.

[philippgoenitzer]

One of my favorite movies ever and one of the scariest.

[friendlynightmares]

I had a strange way of finding this movie. I watched a Netflix movie a few years ago called "Casting JonBenet" and in it, there was a song I really liked, so I researched the music that was used in the movie. Two of the songs was by Ed Tomney, and it said they were from a movie called "Safe". As I was looking into the movie, I was really interested. I like ambiguous movies, and the setting seemed interesting. I watched it one night and I really enjoyed it. It was very disconcerting, and very "cold", it is definitely a movie that makes you think, and I like being able to come to my own conclusion rather than a movie just outright giving me the answer to the puzzle.

[samtan]

A most provocative masterpiece that still holds up. My favorite Todd Haynes movie.

[chrisw]

Thank you for reviewing this film. I have been haunted by it since I saw it in the theater back in 1995. I remember seeing it alone and there were maybe 2 other people in the screening with me adding to the feeling of isolation. Just picked it up on Criterion this week and man, it is even more amazing all the years later. I came here looking for some answers and now I see that it truly is sort of open ended in the sense that all of these factors could play a part in her problems and that's probably the point. It's an awakening.

[ZootTM]

Great to see you covering this movie. I very much agree with your analysis on how the "mystery disease" and its potential causes are portrayed. The movie does a very job of leaving us with ambiguity and questions. I also agree that this is still a very relevant topic, also in the light of Long covid and growing numbers of diseases where classification into psychological / psychosomatic / somatic is murky.

[yusefendure]

This film is about alienation, repression, and the myth of being normal in a toxic, capitalist society. Carol is isolated in suburbia and isolated in the cult. The final scene shows the emptiness of her words: 'I love you.'

[rhobot]

YES! I tell people about this one- I loved it at the time, saw it in the theater. It is amazing. I felt, at the end, that she is more connected, understood and yet more isolated and vulnerable, and vulnerable to manipulation than ever before.
And the director is amazing. And SUPERSTAR, his first in 1987 is AMAZING, and has quite a story to it involving blacklisting, Richard Carpenter, Mattel toys, and Herb Alpert. I saw it screened at ATA Artists Television Access on Valencia Street in the Mission District in San Francisco.

[sanidhyasingh]

Todd Hanes is the same guy who made Carol? Love that film, surprisingly never heard of this.

Hello! Thanks for uploading this video. When I finished watching this movie, I was quite confused. Although through all the movie I had been taking my own way to see the film, the final scene really puzzled me

[yango]

Great analysis to a great movie! I also discovered it rather recently. One thing I would like to add is that in addition to the photography I think the score by Ed Tomney contributes a lot to the melancholic, ambiguous and sometimes truly disturbing athmosphare in this film. Safe has definitely some of the most scariest moments that I've ever seen in a movie. So yes I think it absolutely deserves to be part of the Criterion Collection.

About the last scene, well, as you mentioned there are so many themes going on in this movie. My guts feeling are that she finally reached a momentary state of happiness and self acceptance in that scene. But we as an audience know that from now on it's only getting worse.