This chapter discusses the notion of authorship. Far from Heaven was marketed and advertised to audiences as ‘a Todd Haynes film’, and part of this chapter is devoted to identifying the ways in which the movie repeats or echoes thematic concerns and stylistic devices used by Haynes in his earlier films. Throughout his career, Haynes has utilised his films to question and challenge the limitations of specific identity categories and social roles: the bluntness of labels, the oppressive nature of certain culturally constructed positions, and the role of the media in fixing an identity. Psycho a...

This chapter discusses the notion of authorship. Far from Heaven was marketed and advertised to audiences as ‘a Todd Haynes film’, and part of this chapter is devoted to identifying the ways in which the movie repeats or echoes thematic concerns and stylistic devices used by Haynes in his earlier films. Throughout his career, Haynes has utilised his films to question and challenge the limitations of specific identity categories and social roles: the bluntness of labels, the oppressive nature of certain culturally constructed positions, and the role of the media in fixing an identity. Psycho and Far from Heaven serve as rare instances of queer, experimental directors being given Hollywood funding. For all of its simulation of Douglas Sirk's style, and its borrowings from a broad range of other films, Far from Heaven contains unique and distinctive elements.