Todd Haynes on the 'Camp' Critiques of 'May December' & His Upcoming Project with Joaquin Phoenix

[@veryeyeofnight]

Susan Sontag analyzes the term quite extensively in her essay "notes on camp" where she offers a variety of definitions. Just because a director said it wasn't his _intention_ , doesn't mean certain aspects can't be considered camp. It's a matter of founding your argument.

[@majp6126]

thank god, i was like what is everyone ON calling this movie camp

[@joshua7734]

I mean, the diffusion filter, the halation, the music… he’s clearly repurposing a soap opera aesthetic and that is absolutely camp

[@palemoonlight96]

​@@joshua7734that's a very loose definition of camp then Camp is literally Lady Gaga, Ru Paul and Agatha All Along

[@takethedoughnut]

@@joshua7734 Couldn't agree more!

[@filmexpressreviews]

It's honestly so out of touch to call this movie camp it blows my mind. Media literacy is dying lol

[@JustinHenryfan]

I don't honestly understand how he can say it was not his intention. The hotdog line alone sets the tone as very campy from the get go. Is he saying that that scene was intended to be dramatic and taken seriously?

[@AliaOfTheKnife10191]

It's the MUSIC. I don't know how else to say it. The music drapes on top of this movie like a stole of rainbow chicken feathers.

[@cassidym.7687]

totally agree, it's also some of the music cues as well. Throughout the movie I couldn't tell if the music stuff was supposed to be campy/funny or not, but everything else was so serious it made it feel off. Still overall strong movie.

[@LukMillion]

"stole of rainbow chicken feathers" nerd

[@bjwnashe5589]

Great film director. Deserves the highest accolades.

[@josephirizarry5195]

Doesn't matter, I laughed several times. And I enjoyed it

[@takethedoughnut]

I wish I could see this movie with a completely different soundtrack. The performances and the camerawork were subtle and understated with a lot of quiet moments that would be interesting to dig into on a rewatch. The music, however, was melodramatic in nature, and it often swelled at strange times that made me think the intended tone of the film was telenovela/comedy. The fact that Todd Haynes didn't intend that tone is strange. How did no one raise this during the editing process?

[@yusofplayed]

I felt the opposite effect, which I thought was intention: the soundtrack was used in unnerving ways and by the time it was the end, and the song kicked on, increasingly leery things were happening

[@takethedoughnut]

@@yusofplayed Interesting. It sounds like it was a companion of the film for you. For me, it was too much of a caricature to be unnerving.

[@yusofplayed]

​@@takethedoughnut thats a fair feeling as well! i think the movie is about artifice, performance, and that sort of lurid sense people have that we can ever truly know another persons life, so the music underscored the tension of the fact that we dont and cant know someones life truly, despite reading about it in tabloids (hence it crescendoing in the last scene revealing that gracie is maybe just an evil person)

[@courtneypowell4677]

100%

[@millers3888]

People saying it was “hilarious”, like what scene are you referring to? There was some levity for sure, but not a comedy by any stretch

[@heatherweathr]

I didn’t think it was hilarious, but i did kind of laugh when she gets really serious and dark then says: “i dont think we have enough hot dogs” and it cuts to joe bbq’ing like 50 hot dogs 💀

[@stevenwymor1398]

Comedies you laugh WITH. Trash like this you laugh AT.

[@Osceanix]

Love his sun glasses

[@CatJabZ]

May December is so well crafted and it's a shame that the Oscars snubbed it so hard but the Oscars are filled with disappointments.

[@tomislavzdunic802]

So sofistice directed by todd all mowies C a r o l Greetings from Croatia

[@fredgwynn8933]

It's not camp, but it's using the convention of camp on the exterior and the interior is a grounded upsetting story.

[@JustinHenryfan]

No but he's literally saying camp wasn't his intention at all. How can he then "use the convention of camp" if he didn't even consider camp when he was making it?

[@fredgwynn8933]

@@JustinHenryfan read Susan Sontag's essay

[@JustinHenryfan]

@@fredgwynn8933 Okay. I did. Didn't answer my question at all. Now you read Wittgenstein's Tractatus logico-philosophicus and answer me how my question isn't the only logical conclusion?

[@fredgwynn8933]

@@JustinHenryfan Sontag mentions two different versions of camp. The intentional and the unintentional

[@JustinHenryfan]

@@fredgwynn8933 To say a film is "using the convention of camp" is a totally different statement than saying it's unintentionally camp. I don't think any filmmaker let alone Haynes would want to have their film be unintentionally camp.

[@timages]

Phoenix's Napoleon didn't do so well, ( I don't know what's worse Scott's, " Napoleon" or "The House of Gucci"!? lol), I'm glad to see he's back working with a fine director, ...I love them both!

[@haineshisway]

Yes, the critics who said "hilarious" - what were they on. It just shows how low film criticism is. "Hilarious" "camp" - c'mon.

[@filmexpressreviews]

It's wild to me that there are STILL people in the comments attempting to justify a read of this movie as camp. It's honestly so incorrect. Let's maybe stop projecting the wrong reads on films that deserve a way higher critical analysis. Camp is Rocky Horror Picture Show, it's Lady Gaga, It's Ru Paul, camp is Schumacher's Batman and Robin, camp is often bad production value that typically undermines cinematic qualities deemed high-brow and revelling in outrageousness, camp is ALSO often LGBT coded. This is none of those things. None. Listen to Todd Haynes Please lol. It's a masterpiece but not one that classifies at camp. That's my ted talk

[@ilovegrumpybear1]

to me camp does not need to be considered somehow inferior or less intellectual. if you wanna call it melodrama to retain some sense of high brow film ok but there are exceedingly dramatized parts to this film. the score is exceedingly dramatic. to me, the camp adds to the experience. it calls the viewer to engage with ourselves and the voyeurism that permeates this story.

[@Shocel53]

Smart fella.

[@bethulrich5406]

where??

[@jnpilot]

When the score nearly ruins the movie….

[@superartisticclub]

🏆💎🏆

[@user-ij4hp5nn6g]

It's about paedophilia, yes? Which is evil. So i feel uncomfortable with the director not openly calling out paedophilia. Paedophilia is not a liberal thing. I'm liberal and it's gross and evil. Yes?

[@RB-xj9kr]

Last Tango? Doesn’t he know how horribly Bertolucci treated the actress? Of all of Bertolucci’s film this one is the most vile, followed by The Siege.

[@stevenwymor1398]

The performances were good. The presentation was definitely camp. It’s so earnest, it becomes almost self-parodic. The soundtrack was grating. I almost started laughing at points. It was almost like watching a 2 hour SNL skit. Easily the worst of his films I’ve ever seen.

[@daniloassis8958]

ok

[@cientosdeluces]

The same reasons that made you dislike this film are what made me love it, lol

[@samstraughan9054]

Wait...America is not tolerant enough for him...? I guess he could go to an even more tolerant one...oh, wait

[@haineshisway]

Oh please don't work with Joaquin Phoenix, please. I love Todd Haynes and his way of casting, but I can't stand Joaquin Phoenix.

[@Ay3shizzle]

Why lol?

[@mariaahumada1662]

TOTALMENTE DE ACUERDO CONTIGO ESTE JOAQUIN LO ENCUENTRO UN ACTOR MUY DEPRIMENTE SOLO DE VERLO ..MEJOR QUE HAGA CAROL 2 CON CATE Y ROONEY .SERIA FANTASTICO ......

[@ryanlmurphy]

This interviewer compared child rape to interracial and gay relationships

[@Adam-fb5nt]

The films referenced were set in the past when interracial and gay relationships were indeed "socially persecuted."

[@chalkeev]

I guess you missed later in that same sentence where he said "different moral stakes" because that's the point of his question lmao

[@jeremyhopkins577]

Honestly, this film being such a feast for reactionaries is part of why it's so great lol

[@camgrant1318]

Just wasn't that interesting to watch. Wish there was more camp

[@yevgeniyaleshchenko849]

No, dear Todd, political climate in Eastern Europe is VERY different from what you're describing. We're preoccupied with REAL war, our soldiers are on the REAL frontlines fighting for BASIC rights (such as sovereignity, independence, freedom, life, home) that you in the West have and take for granted. When will people find some other metaphor, how sheltered these celebs talking like that when there is real genocidal war in Ukraine, Syria, Israel, where invaders are actually taking our basic rights from us (even right to shelter, medical care, basic safety, freedom of movement etc); or when in some countries women are killed for showing their hair and gay people are persecuted and killed while he is free to be with the one (s) he loves and complain about ''lack of freedom''... I'm not saying the struggle he is talking about are not valid or important. I'm saying he doesn't understand what real war, real frontlines and real violation of basic human rights is. Astonishing ignorance in this regard.

[@crystalmcgee5264]

*sighs heavily* Listen and really hear this. I say that because you missed something extremely important. Fighting to gain a democracy and fighting to keep it are very much one in of itself. He is speaking in terms of a democracy gained and the fight to keep it. And in his perspective we have lost ground in this particular area. We have regressed. Now, I'm going to tell you what the puppets of the world won't say. As a member of the oldest democracy on the planet. It wasn't easy. It still isn't easy and it never will be easy. You see....that is the point. Do you think once you have fought the physical war for democracy that it ends there? No. The war changes its front. You will be fighting to keep it. The minute you stop fighting for your democracy is the wake up call that you have lost it. Is the USA perfect? No. Do we have our flaws? Yes. Can we do more or do better? Absolutely. I will say this though. With all it's flaws and imperfections. It's ours. We fought for it. We died for it. We spilled blood for it and continue the same to this day.....centuries later. The war never ends. Please hear what I just said. IT NEVER ENDS.

[@userErinn]

It was HORRIBLE. Stop hailing this movie as genius - if you have to go on interviews to explain WHY your movie was watched and taken the wrong way, that is a bad sign it was not executed correctly and your vision did not translate well. Camp or no camp, the score was waaaaay too cheesy. We don’t need to slap a genre on this to explain it’s existence. Just call it bad. Problem solved. The execution of tone was BAD. The content was in appropriate. You missed the the deeper exploration of the story. It’s gross.

[@MrChaseBlue]

lol no that just means the film was provocative and likely complex, layered, and contradictory that it could be read or lead people to read in many different ways