Inspired by the films of John Stahl and Douglas Sirk Far From Heaven is the story of Cathy Withaker(Julianne Moore) who's perfect life is torn apart when she discovers that her husband is gay. While she's able to hide her husband's homosexuality her friendship with her black gardner however is the talk of the town.
Available from Alliance Atlantis Far From Heaven is presented is a widescreen format that is enhanced for 16X9 televisions and comes with an english 5.1 english Dolby Digital audio track, an english 5.1 DTS audio track and a french 2 channel Dolby Digital audio track. Subtitles are also included in english, french and spanish.
The special features include an episode of Anatomy Of A Scene from the Sundance channel, The Making Of Far From Heaven featurette, director's commentary with Todd Haynes, The Filmmaker's Experience, two theatrical trailers, production notes, cast and filmmakers information and recommendations.
On his audio commentary track writer/director Todd Haynes talks at great lenghts about the films of Douglas Sirk that inspired him, most notably is his 1955 film All That Heaven Allows. He also spends a great deal of time discussing the characters, the set design and trying to attain the look and feel of 1950's America. It's informative and interesting and worth a listen.
Anatomy Of A Scene(27:25) is a wonderful television show on the Sundance channel. Each episode focuses its attention on a different film and deconstructs a particular scene from it. For Far From Heaven that scene is the party scene at Cathy and Frank's. The show starts off with writer/director Todd Haynes describing what the film is about and then a certain amount of time is given to discuss the scene and every aspect(production design, costume design, cinematograhpy, acting, editing and the music) that went into creating it. The show then finishes by playing the completed scene in its entirety. While they only focus on one scene the time and detail they give it makes this more informative than any making of featurette.
The Making Of Far From Heaven featurette(11:30) isn't really what you'd call a making of because while it does contain some behind-the-scenes footage and cast and crew interviews none of it is about the making of the film. Instead of discussing the filmmaking process they talk about the story, the characters and Douglas Sirk's inspiration on the film. It isn't bad it's just that they shouldn't call it a making of if they don't talk about the making of the film.
A Filmmaker's Experience(5:05) is an interview that Back Stage West Editor In Chief Rob Kendt did with Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes at the Harmony Gold Theater. The interview isn't complete for some reason and it's a shame because not much is said in that short amount of time.
The theatrical trailers for Far From Heaven and The Pianist are included as well but the theatrical trailer for The Pianist can only be seen before the movie starts.
Rounding off the special features are production notes, cast and filmmakers information and recommendations. The films they recommend are 8 Women and Possession which surprises me because throughout the disc they keep saying how Douglas Sirk's films were an inspiration for Far From Heaven and yet they don't even recommend a single one of his films. Since this film is essentially an updated version of Sirk's All That Heaven Allows you'd think they'd recommend it but since they didn't I will.
All that aside however, Far From Heaven is one of the best films of 2002 and one of Julianne Moore's best performances. This film has been beautifully reproduced with no sign of grain or artifacts and the extras are pretty good which makes Far From Heaven one to add to your DVD collection.