Todd Haynes made a secret 17-minute fever dream about making a movie about making a movie.
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.
Direction
Haynes folding Persona into his own process like origami.
Acting
Moore and Portman playing themselves playing themselves playing—stop, I'm dizzy.
Director
Todd Haynes
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Haynes shot this during the 23-day May December production in Savannah, essentially making two films simultaneously about the same material.
The Pompidou commission's 'Where Are You?' prompt was meant for self-location; Haynes answered by showing exactly where he wasn't—behind the camera, always mediated.
US
