Far from Heaven

This book is a study of Far from Heaven, a commercially successful film that nevertheless sits rather ambiguously on the boundary between independent and mainstream cinema, operating as an alternative to 'blockbuster' fare.

This series of books discusses contemporary American films that have found commercial success but which have not been constrained by the formal and ideological parameters of mainstream Hollywood cinema. Each volume explores a specific film and combines original research with clearly defined classroom-orientated frameworks of film analysis.

`Written with clarity and charm, Davis'' study furnishes film student and film-lover alike with an accessible and erudite reading of Far from Heaven and of the key issues surrounding it. What emerges is the film''s significance both for the discussion of contemporary American cinema and for understandings of the aesthetic and critical productivity of queering film.''---Michele Aaron, University of Birmingham

Nominated for four Oscars, Far from Heaven earned rave reviews and won widespread cultural and critical recognition. A knowing and emotionally involving homage to the films of Douglas Sirk, this film is a key text in the canon of American independent cinema. This book offers a detailed and perceptive study of Haynes'' film, with each chapter centred on a topic crucial for understanding Far from Heaven''s richness and seductive pleasures (authorship, melodrama, queerness). The film is also positioned in relation to the rest of Todd Haynes'' work, the New Queer Cinema movement, and the history of US independent cinema.