SAFE is an unnerving story about a housewife, Carol (brilliantly played by Julianne Moore), who falls physically and psychologically ill from her environment. Director Todd Haynes casts an instantly eerie spell with hypnotic cinematography as Carol's stoic, perfect world is introduced. Her home is exquisite, her husband (Xander Berkeley) loving, her son (Chauncey Leopardi) typical, her best friend loyal. But after Carol learns her friend Linda's (Susan Norman) brother has died mysteriously, Carol begins to experience her own strange symptoms. Her illness eventually transforms her seemingly protected, upper middle-class existence into a terror of everyday life. She becomes so ill--with her doctor and friends concluding it's all psychological--that she begins to investigate a cult-like healing center that provides a protective bubble from what its followers call "the twentieth century disease"--a kind of allergy to everything modern or chemical. With its stunning art direction and an impressive performance by its star, SAFE is both a chilling tale of existential dread and a witty commentary on modern suburban life.

Carol White (Julianne Moore), a bored Los Angeles housewife, seems to have everything: an exquisite home, money, friends, a loving husband. But when she begins to suffer symptoms of a mysterious illness, her world collapses around her, as she learns that it is her environment that is what is making her so sick. What begins as minor coughing spells from fragrances and car fumes, soon turns into a violent physical and emotional reaction to everyday life. Director Todd Haynes weaves a chilling, sardonic tale of complacency and alienation as seen through modern day life.

Theatrical Release: January 23, 1995 (NY)

SAFE was a runner-up for the 1995 best film prize by the National Society of Film Critics. The film also finished second in voting by a panel of international critics at the Rotterdam Film Festival in Holland.

Director Todd Haynes has said that SAFE was inspired by the 1977 TV movie, THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE.

Excerpt: "There is...nothing wrong with you."--Carol's doctor tells her over and over, even as she's lying in the hospital from a seizure

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Letterbox - 1.85
Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Dolby Digital Mono - French
Dolby Digital Mono - Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary: Todd Haynes - Director, Christine Vachon - Producer, Julianne Moore - Star
Trailers:
1. Original Theatrical Trailer
2. THE END OF THE AFFAIR
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Selection
Text/Photo Galleries:
Filmographies
Liner Notes from Director Todd Haynes

Julianne Moore: Actress, THE HOURS, FAR FROM HEAVEN, BOOGIE NIGHTS
Xander Berkeley: Actor
James Le Gros: 
Peter Friedman: American TV/Film Actor
Susan Norman: 

Todd Haynes: American Director/Editor

Todd Haynes: American Director/Editor

"...[The] emotional tensions beneath the film's glassily placid surface are of course deliberate, and disturbing in the most productive way..."
"...Elegantly unnerving....Subtlety is the rarest quality in today's filmmakers, and SAFE demonstrates why it is valuable as well as scarce..."
"...Agonizingly real..." - Recommended
"...SAFE is a spellbinder....Julianne Moore gives one of the year's best performances..."
Ranked #10 in Entertainment Weekly's "10 Best Movies of 1995" -- "...Haynes, the most truly independent filmmaker in America, is in top form....A horror film of the spirit..."
"...Highly controlled and precise stylistically....Technically elegant in all particulars..."
"...The movie starts out dealing with one problem and ends up attacking another....SAFE never declares itself for a any of these possibilities. That is another of the movie's intriguing aspects..."