Mildred Pierce HBO Miniseries by Todd Haynes comes to Venice

Todd Haynes elevates TV to cinema quality with the exceptional HBO miniseries ‘Mildred Pierce’. The trend today is towards much more cinematically superior productions for TV and this production of Mildred Pierce does not disappoint. ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Mad Men’ and ‘The Borgias’ follow suit with high quality productions, many of which have brought in serious talent from the silver screen. Mildred Pierce the HBO miniseries brings such star power in Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood, Melissa Leo and Brian O’Bryan.

The 1945 film noir production of ‘Mildred Pierce’ garnered Joan Crawford an Academy Award for Best Actress. Kate Winslet admitted that doing a TV miniseries was by far her greatest challenge as an actress, realizing that with TV, the viewer may turn the set off at any time or possibly not return for the next episode. Not to mention trying to live up to a role immortalized by one of the greatest actors in Hollywood. HBO’s “Mildred Pierce’ and Winslet live up to the legacy.

Todd Haynes decided to go directly to the novel and not the ’45 movie and for the better part stays as true to the story, characters and era as possible. Kate Winslet confessed that although she does not have much time to read books, her copy of Mildred Pierce is completely dog-eared and highlighted.

We are in an era were the ‘American Dream’ is hitting a rocky patch again. Mildred Pierce throws a bright light on what is at the heart of American values and aspirations.

Haynes says that what caught his attention and inspired him to do this miniseries was the direct comparison between the film’s era and difficulties in America resulting from the 2008 collapse of the markets. ‘Mildred Pierce’ in a moment becomes so relevant. And Haynes felt the book contained many stories that were completely eliminated in the previous production such as Roosevelt’s speeches and key relationships between Mildred and

her lovers, especially Monte. With the miniseries these could be powerfully explored.

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“Veda is almost the demon seed”, says Haynes,” at the root of American sensibility when American values become extreme. We want to move up and give our children more than we had and more opportunities.”  Veda vehemently spits it back. Haynes started to look at productions from the seventies, classics, where films brought this sense of the contemporary making us feel as though we were actually talking about ourselves in time.