Standfirst: Todd Haynes attended Lyon’s Lumière Film Festival to present restored versions of Poison and Safe. In an interview, the filmmaker discussed censorship, queer cinema, Hollywood’s changing financing model and his upcoming film De Noche.
Filmmaker Todd Haynes used his appearance at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon to reflect on the continuing importance of artistic freedom and independent voices. The director presented restored versions of his first two features, Poison and Safe, while discussing the political and social pressures that continue to shape cinema.
The conversation placed Haynes’s work in the wider context of contemporary European cultural affairs, from debates over free speech in Germany to concerns about consolidation in Hollywood and the growing influence of streaming platforms.
Todd Haynes revisits Poison and Safe in Lyon
Haynes was one of the guests of honour at this year’s festival, a major celebration of international cinema held in the city associated with the origins of film. His retrospective included Poison, released in 1991, and Safe, released in 1995.
Poison emerged during the AIDS crisis and became associated with the New Queer Cinema movement of the early 1990s. The film combines several narrative strands to explore stigma, sexuality, illness and social exclusion. Safe, starring Julianne Moore, examines isolation and illness through the experience of a woman who becomes increasingly alienated from the world around her.
Both films were being shown in restored versions, and Haynes noted that many people attending the screening of Poison were seeing it for the first time. The response, he said, demonstrated the continued appetite for challenging and historically significant work.
For Haynes, the films cannot be separated from the political and public-health circumstances in which they were made. He described the AIDS era as a crisis that created an urgency for filmmaking, documentary, protest and organised resistance.
Why the films still feel relevant
The filmmaker said the continuing relevance of Poison and Safe was both encouraging and troubling. Safe attracted renewed discussion during the COVID-19 pandemic because of its portrayal of fear, isolation and uncertainty during a period when ordinary assumptions about daily life were being challenged.
Haynes also referred to ongoing debates involving reproductive rights and the treatment of queer and trans communities. His comments highlighted why restored films can matter beyond preservation: they can provide a way to examine earlier social conflicts while prompting discussion about issues that remain unresolved.
Haynes warns about pressure on artistic freedom
One of the central themes of the interview was the protection of freedom of expression. Haynes said cultural institutions and creative industries were facing pressure over what could be described, shown or discussed publicly.
Discussing Germany, he pointed to what he characterised as a difficult tension between efforts to respond to the country’s historical responsibility and restrictions affecting debate about Israel and its government. He also mentioned the rise of the Alternative for Germany party as part of a wider political contradiction.
Haynes connected those European debates with developments in the United States, where he said media organisations, news outlets and universities were also facing pressure over content and ideology. His broader warning was that artistic and intellectual freedom requires active protection rather than being taken for granted.
Hollywood consolidation and independent film financing
The director expressed concern about the concentration of ownership among large media organisations. In his view, bigger companies do not automatically create more space for ambitious or risky filmmaking. Streaming platforms, he suggested, can become focused on repeating formats and ideas that have already performed well.
Haynes’s recent experience reflects the changing financing landscape. His film May December was acquired by Netflix, which he described positively, but he said the production was structured around a limited investment that helped preserve creative independence.
He said a similar approach was used to finance De Noche, his latest project, while stressing that he wants the new film to have a committed theatrical release. The comments come amid wider European film-industry discussions about cinema distribution, cultural funding and the impact of media mergers.
What Haynes said about De Noche
Haynes confirmed that De Noche had completed filming and was in post-production, moving from the picture edit towards sound work. The production was based in Mexico.
The project had previously come close to production before falling apart after an actor withdrew. Haynes said the financiers and investors later returned to support a new version of the film, allowing production to move ahead.
The completed project stars Danny Ramirez and Pedro Pascal. Haynes also worked with screenwriter Jon Raymond, with whom he had previously collaborated on the miniseries Mildred Pierce.
Velvet Goldmine and a possible restoration
The interview also looked back at Velvet Goldmine, Haynes’s 1998 film about glam rock, music journalism and identity. The director described the film as the culmination of an important creative period shaped by early-1970s music and the relationship between British and American musical culture.
He confirmed that the Criterion Collection is working on a release of Poison timed to coincide with the film’s 30th anniversary. However, he rejected reports that he was making a documentary about The Cure, saying that the project was not his.
Why the Lumière discussion matters
The Lumière Festival’s focus on restorations and retrospectives offers audiences an opportunity to reassess films in their historical context. Haynes’s appearance also connected film preservation with current debates about censorship, representation and the economics of creative production.
For European audiences, the discussion was particularly relevant because it linked American cinema to wider questions about cultural institutions and public debate. The interview did not present a new European policy decision, but it reflected issues at the centre of European cultural and political discussion: how to protect pluralism, how to support independent production and how to keep difficult works accessible.
Conclusion
Todd Haynes’s appearance at Lyon’s Lumière Film Festival placed his early films in conversation with the present. The restored versions of Poison and Safe show how cinema can preserve the memory of past crises while illuminating continuing arguments about illness, identity, marginalisation and free expression.
His comments also underline the pressures facing filmmakers as media ownership becomes more concentrated and theatrical distribution grows harder to secure. For audiences following European cultural affairs, the takeaway is clear: film festivals remain important spaces for protecting artistic freedom, revisiting overlooked work and keeping public debate open.
