“这部电影很可能不够成功，但我真的不在乎。我不会用任何事物来取代这段经历。”

托德·海因斯谈《五月十二月》

我讨厌两位女性角色，格蕾丝和伊丽莎白。你说过，她们不同于你其他电影中的女性角色，也不同于朱莉安在[1995年]《远离天堂》和《安然无恙》中扮演的角色。我想说的是，这与我的大多数家庭故事不同，除了[2011 年 HBO 迷你剧]《米尔德里德·皮尔斯》（Mildred Pierce），因为我的大多数故事中的女性都无法像这些女性那样获得自己的欲望或意志。在早期的电影中，女性以不同的方式受到更大程度的奴役。这曾是疯狂而特殊的。唯一能让你对其中任何一位女性产生同情的是其对另一位女性的救赎。每个人的力量都是相对的，蕴含在某种更大的体系中。因此，你会不断地在信任和不信任之间来回转换。

也正因为女主角们很难让人喜欢和关心，这不像托德·海因斯的电影。以致于观众更倾向关心孩子们。你会觉得，尽管他们的父母有这么多问题，但他们会想办法解决，会没事的，这就是希望。当然观众们也关心影片中的男主人公——格蕾丝的丈夫乔，大家都希望他也能想通。

我已经提到过，我还没有准备好思考玫琳凯·勒图诺故事的某些方面。但朱莉安娜有一个非常强烈的想法，她认为这个女人不是恋童癖，她有公主综合症，强烈地需要被一个年轻、阳刚的男人拯救。就像神话中年轻的骑士，以他的男性气质与惊人的青春，拯救一位落难的少女。这样一来，双方都可以否认年龄上的差异，因为权力可以理所当然地重新回到男性的手中。我确实想要最后那场卧室戏中的台词--“谁是主导？谁说了算？谁说了算？”- 这些台词暗示了他们的生活神话。

这部电影充满了极端例外事件和小报的过度报道。它还讲述了那些拒绝正视自己和自己所做选择的人，我们都是这样，我知道我也是这样。

此外，对于当今想知道谁是好人谁是坏人的身份政治文化而言，这是一部具有潜在爆炸性或令人不安的影片。影片中有强烈的不稳定性、不可知性和道德模糊性。我们必须快速、高效地完成这部影片。只有这样，我们才能完成这项工作。让对话之间的空白、无言的时刻，像说话一样响亮，甚至比说话更响亮。我制作的电影几乎都是这样，这是一次实验。你把这些东西放在一起，然后说，"好了，就这样吧”没有关系网，没有太多的剪辑方式和故事覆盖面。所以如果不成功... 但因为制作过程太有趣了，我坚持完成它。我一直在想，“这部电影很可能不成功，但我真的不在乎。我不会用任何事物来取代这段经历。”

托德·海因斯接受艾米·陶宾采访，《视觉与听觉》，2023 年 12 月

原文：

Todd Haynes on 'May December'

I loathed the two women characters, Gracie [Moore] and Elizabeth [Portman].You've said that they are different from women characters in your other films, or the characters Julianne played in Far from Heaven and Safe [1995]. And yet it is very much a Todd Haynes family, with parents and children.I would say it's not like most of my domestic stories, with the exception of [2011 HBO miniseries] Mildred Pierce, because the women in most of my stories don't have access to their desires or their will the way these women do.

The women in the earlier films are much more subjugated in different kinds of ways from film to film. That part of it was crazy and exceptional. The only thing that gives you any sympathy for either woman is in relief against the other. The power of each is relative and embedded in larger systems. So you keep shifting back and forth between trusting and mistrusting one or the other. It's not like a Todd Haynes film because the women are so difficult to like and care about. It's the children you care about. And you feel that despite all this stuff with their parents, they are going to figure it out and be all right. So there's hope. And you care about the man, Gracie's husband Joe - there's hope that he'll figure it out too.

I already mentioned how I was not ready to think about certain aspects of the Mary Kay Letourneau story. But Julianne had a very strong idea that this woman wasn't a pedophile, that she had a princess syndrome, an intense need to be rescued by a young, virile man.

It's like the myth of the young knight, who, with his sheer virility and stunning youth, will save you, the damsel in distress. This enabled both parties to deny the age difference, because the power could shift back into his sure hands or whatever. And I did want those lines in the final bedroom scene - 'Who's the boss?' and Who was in charge? Who was in charge? Who was in charge?' - to suggest the myth that they live under.

This movie was just so full of extremes and exceptions and tabloid excess. It's also about people who refuse to look at themselves and the choices they make, which we all do, and I knew I also was doing.

Also, it's a potentially explosive or disturbing [film] for today's identity politics culture, which wants to know who's good and who's bad. There's volatility, impenetrability and moral ambiguity here. And we had to do it quickly and with great economy. The simplicity of the coverage was the only way we could get this done. Letting the blank spaces, the non-speech moments between the dialogue, speak as loudly as, or more loudly than, anything said. As is almost always the case with the films l've made, it was an experiment. You just throw these things together and you go, 'OK. This is it.' There was no net. There was no other way to cut it. We have no other coverage. So if it didn't work... But because it was so much fun to make, I kept going, 'It's probably not going to hold together, but I really don't care. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.'

Todd Haynes interviewed by Amy Taubin, Sight and Sound, December 2023