Carol(Filmmaker in Focus Series All Those Magnificent Obsessions Allow: The Cinema of Todd Haynes )

The purest and most spontaneous love story in Todd Haynes’s oeuvre, Carol starts with a chance encounter and ends with mutual affection through the gaze of two women. Therese (Rooney Mara) is selling toys in a department store. One day, affluent suburban homemaker Carol (Cate Blanchett) comes shopping and leaves a pair of gloves behind. Both fall for each other and become inseparable. They try to elope from the repressive 1950s New York, heading westward, only to realize that their love is not to be permissible. Adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt, Carol was shot on grainy 16mm film, with an attention to delicate details in production design and subtle mise-en-scène and performances. Best Actress Award for Rooney Mira at Cannes Film Festival, 2015.

*Post-screening discussion on 22 Oct 2017