Carol -- a New Film Set in the early 50s

[Doctor Strange]

I finally saw this on cable yesterday. As I said way back at the start of this thread, I love many of Todd Haynes films, but some leave me cold. This one left me cold. Sure, it's gorgeous to look at, but Haynes' fetish for surface details has become worse: I can only handle so many loving close-ups of fabrics being fondled. I found the performances overly mannered and stagey, and I didn't really believe any of it.

Yes, it's a valuable window into under-documented gay relationships in a repressed period. Yes, it's a beautiful production and well-acted. But what can I say? It didn't engage my emotions.

For a gorgeous melodrama about forbidden love in the fifties, I'll stick with Haynes' earlier masterpiece Far From Heaven.

 

[scotrace]

It's streaming now on most services, and the DVD is easy to find. I still think it is a very fine film by a good director. I suppose he can be compared to Cukor in that he does well with pictures about women, and well with directing them.

I'll look for Far From Heaven, and the Hitchcock version of Strangers on a Train.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Note that Far From Heaven takes a very different approach, in that it was explicitly made to look exactly like the overwrought fifties melodramas made by someone like Douglas Sirk (e.g., Rock Hudson in All That Heaven Allows). It uncovers the ugly realities beneath the glossy surfaces and the reserved mannerisms. For me, Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid in that film are much easier to identify with and feel for than the chilly characters in Carol.