Tag Archives: 50s Lesbian Film

Oscars 2016: Cate Blanchett And Rooney Mara Both Nominated For ‘Carol’

Hollywood held its breath today as the academy revealed which of the year’s films it was most impressed by.

The Revenant led the nominations with a total of 12, followed by Mad Max: Fury Roadwith 10, and The Martian with seven.

Cate Blanchett is up for Best Actress for her critically-acclaimed role in lesbian love story Carol – which received a total of six nominations, including one for co-star Rooney Mara, who is up for Best Supporting Actress.

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However, there was film failed to pick up Best Picture category, and Todd Haynes was absence in the Best Director category.

Eddie Redmayne is also aiming for an Oscar double after being nominated for Best Actor for The Danish Girl – twelve months after winning the same prize for The Theory of Everything.

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However, Redmayne faces stiff competition from the likes of Bryan Cranston, Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Fassbender.

Other nominees included Sam Smith and Lady Gaga – who were both nominated for Best Original Song.

Smith – who is nominated for Bond theme, Writing On The Wall – expressed shock after also picking up a Golden Globe for the song last weekend.

Lady Gaga is nominated for her track, Till It Happens To You, which formed part of the soundtrack of film The Hunting Ground.

Unsettlingly, for the second consecutive year, no performers of colour were nominated. Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation), Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful Eight), Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton) and Mya Taylor (Tangerine) were among the many black actors who were shut out.

Similarly, no women cracked the Best Director race – but, sadly, that comes as no surprise.

 

Read Cate Blanchett’s Amazing Response To Questions About Her Sexuality

Since being paid to play gay, Cate Blanchett has been faced with the question about her sexuality.

When she was faced with this question a few months ago, she decided to turn the question on it’s head.

Yes. Many times.”

We all saw that comment, and our heart skipped a beat. But then days later, She later clarified her answer at a press conference.

However, in a recent interview with the Guardian Blanchett explained exactly what she was doing.

I also just played Mary Mapes, who’s a journalist. No one asked me how long I’d been to journalism school. If I played someone who has an affair, I think a reporter would probably think twice before asking, ‘Ooh, how many affairs have you had?’ It would be a slightly delicate area.

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But there are no holds barred about asking me whether I’ve had relationships with women. And so I facetiously said, ‘Oh yes, I’ve had many relationships with women’ – because frankly, who hasn’t? Of course I said it in inverted commas. But the inverted commas didn’t make the page.”

Recently Blanchett has called for more diversity in portrayals of gay people on screen.

Carol opens in cinemas on Nov 27.

Cate Blanchett Calls For More Diversity In LGBT Characters We See On Screen

Speaking of her new role in Carol – in which Cate Blanchett plays a woman in a same-sex relationship – the actress said it was frustrating because many people expect their own relationships to be represented.

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Talking to The Guardian, she said

The problem is that when you represent a character in a same-sex relationship, it’s like you have to represent them all.

You become a spokesperson, which really isn’t the point. When the time comes that we have a diversity of same-sex couples in film, then the problem is solved, I don’t have to stand for everyone.”

In the film, Blanchett’s character, an older woman in 1950s New York, has an affair with a younger woman, who is played by Rooney Mara.

The Highsmith novel, also published under the name The Price of Salt, was ground-breaking in its portrayal of a romance between two women.

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At a time when most lesbian love stories were resigned to pulp fiction with doomed characters, the characters in this novel are given a realistic relationship and a chance at a happy ending.

One her character, Blanchett added;

I read a lot of girl-on-girl books from the period. I think there are a lot of people that exist like [Carol] who don’t feel the need to shout things from the rafters.”

Blanchett recently said she was misquoted when it was widely reported she had said she had had sexual relationships with women.

Carol opens in cinemas on Nov 27.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4z7Px68ywk

‘Carol’ Review Round-Up: What Do Critics Say About the Upcoming Movie?

Upcoming movie Carol isn’t just one of the most highly anticipated lesbian-featuring films of the year (along with Freeheld and Grandma), it’s one of the most highly anticipated films of 2015, standard.
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The film, which is based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt, is set in 1952 and stars Cate Blanchett as a married, 46-year old socialite who falls for Rooney Mara’s character, who is a 30-year old shop clerk.

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The film breaks ground for a few reasons, as not only is it part of a rare group of films to portray May/December romances (romances between a younger person and an older person) but Carol also covers the class gap between the two women as well.

Blanchett and Mara have been praised for their performances in the film and those who have been lucky enough to see it at film festivals have said that both women are strong Oscar contenders.

So, with a few weeks to go until the film is released at the box office, we’ve put together a Carol review round-up, featuring the excerpts from several different critics.

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Alicia Adejobi – International Business Times:

Todd Haynes has crafted a visually stunning picture with Carol, a lesbian love story brought to life with remarkable performances by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Although for all its beauty, Carol concludes with a sense that it could have been rounded-off with a better developed story.

…Carol surprisingly has very little dialogue. Instead, Haynes develops the love story by playing on Mara and Blanchett’s natural chemistry which results in many scenes where not much happens but a stripped conversation about trivial matters. Still, where Carol does fall flat in fleshing out an otherwise one-dimensional premise, it makes up in the talents of the core cast, which includes terrific support from Sarah Paulson as Carol‘s long-time friend and confidante and Kyle Chandler as Harge.”

Score: 3 out of 5

Justin Chang – Variety:

…high expectations don’t quite prepare you for the startling impact of Carol, an exquisitely drawn, deeply felt love story that teases out every shadow and nuance of its characters’ inner lives with supreme intelligence, breathtaking poise and filmmaking craft of the most sophisticated yet accessible order.”

Score: n/a

Jason Bailey – Flavorwire:

The performances are predictably astonishing; Mara has a way of conveying the fullness of her character in an offhand line reading, and the variations in Blanchett’s tight smile tell, in their own way, the film’s entire story.

The picture is gorgeous, which is no surprise from Mr. Haynes — lushly photographed by Lachman (yet in grain-pushing Super16, to keep the image from seeming too immaculate, its New York streets a noticeable contrast to Heaven’s squeaky-clean Sirkian suburbs), magnificently costumed by Sandy Powell, every car gleaming, every tchotchke in place. These rooms and stores seem to close in on our heroines; ultimately, they cannot contain them.”

Score n/a

Heather Hogan – Autostraddle:

I was so intoxicated by Carol I wanted to sit down in the middle of the sidewalk on the New York City street and close my eyes and relive every detail, over and over, until I could play it backwards and forwards on a loop in my own imagination for forever.

…To value the rarity of seeing a lesbian film stitched together with such accomplished precision it makes me wish the word “epic” hadn’t been completely diluted so I could bring the full weight of its meaning to bear on this love story. Extraordinary? Singular? Remarkable? Yes, all of those things too.

Perhaps the best praise I can give Carol is that ten minutes into it, I forgot it was my job to be a critic. Twenty minutes in, I forgot I was watching a movie at all.”

Score: n/a

While these are just a handful of reviews, the majority of the opinions we read for this piece were incredibly positive. From being called ‘flawless’ and ‘phenomenal’ and ‘the best lesbian movie ever’, to Cate Blanchett being called ‘the world’s last true movie star’, everybody everywhere has something good to say about Carol.

The fact that the film has less dialogue than most won’t be for everyone, though, but for many people Carol’s gorgeous shots and the sometimes wordless acting, the expressions and the framing of the scene should be enough.

Carol will be available at the box office on November 20 (United States) and November 27 (United Kingdom).

Also read: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara Talk On-Screen Chemistry For ‘Carol’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4z7Px68ywk

Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara Talk On-Screen Chemistry For ‘Carol’

Carol screened at the BFI London Film Festival last week, with leading ladies, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, on show to share details about some of the film’s most intimate details.

The film, based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 lesbian novel The Price of Salt, is helmed by out director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) and stars Blanchett who plays alluring married woman Carol Aird, who meets young department store clerk Therese Belivet, played by Mara.

The couple form an instant connection and fall in love. Carol faces losing custody of her daughter in a bitter divorce battle because of her affair with a woman.

The movie’s integral moment when the women finally consummate their affair was treated with nothing but the utmost care according to both actresses as well as director Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven).

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Discussion on the red carpet, Blanchett said;

They’re scenes and they’re really important. You always have to scrutinise and ask hard questions of those scenes – how necessary are they? But the consummation of their (Carol and Therese’s) relationship is really important.

It’s just about how we were going to do it. We talked about the scene and there’s a great sense of trust between Rooney and I.”

Blanchett went on to say it was a “relief” when the scene was filmed between them,

Both characters are quite isolated – not only because their feelings set them apart from others, but the gap in their ages. They go through these volcanic feelings towards one another so it was a relief to do the scenes with Rooney. Finally we get to be together.”

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Mara added that she felt “comfortable” with Blanchett, saying;

Getting to work opposite Cate was a dream. She’s a very generous actor and super prepared but also she’s very alive and in the moment. I don’t know if many people know this but she’s also really funny – this incredible Australian sense of humour and wit about her.”

Both Blanchett and Mara have been widely tipped for Oscar nominations for their roles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azts8KZfBpY

Haynes also discuss the necessity of a comfortable, respectful environment when shooting love scenes,

We do our best to all talk about it together, me and the actors, to know exactly what they’re calling for narratively to how we’re going to shoot it so they feel as comfortable and prepared as possible,” he described of the process, “This is an essential component of the story and in that regard, there was no doubting it or feeling like it’s exploitative in any way.”

Carol opens November 20th, so get ready to soon fall even more in love with this film and its co-stars than you already are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4z7Px68ywk

New ‘Carol’ Trailer: Watch Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara Embrace Forbidden Love

A second official trailer for Carol has arrived, and the most in-depth look at the romantic lesbian film – swoon.

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The film, based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 lesbian novel The Price of Salt, is helmed by out director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) and stars Cate Blanchett as Carol, a socialite housewife who falls in love with a store clerk, Therese (Rooney Mara).

Sarah Paulson also stars, playing Carol’s (Cate Blanchett) best friend, along with Carrie Brownstein, and Kyle Chandler.

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This particular trailer features a glimpse at the intimate romance between Carol and Therese, and the series of consequences their affair has on those around them.

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Carol’s grounded yet emotional voice-over is giving us serious goose-bumps.

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Roll on November 20th, when we’ll all get the chance to experience this beautiful drama for ourselves.

Carol has already seen impressive success at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Watch the trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4z7Px68ywk

Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara Fall in Love in First Trailer For Oscar-Tipped ‘Carol’

WOW! Its here, and its what lesbian dreams are made of – *Swoon* – the Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara led lesbian love story, Carol.

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Based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 semi-autobiographical novel The Price Of Salt, the film is set against the glamorous backdrop of 1950s New York.

Carol, played by Blanchett, is a married woman who risks everything when she embarks on a romance with a younger department store worker Therese, played by Rooney Mara.

It set critics buzzing with praise at the Cannes Film Festival. On Metacritics, 98% of movie experts gave the film five out of five stars. And now the world has Blanchett pegged for another Oscar, which would be her third after The Aviator and Blue Jasmine.

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For direct Todd Haynes, this is just the latest of his feature films to focus on sexual and gender identity. His third film, Velvet Goldmine, focused on bisexual glam rock star in 1970s London. His fourth, Far From Heaven, starred Julianne Moore as a 1950s housewife whose husband (Dennis Quaid) comes out. And his last movie, I’m Not There, starred Blanchett in a gender-bending portrayal of Bob Dylan.

Carol is scheduled for limited release, premiering in the US on 20 November and in the UK on 27 November.

Could ‘Lesbian Themed’ Movies Rule Next Years Oscars?

Indiewire have updated their 2016 Oscar predictions, and they predict a very real possibility that over half of this year’s female acting nominations could go to portrayals of gay women.

Lesbians have represented at the Oscars before. Charlize Theron won for playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos, Nicole Kidman played Virginia Woolf, and Annette Bening almost won for her rule in the The Kids Are All Right. 

Also read: When It Pays To Be A Lesbian At The Oscars

So who has been tipped?

There is a possibility that openly gay actress Lily Tomlin could get a nomination for playing someone openly gay in Grandma. Which is actually a first – a lesbian actress being nominated for playing a lesbian character – shock horror!

Tomlin would also become the only second gay person to be nominated for playing a gay person. Ian McKellen is currently the only other example.

In Paul Weitz’s Grandma, Tomlin plays a lesbian poet who goes on a road trip with her granddaughter after she breaks up with her long-term partner.

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This is her first lead role in a film in over 27 years, and she’s incredible in it. Sony Pictures Classics is surely going to rev up a campaign for her come fall, in hopes of giving 75 year old Tomlin her first Oscar nomination since 1975, when she was nominated for Nashville. Our fingers are firmly crossed.

Also read: Watch | New Clip Released from Lily Tomlin’s New movie ‘Grandma’

If Tomlin does get nominated, she would almost certainly be competing against Cate Blanchett, who got insanely good reviews out of Cannes for Todd Haynes’ Carol. Blanchett plays half of a 1950s lesbian romance in the film, the other half being played by Rooney Mara, who beat out Blanchett for Cannes’ Best Actress award.

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Mara is a very likely nominee too, though The Weinstein Company could very well campaign her in supporting.

Also read: Watch | First Teaser of Cate Blanchett’s new Lesbian / Bi-Feature Film ‘Carol’

Either way, this is three possible lesbian nominees.

And then there’s Freeheld, which we’ll likely be released at the Toronto Film Festival.

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The movie stars last year’s best actress winner Julianne Moore, who is paired with Ellen Page. The film is a classic Oscar bait story of real life lesbian Laurel Hester (Moore), a police officer in Ocean County, New Jersey. Following her diagnosis with terminal lung cancer in 2005, Hester repeatedly appealed to the county’s board of chosen freeholders in an attempt to ensure her pension benefits could be passed on to her domestic partner, Stacie Andree (Page).

Also read: Will Ellen Page’s “Freeheld” Be A Surprise Box Office Hit?

The film is actually based on a documentary short that won an Oscar, and is written by the same man who got a nomination for his screenplay for Philadelphia.

We obviously won’t know until we see it, but both Moore and Page sure seem like contenders for best actress and best support. That would also make Moore the only person to receive two nominations for playing queer characters.

Watch | First Teaser of Cate Blanchett’s new Lesbian / Bi-Feature Film ‘Carol’

This week Cate Blanchett’s film Carol premieres at Cannes, and we’re all very excited. We’re even more excited to finally see so clips from the film.

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The big-screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 lesbian cult classic The Price of Salt stars Blanchett as a socialite Carol who falls for a younger shop girl (Rooney Mara). While lesbian pulp novels usually ended in tragedy (it would have been blasphemous to end them in blissful romance) Highsmith broke barriers by doing the opposite. In The Price of Salt the lead falls for a young woman – a department store clerk and artist – and spoiler alert (!) it ends in a way that lets us imagine that the two women end up happy together.

Also read: Cate Blanchett Confirms Her Past Relationships With Women

The original 1952 romance novel (which Highsmith originally published under a pseudonym, having predicted public outrage over the queer storyline) was very popular among lesbians of the time period — not all that surprising, due to the unconventional characters that defied stereotypes.

The clips don’t give much a way in terms of plot, but the two stars coy glances say so much more.

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On the film, director Todd Haynes says

In some ways, the event of a gay love story is less surprising every day. But I think love stories are hard to pull off, period. They require external forces that keep the lovers apart.”

Cate is now one of several public women who have spoken about having relationships with women, while also not labelling themselves, much like Miley Cyrus.

 

Cate Blanchett Confirms Her Past Relationships With Women

Blink and you’ll miss it – but Cate Blanchett just confirmed she has enjoyed past relationships with women.

In new piece with Variety, the six-time Oscar nominee talks about playing the lead in Carol, a new lesbian romance based on Patricia Highsmith‘s novel The Price of Salt. In the article, Blanchett also mentions that she has had relationships with women “many times” before – wow!

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From the article…

When asked if this is her first turn as a lesbian, Blanchett curls her lips into a smile. “On film — or in real life?” she asks coyly. Pressed for details about whether she’s had past relationships with women, she responds: “Yes. Many times,” but doesn’t elaborate. Like Carol, who never “comes out” as a lesbian, Blanchett doesn’t necessarily rely on labels for sexual orientation. “I never thought about it,” she says of how she envisioned the character. “I don’t think Carol thought about it.” The actress studied the era by picking up banned erotic novels. “I read a lot of girl-on-girl books from the period,” she says.

This is the first time she’s spoken about having been with women. However, the actress is currently is married to Australian writer/director Andrew Upton, so any further outings with women will be pretty limited.

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Carol is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 50s lesbian pulp novel The Price of Salt. While lesbian pulp novels usually ended in tragedy (it would have been blasphemous to end them in blissful romance) Highsmith broke barriers by doing the opposite. In The Price of Salt the lead falls for a young woman – a department store clerk and artist – and spoiler alert (!) it ends in a way that lets us imagine that the two women end up happy together.

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On the film, director Todd Haynes says

In some ways, the event of a gay love story is less surprising every day. But I think love stories are hard to pull off, period. They require external forces that keep the lovers apart.”

 

Cate is now one of several public women who have spoken about having relationships with women, while also not labelling themselves, much like Miley Cyrus.

Cate Blanchett’s Lesbian Love Story ‘Carol’ Set For 2015 Cannes Film Festival Début

There are a number of films that will vie for the Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, but in contention is Todd Haynes’ Carol –  a 1950s lesbian love story starring Cate Blanchett.

Carol is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 50s lesbian pulp novel The Price of Salt. While lesbian pulp novels usually ended in tragedy (it would have been blasphemous to end them in blissful romance) Highsmith broke barriers by doing the opposite. In The Price of Salt the lead falls for a young woman – a department store clerk and artist – and spoiler alert (!) it ends in a way that lets us imagine that the two women end up happy together.

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Playing the two leads are Cate Blanchett as Carol and Rooney Mara as the younger woman, whilst Sarah Paulson and Carrie Brownstein (Paulson and Brownstein are both openly queer) play two other women in Carol’s life.

Todd Haynes’ recent films (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There) have played the fall festival circuit, and this latest drama, which the Weinstein Co. is releasing Stateside this fall, will mark his first appearance at Cannes since 1998’s “Velvet Goldmine,” which received a prize for artistic contribution from the jury.

With no trailer and just a fan-made video of on set photos to go on it’s unclear if Carol will simply hint at a happy ending or explicitly say it, but we’ll have to wait and see.

50s Lesbian Epic ‘Carol’ ft Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson and Portlandia star Carrie Brownstein, Will Be Out Next Year

While films like 2005’s ‘Imagine Me and You’ and more recent foreign language hit ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’ have hit a chord as good queer lady led media. There is generally a stark lack of queer, female representation on our movie screens.

For the sake of both fixing what’s lacking and having the same chances at media representation that heterosexual people do (where boring, trope-y love triangles feature three people of the same gender rather than two), this needs to change. With Hollywood’s ever-changing mind-set and the calls and money of queer media fans making loud noises, things are slowly starting to improve.

One such example is Carol. An upcoming film from filmmaker Todd Haynes, Carol is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 50s lesbian pulp novel The Price of Salt.

While lesbian pulp novels usually ended in tragedy (it would have been blasphemous to end them in blissful romance) Highsmith broke barriers by doing the opposite. In The Price of Salt the lead falls for a young woman – a department store clerk and artist – and spoiler alert (!) it ends in a way that lets us imagine that the two women end up happy together.

Playing the two leads are Cate Blanchett as Carol and Rooney Mara as the younger woman, whilst Sarah Paulson and Carrie Brownstein (Paulson and Brownstein are both openly queer) play two other women in Carol’s life.

With no trailer and just a fan-made video of on set photos to go on it’s unclear if Carol will simply hint at a happy ending or explicitly say it, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As for what else we know about Carol, there’s reason to believe that it’s in very good hands indeed. Backing the project are Killer Films who are responsible for the Oscar winning film Boys Don’t Cry which was based on the real life story of a trans man, their mini-series Mildred Pierce won Emmys, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award and both of the founders of Killer Films (along with filmmaker Haynes) are all out and proud.

It’s making all the right sounds then and we can expect Carol to be released sometime next year, although we could see sneak previews as soon as January, 2015 at the next Sundance Film Festival.