Tag Archives: BFI London Film Festival

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