Monday
Dec212015
It's CAROL Week!
Monday, December 21, 2015 at 8:10AM 
Interviews, images, requests (if you have any), and pet obsessions daily*
* Please no snarkiness that it's always Carol day around these parts. We promise to keep up non-Carol posting as well since there is a lot going on, it being Christmas week.
tagged Carol
Carol
Reader Comments (20)
Great Christmas present. I've seen Carol twice so far and it is wonderful. From the direction to the performances to the production, just about everything is wonderful. I can't wait to rewatch this movie over and over again in the years to come.
Well, that's funny! I just finished watching it (first time) and yes, it's everything everyone around here has been saying. Cate Blanchett is utter perfection (her line reading of "we are not ugly people" slayed me) and Rooney Mara more than holds her own quite admirably. What I appreciate the most about this film is that it's not a tragic love story, which I must admit is what I was expecting when I heard what it was about, and while it is sad in many moments, it's also romantic and surprisingly optimistic (despite certain moments of chilliness, which I just think is the cast brilliantly underplaying moments). I can't wait to see it again!!! Keep up the celebration...
What a perfect Christmas present! Just saw Carol and Star Wars over the weekend (talk about a schizophrenic movie lover). Never thought I'd compare the two in any way but...wow, do they both stick the landings with incredible last moments. I think I audibly gasped at the "cliff fall" feeling as they cut to black in each film.
I am resisting all temptation to see this until Christmas day. I finally get to see Macbeth today and I am so ready...those two can do no wrong in my book.
Tom M -- i would not think to compare them either but i get it. i get it.
Carol tomorrow...!!!
The anticipation is probably too much. I should quickly lower my expectations somehow.
Quick, someone post about how terrible Carol is.
Saw it last week and was enthralled, need to see it again this week.
The male ensemble of Carol are its weakest links.
Paulson should be in the conversation for Supporting Actress. Rooney Mara
is equally good as the co-lead. Blanchett has cemented her legacy with
Carol and Blue Jasmine.
Recast Carol if it was made in 1986.
it definitely dragged its feet through some parts but yeah it was amazing. id say there were maybe 10mins or less of fat that could have gotten chewed off.
I like Mary's request.
My request: compare Carol to Far from Heaven and Mildred Pierce.
I luurve Carol but I do feel that I can "only" call it great instead of a masterpiece, as much as I enjoy hearing people calling it one. The lawyer(s) scenes are probably my least favorite and even if the movie is more interested in its atmosphere than the dialogue (and that interest pays off brilliantly), part of the dialogue felt too bland.
But I love the film so much that I kind of feel guilty for saying those things. The Talented Mr Ripley is still my favorite Highsmith adaptation, but not by far.
Also, I can imagine a dozen legendary actresses as Carol, specifically, but Barbara Stanwyck seems to me a particularly intriguing fantasy.
As for 1986, is Jane Fonda as obvious and awesome as it can get?
Jane Fonda: no, no, no. She was 49 in 1986, which is not the only reason she'd have been wrong for the part.
However: Streep, Weaver or Lange (all age 37 in 2015). Rampling, Sarandon, Keaton (all 40). D'Angelo, Huston (both 35). Turner (32). Mulgrew (31). Joan Allen (30).
Blanchett is 46.
According to a synopsis of the book: "On a long and monotonous day working in the toy department of the department store, Therese becomes interested in a customer, an elegant and beautiful woman in her early thirties."
Oh, wow. One of the reasons I chose Fonda is exactly because she then was close to Blanchett's age at the time of filming, but now I see Cate was already a stretch, age-wise. And waht a great stretch!
Lange had come immediately to mind but I thought she too young. Again, after the new information, she'd be fine. Then again, if it worked with Blanchet at around 45 why stay older than in the book with our recasting ideas?
This hypothetical convo turned really serious. I love it! ;)
I would also say Helen Mirren but we're supposed to hate her these days :p
Mirren (41) is not such a bad idea...
Joan Allen or Kate Mulgrew would both have been perfect, but neither of them were movie-star famous enough at the time to get the role. I bet it would have gone to Streep, Weaver or Lange...that is, unless Sally Field (40) had made a play for it. ;-)
In the film, Carol seems to be in her late 30s, while Therese is in her early 20s (as opposed to 19 in the book), which complements Blanchett and Mara's real-life ages.
Winona Ryder would have been a great Therese if the film was made in the late 80s/early 90s. Maybe Michelle Pfeiffer as Carol?
YAASSSSSS! Carol Week is the best week. Let's have a Carol Week every year.
Well as I said before they kept us waiting long enough for it. I first posted that photo of Cate in the fur coat on my blog back in Aoril 2014. 'They' must have purposely kept it out of last year's award season and unveiled it at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. Brooklyn beat it into the cinemas here in the UK - another shopgirl in a perfect 50s New York! Rooney is a weird hybrid of early Audrey Hepburn & Jean Simmons here, while I could cast Grace Kelly as Carol if it could have been made back in that early 50s period. . Is it the new Bokeback Mountain but with a happier ending?
1986 Carol, Julie Christie and Natassja Kinski