Director Todd Haynes’ film CAROL is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt. The story of love and longing comes alove through rich set design, costumes, and heart-wrenching acting.
Todd Haynes spoke to FilmComment about the ways CAROL aligns with the rest of his work, and how it stands apart, “Honestly, I was not even familiar with [Patricia] Highsmith’s novel when the script came to me. But what I immediately responded to was that it was a film about sexuality and gay or lesbian themes — all of which I’d dealt with in earlier films, even within the Fifties — but this was a different take on those subjects, which is what I’d been looking for.
The novel and Phyllis’s beautiful adaptation are such powerful love stories, and raised questions for me about how ‘the love story’ in movies differs from the domestic dramas or melodramas I’ve looked at in the past. Plus, I was interested in the isolation of the desiring subject, who’s more in love, who’s more liable to be hurt by the object of desire — in this case, Rooney’s character, Therese. In the novel, you’re placed entirely in her point of view. The first draft I read of Phyllis’s script opened it up, giving us somewhat equal access to Carol’s side, where all the most dramatic material really resides — whereas Therese is just this young woman coming into focus, even to herself. There was something so strong about the entrapment you felt in the book of being stuck with Therese inside her own consciousness. I was really moved by that and wanted to bring some of that feeling back into the film.
I also saw a direct line from the overproductive mental states of all the criminals in Highsmith’s other novels to the romantic imagination, in its constant state of hyperproduction, conjuring scenarios and outcomes, getting overwhelmed by all the signs it’s trying to read, trying to determine whether the person you love feels any need to be close to you. That craziness, that loneliness, that paranoia, but also the pleasure of reading everything — to the point of total distraction from everything else — I found to be such a great premise.”
