On Friday in Cannes, buyers got their first look at Todd Haynes‘ new movie Carol starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. The film is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith‘s book “The Price of Salt“, revolving around two women from different backgrounds who strike up a relationship in 1950s New York. One a young woman (Mara) working in a department store and hoping for a better life, the other a wife (Blanchett) trapped in a loveless marriage and desperate to break free, but fearful of losing her daughter in the process.
Film4’s Tessa Ross was quoted by the London Evening Standard, who brings us the first picture above, saying she was thrilled to have finally got the Carol script by Phyllis Nagy in the can. “It was in development even before I got to Film4 and I fell in love with the screenplay… It’s based on an extraordinary book, which was banned when first published because the story of a married woman in the Fifties who falls in love with a young girl was seen as shocking.”
As for the film’s long journey to the screen Ross said, “If your job is to back the best possible material with the best possible talent why would you risk it? It’s uncompromising but it’s the only way to make a little bit of money go a long way.” Kudos.
The Weinstein Co. is set to release Carol later this year and it’s a film strongly expected to play the fall film festival circuit.
