BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Icy Cate brings Carol to the boil

By BAZ BAMIGBOYE FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Published: | Updated:

Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn were the inspirations for the female lovers at the heart of Carol, one of the year’s best films.

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara play central characters Carol and Therese in the beautiful, heartbreaking love story based on a novel first published pseudonymously in 1952. It was called The Price Of Salt, and the author credited as Claire Morgan.

Now, though, it’s better known simply as Carol, and it was written by Patricia Highsmith, high priestess of the psychological thriller, whose works include Strangers On A Train and The Talented Mr Ripley.

Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn were the inspirations for the female lovers at the heart of Carol, one of the year’s best films. Pictured, Cate Blanchett who plays the title role

Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn were the inspirations for the female lovers at the heart of Carol, one of the year’s best films. Pictured, Cate Blanchett who plays the title role

The film’s screenplay was written by American dramatist Phyllis Nagy who, in her early 20s, befriended Highsmith after she was hired to chaperone her on an early morning tour around the famous Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn.

‘It was the most hilarious, terrifying day of my life,’ Nagy recalled. ‘She only perked up when we got to the grave of Lola Montez,’ she added, referring to the mannered actress who was a favourite of Ludwig, King of Bavaria, and notorious for her spider dance.

   

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Highsmith whisked out a flask and muttered to Nagy, ‘I don’t know about you, but I need a drink’, and took a slug of whisky. It was 11am.

They later had lunch at Highsmith’s place, where the meal consisted of Budweiser and Scotch.

The pair corresponded every week thereafter until the author died in 1995.

Nagy believes Highsmith would have liked the film. ‘I know she would have thought Cate a perfect Carol,’ she said. ‘And Rooney’s channelling some weird version of the young Pat, who with her elfin hairstyle looked a bit like Audrey Hepburn.

‘It’s fascinating, because Pat told me she was once working in the doll department at Bloomingdales and met this woman. She was already ill, but meeting this woman sent her over the edge.’

Highsmith followed the woman a couple of times, not daring to get too close. And then she wrote The Price Of Salt — in two weeks.

The film, like the novel, tells how Therese is knocked out when she catches sight of Carol, a stunning woman in her 30s. Therese has a boyfriend, but ditches him for Carol, who is married with a child. A custody battle ensues between Carol and her husband. In the film, Blanchett’s hair is blonde and she’s the height of sophistication. She’s wearing a pale mink coat that costume designer Sandy Powell snapped up when she saw it before having it restored.

‘I knew the kind of women Pat liked,’ Nagy told me over breakfast at the National Portrait Gallery. ‘They were Grace Kelly blondes. A little icy, a little mean — though Carol’s not mean — with an edge of filthiness.’

Kelly — particularly the Grace Kelly of Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window — became Nagy’s visual prompt as she wrote her script: ‘That particular character in Rear Window — very helpful, very kind, and just seething with this unrelieved sexual tension. Physically, this was Pat’s type.

‘When Pat was younger, she chased people around the couch. This was the sort of woman she would have chased.’

The film, like the novel, tells how Therese (played by Rooney Mara) is knocked out when she catches sight of Carol, a stunning woman in her 30s

The film, like the novel, tells how Therese (played by Rooney Mara) is knocked out when she catches sight of Carol, a stunning woman in her 30s

Therese (played by Mara, pictured left) has a boyfriend, but ditches him for Carol, who is married with a child. A custody battle ensues between Carol and her husband

Therese (played by Mara, pictured left) has a boyfriend, but ditches him for Carol, who is married with a child. A custody battle ensues between Carol and her husband

Nagy had plenty of time to work on the screenplay. She penned her first draft 15 years ago. ‘To attract finance then was tough. Two female leads! It was not a comedy,’ she said, adding: ‘If the film had been full of wet T-shirts, we might have had an easier time. Or maybe not.’

She said she was thrilled that, through all those years, nobody gave in to the temptation to change the story, to make it more ‘marketable’. Such as: ‘Make the lesbians suffer — I mean psychologically. Make the men real villains.’

It was another decade before Elizabeth Karlsen, the London-based producer, secured the rights to the book and pushed hard for the movie to be made.

The film’s screenplay was written by American dramatist Phyllis Nagy (pictured) who, in her early 20s, befriended Highsmith after she was hired to chaperone her on an early morning tour around the famous Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn

The film’s screenplay was written by American dramatist Phyllis Nagy (pictured) who, in her early 20s, befriended Highsmith after she was hired to chaperone her on an early morning tour around the famous Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn

Even though it’s directed by a man (the brilliant Todd Haynes) and lensed by another (Edward Lachman), Carol’s seen through the female gaze, which is no surprise when so many of those fighting to get it made — Karlsen, Tessa Ross (then running Film 4), Christine Vachon (an American producer), designers Sandy Powell and Judy Becker, plus Blanchett herself, who’d been ‘attached’ to the project for several years — were women.

Carol’s now a major award season contender. Yesterday it was listed by BFI magazine Sight And Sound as one of the year’s top three movies (behind The Assassin, but ahead of Mad Max: Fury Road). And on Tuesday it led the Film Independent Spirit Awards, with six nominations.

 

Cate Blanchett

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