Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

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Movie Night: “Carol”

December 2, 2015

carol poster

Good news: “Carol” is as wonderful as the reviews said. What’s more, after seeing it last night at a screening, I understand why it received such a rapturous reception at the Cannes Film Festival last May. I loved it. The acting. The story. The subtlety of the direction. And oh those luscious costumes that not only got the look of the 1950s exactly right but should earn a special Oscar just for Cate Blanchett’s mink coat.

Based faithfully on Patricia Highsmith’s cult novel, The Price of Salt, which she had to publish under a pseudonym back in the day because of the lesbian theme, “Carol” introduces us to Therese (Rooney Mara), a department store clerk and aspiring photographer, who sells a train set to older, married socialite, Carol (Cate Blanchett) for Carol’s daughter’s Christmas present. There’s an immediate connection between them, and when Carol leaves her leather gloves on the counter, Therese returns them and finds herself embarking on a romantic journey she never expected. She’s a wide-eyed innocent, dating men but not ready to commit to any, and Carol is her opposite: worldly, cultured, involved in a bitter divorce from her husband (Kyle Chandler) after her affair with an old friend (Sarah Paulson), trying to hold on to custody of her daughter. Theirs is an unlikely love affair, but that’s exactly what it is.

Among the things that are astonishing about this movie is that both characters grow as a result of their relationship. Also, the cinematography is so gorgeous – Todd Haynes was working again with “Far from Heaven” and “Mildred Pierce” cinematographer Edward Lachman and shooting on Super 16mm film – that it has to be the most beautiful film of the year in terms of production design, which is all the more remarkable since “Carol” was an indie movie on a limited shooting schedule and budget.

Following the movie, Janet Maslin, former film critic of The New York Times, now a book critic there, moderated a Q&A with “Carol”‘s three producers and Phyllis Nagy, its screenwriter, who had been trying to get her script made for over a decade and told the audience about meeting Patricia Highsmith and sharing her impressions. The only negative in the otherwise terrific evening was the rudeness of some in the audience, who felt the need to get up and leave during the Q&A so they could go to bed. Yes, the hour was late, but come on. Being able to attract the “talent” so they’re willing to shlep up to Westchester on a rainy night and answer questions depends on the audience showing they care, and last night I was embarrassed by them. Someone at the Jacob Burns Film Center needs to politely ask them to either leave after the credits, before the Q&A, or wait until the end.

In any case, let the Oscar nominations roll in for Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Phyllis Nagy, Todd Haynes and “Carol.”

 

Filed Under: Mainly Jane Tagged With: Carol movie, Cate Blanchett, Jacob Burns Film Center, NY, Patricia Highsmith, Pleasantville, Rooney Mara, The Price of Salt, Todd Haynes

Movie Day: “The Danish Girl”

November 28, 2015

danish girl poster

Since moving from Santa Barbara, I’ve really missed the Cinema Society I belonged to there. It enabled me to see screenings of major films that were often followed by Q&As with directors, producers and actors. Luckily, I discovered the Jacob Burns Film Center in Westchester, became a member and have been enjoying the screenings there. Today’s was “The Danish Girl” after which director Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech,” “Les Miserables”) fielded questions from board member and New York Times book reviewer (and former film critic) Janet Maslin.

“The Danish Girl” was based on the novel by David Ebershoff, which, in turn, was based on the actual diaries of Danish landscape painter Einar Wegener, who became Lili Elbe, the first ever recipient of male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. Married to portrait painter Gerde Wegener when the movie begins, theirs appears to be a happy union in every way – until Gerde’s model is late for a sitting and Einar fills in, putting on women’s stockings and posing in a woman’s costume. The very act touches off feelings Einar had been having since he was a child – feelings that he tried very hard to ignore. But then he starts wearing Gerde’s clothes and going out in public as a woman, and what began as a game between two bohemian artists  grows into a chasm between them. Einar “identifies,” as the transgender movement would put it today, as a woman – as Lili – and after seeing doctors who tell him he’s crazy, finds one willing to perform the complicated surgery.

The story is a powerful one and its two leads play brave souls – “transgender” wasn’t even a term in the 1920s, after all – and I applaud the filmmakers for even getting their project financed and produced. As befitting a movie about two painters, the cinematography is very painterly. We see lush shots of landscapes and costumes and European settings. I only wish the emotional connection had been there too. It was all very tidy and tasteful, and the focus was on appearance (Lili looks in the mirror a lot as she’s transitioning into a woman) instead of an inner transformation.

Eddie Redmayne, who won last year’s Best Actor Oscar for “The Theory of Everything” and will likely get a nomination this year, makes a very pretty female, but his quivering lips and coquettish gazes nearly drove me nuts. Faring better was the actress cast as Gerde, Alicia Vikander, who walks away with the movie in my opinion. Her Gerde is feisty and loving and confused and angry – all the emotions you’d expect when confronted with the loss of the man she thought she knew. She, Tom Hooper and the movie will get nominated, I’m betting; it’s the kind of picture the Academy loves to nominate.

During the Q&A, an audience member commented that the movie seemed to fetishize the quest for female beauty over the sexual tug-of-war going on inside Einar/Lili, and he said the movie “left him cold.” My jaw dropped when he said that, because I’d never heard someone criticize a film with the director sitting right there. But the truth is he echoed my own sentiment about “The Danish Girl.” I’m glad I saw it, but in the end it left me cold too.

Filed Under: Mainly Jane Tagged With: Alicia Vikander, Eddie Redmayne, Jacob Burns Film Center, Janet Maslin, sexual reassignment surgery, The Danish Girl, Tom Hooper, transgender

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About Jane Heller

Jane Heller is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her fourteen breezy, witty novels of romantic comedy and suspense are now entertaining millions of readers around the world, along with her two books of nonfiction.

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