I
ended watching this film with a mixed feeling of admiration, melancholy and bewilderment,
the first two naturally owing to its outstanding qualities and the latter caused
by an obscure an untraceable internal whisper indicating that something was
at a loss in the whole mechanism of the narrative.
Of
course, this may sound very presumptuous in the light of such a magnificent
display of scenario, acting, setting, photography, score and so on so forth. Nevertheless,
I couldn’t help to think about it as I went to bed (I got to watch this movie on
a Saturday night). Furthermore, this idea kept lingering as I first awoke the
following morning, my mind undoubtedly seeking for a smooth resolution of the
trap it had fallen into, however already reaching to some compromise on the
matter.
Certainly,
my emotional state was certainly prejudiced by my previous knowledge of the
story. As the movie was released, with great impact at both critics and audience,
I took it upon myself to read the book on which the story is based (Prize of
Salt of Patricia Highsmith, published under pseudonym in 1952). I proceeded
as planned but could not make it beyond half of the book. Probably I was not
in the mood as it is often said when lacking explanation for something. This
said, I must bow to the fact that the account of a love story between two women
could cause a lot of disturbance at the beginning of the fifties in the United
States. Furthermore, it shows great courage and audacity for the young and
upcoming writer Patricia Highsmith, after collecting great success with Strangers
on a train (in view of this, it appears that the editor imposed on her to
publish the book under a pseudonym).
Despite
of my lack of persistence one thing was clear to me from the book. The story had
to be told from the point of view of Therese, a girl in her first twenties, which
has made her way to New York to apparently escape her country origins and environment
(which includes a mother with whom there is no contact). Nonetheless in New York
she lives a dull life working as salesgirl in a big department store and keeps a
relationship with his boyfriend Richard (to whom he obviously does not love) by
mere inertia.
These
are the elements that underpin the first encounter of the two women in the novel
(as shown below) in a crowded toy department before Christmas attended by
Therese, where a glamorous, sophisticated, dazzling, upper class and mature
woman (Carol) shows up and not only catches Therese’s eye and attention, but literally
all of her senses:
Their eyes met at the same
instant, Therese glancing up from a box she was opening, and the woman just
turning her head so she looked directly at Therese. She was tall and fair, her
long figure graceful in the loose fur coat that she held open with a hand on
her waist. Her eyes were gray, colorless, yet dominant as light or fire, and
caught by them, Therese could not look away. She heard the customer in front of
her repeat a question, and Therese stood there, mute. The woman was looking at
Therese, too, with a preoccupied expression as if half her mind were on
whatever it was she meant to buy here, and though there were a number of
salesgirls between them, Therese felt sure the woman would come to her. Then
Therese saw her walk slowly toward the counter, heard her heart stumble to
catch up with the moment it had let pass, and felt her face grow hot as the
woman came nearer and nearer. "May I see one of those valises?" the
woman asked, and leaned on the counter, looking down through the glass top. The
damaged valise lay only a yard away. Therese turned around and got a box from
the bottom of a stack, a box that had never been opened. When she stood up, the
woman was looking at her with the calm gray eyes that Therese could neither
quite face nor look away from. "That's the one I like, but I don't suppose
I can have it, can I?" she said, nodding toward the brown valise in the
show window behind Therese. Her eyebrows were blond, curving around the bend of
her forehead. Her mouth was as wise as her eyes, Therese thought, and her voice
was like her coat, rich and supple, and somehow full of secrets.
"Yes," Therese said. Therese went back to the stockroom for the key.
The key hung just inside the door on a nail, and no one was allowed to touch it
but Mrs. Hendrickson. Miss Davis saw her and gasped, but Therese said, "I
need it," and went out. She opened the show window and took the suitcase
down and laid it on the counter. "You're giving me the one on
display?" She smiled as if she understood. She said casually, leaning both
forearms on the counter, studying the contents of the valise, "They'll
have a fit, won't they?" "It doesn't matter," Therese said.
Of
course, Carol is perfectly aware of the impression she has made on Therese and,
as of this moment, the young girl becomes an easy prey for her (as, adding to
her age, she has already experienced female love with her friend Abby). It
remains only now to know when and how the love affair will consummate, since
Carol is well aware that a swift approach will surely be backfiring. After all,
many mental barriers need to be overcome by Therese to reach to this point, as
it she seems rather unaware of what’s going on in and around her (or at least,
she is mentally blocked to recognize it) while Carol’s initiatives and approaches
display towards the desired goal.
Said
the above and let me be clear on this, Cate Blanchett is by far the center of
the movie. Her character irradiates all the strength and magnetism required to drives
Therese to follow her blindly and perform acts (ultimately, female sex
intercourse) that otherwise she would have not dared or even imagine realizing.
In hindsight, we come to realize that her inevitable fate was to dwell in an
unhappy (heterosexual and conventional) marriage, considering her feeble
temperament and the prevailing social rules in mid-fifties America (where such behavior,
even for New York standards, could have only be kept secret and clandestine).
At
the same time, the whole plot revolves around Therese’s experiencing inner violent,
unmanageable and contradictory feelingsduring her different encounters with Carol (at a restaurant, at her
home, at the trip by car). The ultimate goal of the story is that we, as viewers/readers
experience Therese’s perspective and, naturally, fall in love in our turn with Carol,
thereby acknowledging, as a logical and obvious conclusion, that love feelings
cannot be confined or prevented, even though this involves two women of unequal
age and background.
Reverting
to the movie, this premise to the story is abandoned from the first scene. We
meet both women having tea at a hotel bar, in a sort of epilogue, once all the
events have between them have taken place and is time for readjusting the relationship. Therese
has gone through the pain of forced separation from Carol and is therefore wiser
and more cautious. Therefore, she is unwilling to accept, at least in first
instance, Carol’s proposal to move with her (once she has cleared her divorce
terms with her husband). This is fine, of course and adds much more credibility
to the story (which ultimately ends with a new beginning between the two
lovers, on more equal grounds). However, the fact that this scene is anticipated
in the movie already predisposes our experience as viewers. We don’t see
Therese in the same way as the plot goes back in time to the day the two women
first meet in the toy department (in a sort of remembrance of Therese as she is
driven in a taxi cab from the bar to a party with her new circle of friends). As
a result, we fail to empathize with her (or let’s say, be her) from that
founding and crucial moment (which, by the way is the key contribution of
Patricia Highsmith to the story, drawn from her own experience). Secondly, the script
chooses to follow both women separately, whilst in the book we only know about
Carol and her life and troubles with her husband through what it is conveyed to
Therese or what she finds out herself during her interactions with Carol.
As a conclusion, we are bound to contemplate
the story as a stranger who would be peeking through the keyhole in the
domestic life of the two women and, at the same time, as if this was being
referred by one of the characters, instead of experimenting the story
ourselves.
Well, I hope I have explained myself.
Otherwise I only have compliments for the movie -which, in my opinion, greatly overcomes
the original book- and, in particular, for Cate Blanchett as leading role: she
is simply fascinating and, personally, I could have not endured madly falling in
love with her had I been in Therese’s place (and, honestly, does it matter
whether I am a male or female?).
