Earlier this week, up-and-coming Australian actress Cate Blanchett told a little magazine that she’s had off-screen relationships with women “many times,” nbd, whatever. When I casually and professionally mentioned it to you in passing, I also said I’d let you know when you could take a look at her upcoming movie, Carol, with your own eyeballs — because Carol is a queer-ish film based on Patricia Highsmith‘s lesbian pulp novel, The Price of Salt, and this Blanchett lady is in it. Also, Rooney Mara is in it. She plays a young department store clerk named Therese who falls into love with Carol.
Some clips are available for you now. Here’s the first one. It’s Carol and Therese enjoying a gal pal luncheon.
Here’s the second one. It’s Therese taking some friendly photos of Carol while she shops for a Christmas tree with one of the children she parents with Coach Eric Taylor of the Dillon Panthers.
Carol doesn’t have a U.S. release date yet, but everyone’s calling it the “hot ticket” at Cannes, so fingers crossed that it is received well and will be a stepping stone for Cate Blanchett to make it in Hollywood.
Do you have any feelings about these clips? Would you like to join Blanchett at her house on Sunday?
“a stepping stone for Cate Blanchett to make it in Hollywood.”
Wait, you mean to tell me she isn’t a major star in Hollywood already? What rock am I living under!? I always thought she was as famous as in my head. Now I’m sad :(
I think it’s sarcasm… she has two academy awards!
Yeah, I was just kidding. She’s one of the most famous and successful actresses of all time!
CATE BLANCHETT IS AN OSCAR WINNING ACTRESS! SHE CERTAINLY IS AN A-LIST HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS! And she is kind and sweet and humble AND uber professional. She deserves all good things – and is the PERFECT choIce to play CAROL!
CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE!
Rooney Mara is amazing too!
LOVE KYLE CHANDLER ALSO!
I knew I wasn’t that out of touch! Phew! Thanks :)
I have been excited for this movie since I heard about it like 6 months ago. The anticipation is killing me! And yes, if Cate asks, I will go to her house for any Sunday she likes.
Oh wow, that was unexpectedly sensual.
I might be googling European release dates als we speak.
I am excited because the book it’s based on, The Price of Salt, is really good.
I mean my Sunday schedule is just packed already I couldn’t possibly WAIT NO OF COURSE CATE BLANCHETT I WILL COME OVER AND CLEAN YOUR POOL OR WASH YOUR CAR OR GIVE YOU A BATH OR WHATEVER THING
Omg, the things Cate Blanchett is doing with her eyes in that lunch scene. So sexy.
I am so excited for this movie.
When I heard the name rooney mara, I thought of kate mara who is super awesome, but this actress seems alright too
Kate and Rooney are sisters!
Sisters
I don’t know how Therese/Rooney Mara is able to do anything remotely coherant – eat, talk, fuction at all – in that restaurant scene. I would just slide right off my seat and into a puddle of gooey mess when sitting opposite Cate Blanchett/Carol.
I’m so excited for this movie. The Price of Salt is one of my all time favourite books. This adaptation has been something like 15 years in the making, so I am so exited that it is finally going to be on the big screen.
Feeling all the feels and it’s only been like 4 minutes of movie
Cate Blanchett needs to voice my life. She should replace my alarm clock, take over siri, be the emergency service system in my area…EVERYTHING.
Red lipstick smears quite beautifully I’ve always thought.
Help, I can’t stop watching these clips!! The ambience, the acting, the looks – it’s perfect. Can’t wait.
oh my. i am 60% through reading The Price of Salt and can’t believe I never read it earlier.
IMDB says Carter Burwell wrote the score but when I first heard the second clip I assumed Philip Glass? I feel like it’s actually a Glass piece they’ve popped over the clip. I mean, a lot of moody piano scores /sound/ like Glass anyway and I’m not 100% versed in either Glass or Burwell’s work. But I would have bet (and I suppose lost) several tens of dollars on the piece being Glass.
Up-and-coming? I did a double take. You must be an American.
Sarcasm — as addressed in the replies to the first comment.
And one who never watched Elizabeth, Oscar and Lucinda, The Gift, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Aviator, The Lord of the Rings, Hanna, Robin Hood, Cinderella, Talented Mr Ripley, the Shipping News, Notes on a Scandal, etc. etc. hmmm… is Julia Roberts also up-and-coming? I think Elizabeth was Cate Blanchett’s big break in to Hollywood – in 1998.
I must read The Price of Salt now…
I rarely go in for art films (having a heavy preference for things with either dragons or spaceships, myself) but I’m going to have to make an exception for this one because CATE BLANCHETT QUEEN OF MY HEART.
“A stepping stone for Cate Blanchett to make it in Hollywood”?
Blanchett has already won an Oscar for best actress in Blue Jasmine and also been nominated many times in other roles.
This all must’ve happened when the author of this column was living in Georgia. Maybe it’s time to catch up a little.
Heather already pointed out that she was kidding in the replies to the first comment on the article.
Of course when asked about it again Blanchett denied everything and said her comment was taken out of context, she’s never had any relationships with women. She also said that she likes how in the 50s nobody talked about sexuality whereas now ~homosexuals~ openly talk about themselves all the time and it’s somehow very conservative. She sounds like a really charming person.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/17/cate-blanchett-ive-never-had-a-sexual-relationship-with-a-woman
The wording of her quote is a bit vague, but I took it to mean something quite different – when she says “if you are homosexual you have to talk about it constantly, the only thing, before your work” I think she’s saying (from the point of view of an actor) that gay people are questioned incessantly about their sexuality in the media rather than the main focus being on their work, and that this reflects a rather conservative, uptight fixation in our society on people’s sex lives.
But yeah, apart from that, the whole “I can’t wait until nobody cares about anyone’s sexuality and we can all stop discussing it in public” sentiment I hear all the time falls into the same malodorous category as “I’m colourblind and can’t wait until we can all stop talking about race”.
I’ve loved this book since I was 19 and never dreamed it would be a movie. I accidentally got this old copy with Patricia Highsmiths’ pseudonym (Claire Morgan) and an afterword by her. I’m actually crushed that Rooney Mara was picked – I think I’ve just imagined that lunch scene in my own way after rereading the book so damn much. Seeing Therese act all wide eyed and obviously fumbly when her character is written in a more subtle way irks me.
Looks beautifully filmed though.
hmmmm Cate Blanchett is certainly not ‘up and coming’, especially not in Australia. she’s one of our biggest stars.
nvm just saw the clarification above haha