"Carol" (2015)

[jaragon]

Director Todd Haynes lesbian drama - great acting by Cate Blanchett and Roony Mara as the lovers. Haynes is a modern day George Cukor a director who adores women.

[hepclassic]

I have yet to see it, but I want to. I hear it doesn't end in tragedy, like most gay period films. Also, are we forgetting that Cukor directed men pretty well too? He directed three to Oscars. 

[jaragon]

Cukor  was a great director but he has a reputation as "woman's director" which was probably a code name for his homosexuality.   You will not get any spoilers from me but I did find the first hour of the film a bit slow but the second half really picks up. If you like great acting and period drama it's a must see. The costumes alone are Oscar worthy

[jamesjazzguitar]

Cukor  was a great director but he has a reputation as "woman's director" which was probably a code name for his homosexuality.   You will not get any spoilers from me but I did find the first hour of the film a bit slow but the second half really picks up. If you like great acting and period drama it's a must see. The costumes alone are Oscar worthy

 

I believe the label 'women's director' comes from a combination of things mostly associated with Gone With the Wind;   Both Leigh and DeHavilland really like the support and direction Cukor gave them during the film.  e.g.  the giving Melanie birth scene;  to get Olivia to show true pain he was pulling her leg under the covers.      But overall he was very sensitive and caring and actresses really appreciated that.     Gable had issues with Cukor and called him names on the set and demanded he be removed, which he was and replaced by Victor Fleming who was more of a so called 'man's man' (something the insecure Gable required).

 

Before GWTH Cukor directed The Women.    While Cukor was a fine director of men as well,  to me he was best at getting first rate performances out of the actresses in his picture either when their career needed a boost;  e.g.  Crawford in A Women's Face,  Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story,   or up and coming talent like Judy Holiday.      What he did with Garland in A Star is Born is fantastic.

 

My only complaint is that he directed Hot Spell.            

[TopBilled]

I believe the label 'women's director' comes from a combination of things mostly associated with Gone With the Wind;   Both Leigh and DeHavilland really like the support and direction Cukor gave them during the film.  e.g.  the giving Melanie birth scene;  to get Olivia to show true pain he was pulling her leg under the covers.      But overall he was very sensitive and caring and actresses really appreciated that.     Gable had issues with Cukor and called him names on the set and demanded he be removed, which he was and replaced by Victor Fleming who was more of a so called 'man's man' (something the insecure Gable required).

 

Before GWTH Cukor directed The Women.    While Cukor was a fine director of men as well,  to me he was best at getting first rate performances out of the actress in his picture either when their career needed a boost;  e.g.  Crawford in A Women's Face,  Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story,   or up and coming talent like Judy Holiday.      What he did with Garland in A Star is Born is fantastic.

 

My only complaint is that he directed Hot Spell.            

Unless I am mistaken, I think Cukor was assigned to THE WOMEN after he was pulled from GONE WITH THE WIND. Because Gable had him removed for supposedly favoring the actresses over the actors, he was pigeonholed as a women's director pretty much from that point forward. He never did direct a war film or a traditional western (HELLER IN PINK TIGHTS does not count as a traditional western in my opinion)-- rugged genres that primarily told the story of adventurous frontiersmen or soldiers. 

 

But going back to the original post, I do not find Haynes to be of the same caliber as Cukor. Some of Haynes' films have major flaws in them, because his socio-political agenda tends to get in the way of telling stories logically. Cukor never had that problem, since he was mostly a studio yes-man and not really putting his own philosophical views on material that was written or produced by others.

[jaragon]

Cukor was the ideal studio era director. He was a team player and did bring out the best in his female stars.  Later he resented the "woman's director" label.  There are plenty of Hollywood Babylon tales about the real reason Gable got Cukor fired from "Gone With The Wind"

[TopBilled]

Cukor was the ideal studio era director. He was a team player and did bring out the best in his female stars.  Later he resented the "woman's director" label.  There are plenty of Hollywood Babylon tales about the real reason Gable got Cukor fired from "Gone With The Wind"

I can only imagine!

[Swithin]

In Gods and Monsters (1998), James Whale takes young and handsome Clayton Boone to a party thrown by George Cukor in honor of Princess Margaret. When Cukor introduces Boone to the Princess, Whale remarks, "He's never met a princess, only queens!"

 

[jaragon]

You should read 'George Cukor : A Double Life"

[DougieB]

I finally got to see Carol and I was pleased by how complex and shaded the characters were. Based on some things I'd read, mostly centered around the question of why the younger woman would have been drawn to the older one, I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I was also pleasantly surprised by Sarah Paulson's performance as Carol's lover-turned-confidante, whose presence was a necessary antidote to the impression that Carol's motives were fundamentally predatory. Having an out actress in this key role could only have helped, because the character's clear-eyed assessment of the situation helps to fuel both Carol's ultimate determination to stand or fall on her own strength of character and also the final depth of understanding between the Blanchette and Roony characters. The pacing seems to have bothered some viewers, but I've personally always been a fan of character-driven movies which take their time. Overall, I was very impressed by what Todd Haynes accomplished.

[rayban]

I would really like to see this film, because I do like the films of Todd Haynes.

 

He did such a fantastic job on "Far From Heaven".

 

He might've been inspired by Douglas Sirk, but he gave us a modern-day equivalent.

 

 

[Swithin]

I think the film beautifully and sensitively portrayed the relationship between Carol and Therese.  I'm afraid I found almost every other character in the film hopelessly cliched, down to the angry department store supervisor who resents it when Therese gets a phone call.

 

[jaragon]

This is a well made but very cold film- I really did not see the sparks fly between Carol  and Therese  I would have preferred a movie or at least one scene in which Carol's husband Harg( Kyle Chandler) and Therese's boyfriend Richard (Jake Lacey)  have gay  sex after getting drunk because you know that was a very common event in the 1950s.