BFI Recommends: Carol
The perfect adaptation: Todd Haynes’ exquisite film of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt is the latest in our daily series of recommendations, chosen by Emma Smart.
My love affair with Carol began a long time ago, before the film was even made. A friend gave me a copy of Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt (the book on which Carol is based) with a knowing smile and told me I might like it. She wasn’t wrong. I loved it: devouring it in one sitting and then immediately turning back to the first page to read it again. Highsmith’s writing is instinctually cinematic and I remember thinking all those years ago that this needed to be made into a film. I desperately wanted to see Carol and Therese’s love affair on the big screen, and I fervently hoped for the right creative team to come along and make my wish come true. Because Carol needed to be flawless as a film – my love for the book would accept nothing less…
Well, I needn’t have worried. With Todd Haynes at the helm and Cate Blanchett the perfect Carol (I’d always pictured Cate when I read the book!) how could it falter? Watching it is like seeing the pages of Highsmith’s novel come to life, more exquisitely than I could have imagined. It made me fall in love with the story and the characters all over again. And just like with the book, I revisit Carol as often as I can.
Emma Smart
Head of Library and Mediatheque