Though it underwent some casting changes in the early stages – namely The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo‘s Rooney Mara replacing Mia Wasikowska  as Therese – Todd Haynes’ romantic drama Carol is nearing its premiere at the Cannes film festival next month, and an early, admittedly low quality trailer for the adaptation has surfaced.
Based on Patricia Highsmith’s erotic novel The Price of Salt (also referred to as Carol), Mara’s young female store clerk is essentially the crux of the narrative. Dreaming of a life beyond menial duties as a department store clerk, Therese falls head over heels for an older, married woman (Cate Blanchett) ensnared in a loveless marriage. Situated in New York circa 1950, Haynes’ feature has been described as a tale of tragic love and lust, and one look at the debut footage above will give you a sense of the emotional tone residing beneath the old-school aesthetic.
Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy, Cory Michael Smith, John Magaro and Carrie Brownstein round out the film’s cast, though given the plot at hand, Carol is likely to focus heavily on the relationship between Mara and Blanchett, one that would have likely been branded taboo half a century ago.
Cannes is due to get underway on May 13, and we’ll likely hear the early verdict on Haynes’ Carol and the chemistry between the film’s two charismatic leads in due time.
CAROL follows the relationship between two very different women in 1950s New York. A young woman in her 20s, Therese (Mara) is working in a department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol (Blanchett), an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, moneyed marriage. As the story unfolds—their lives begin to unravel with Carol becoming more fearful of losing custody of her daughter in the case of separation when her husband (Chandler) threatens her competence as a mother because of her previous affair with her best friend Abby (Paulson), and new relationship with Therese.
