Todd Haynes’ CAROL Receiving Rave Reviews Out Of Cannes 2015 – Watch The Red Carpet Premiere

Director Todd Haynes’ CAROL has debuted at Cannes 2015 in Competition and was met with rapturous applause from both the audience and critics alike.

Written by Phyllis Nagy, it stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler, Jake Lacy and Cory Michael Smith.

Sasha Stone (Awards Daily) writes, “Carol is top to bottom a lavishly put together film, of the kind we don’t get to see that often anymore.”

As expected, CAROL has garnered early Oscar buzz. Read the early positive reviews here, here, here and here.

Watch the press conference here and the Red Carpet premiere below.

In an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s seminal novel The Price of Salt, CAROL follows two women from very different backgrounds who find themselves in an unexpected love affair in 1950s New York. As conventional norms of the time challenge their undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change.

“CAROL follows the unexpected love affair between two women of different ages and different social settings,” said Haynes. “A young woman in her early 20s, Therese, is embarking on life when she meets Carol Aird, an alluring older woman who has one daughter and is beginning to go through a divorce. As these two women become infatuated and entranced by each other, they begin to confront the conflicts their attraction provokes.”

Haynes wanted to draw on the aspect of unforeseen love as both Therese and Carol struggle to understand the signs and signals guiding their emotions. The film portrays a unique time in history where society “followed a prescribed path,” said Haynes.

A young woman in her 20s, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), is a clerk working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol (Cate Blanchett), an alluring woman trapped in a loveless, convenient marriage. As an immediate connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their connection deepens.

While Carol breaks free from the confines of marriage, her husband (Kyle Chandler) begins to question her competence as a mother as her involvement with Therese and close relationship with her best friend Abby (Sarah Paulson) come to light.

Driven to play complex characters wrestling with secrets, Blanchett admits it is a “delicious thing to do” as an actress. “I think the gift of working on something based on a Patricia Highsmith novel is that the interior life of the characters is so rich –  she’s masterful at dealing with characters who acknowledge, in a way, that every adult has a secret.”

Oscar winner Sandy Powell helped create Haynes’ and Lachman’s vision as the Costume Designer of CAROL. She took a naturalistic approach to dressing them as she said, “My job was to help create the characters and make them believable to each other and audiences. I wanted Carol to be fashionable, but understated— somebody a character like Therese would look up to and be impressed by as well.” In collaboration with Powell, Makeup Artist Patricia Regan and Hair Stylist Jerry Decarlo further evolved the physical identity of each character.

© 2015 The Weinstein Company. All rights reserved.