Carol (2015)

Carol (2015)
Todd Haynes’ spellbinding lesbian love story, adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price of Salt, was named the best LGBT film of all time in a 2016 BFI poll. It’s also one of this century’s most exquisitely rendered period dramas, in which the haughty glamour and rigid social structure of 1950s New York seem to physically stifle the passions of our protagonists.

Cate Blanchett smoulders as the titular Carol, an affluent, discontented housewife who falls into a clandestine affair with Therese (Rooney Mara), a young aspiring photographer also trapped in an unfulfilling heterosexual relationship. As the pair navigate explosive new emotional and sexual territory, Haynes keeps the viewer at a distance, reflecting his characters’ deeply ingrained sense of propriety. But while the film may strike some as chilly in places, this restrained approach makes the final-act emotional payoffs all the more rewarding. Sandy Powell’s immaculate costumes and Carter Burwell’s elegiac score are the icing on the cake