Carol and Mise-en-scène: How an Auteur Acts with the Actors
"I wanna know. I think. I mean, I want to ask you things. But I'm not sure you want that."
"Sorry. What am I thinking? I'm thinking that I'm utterly selfish."
"Wherever my car will take me. West, soon. And I thought, perhaps, you might want to come with me. Would you?"
Todd Haynes' Carol is the best film I've seen in the theatre in the past six years. In fact, I went to go see it five days in a row the winter it came out. Todd Haynes hits the right note on so many things, stealing from the masters like Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and David Lean.
The acting in the film is also phenomenal. Rooney Mara, especially, is just perfect. She has a tremendously rare gift that eludes even many of the best in the business: the ability to pull in or shut out the audience so quietly at will. ("Quietly" meaning the subtlety in her inflections and facial expressions.) Because it's done so quietly, you never get the sense that she's acting. Instead, her actions and words feel completely authentic. Not having this gift doesn't necessarily make someone less of an actor or actress. But it's a formidable gift when you're acting in a film where so much of the tension and emotions remain unspoken and beneath the surface.
Today, we'll see how Todd Haynes enhances Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett's performance in the film. More specifically, how Todd Haynes exploits the set design to amplify each character's state of mind. Or to bring it back to the title of this post: how an auteur "acts" with the actors.
"Sorry. What am I thinking? I'm thinking that I'm utterly selfish."
"Wherever my car will take me. West, soon. And I thought, perhaps, you might want to come with me. Would you?"
Todd Haynes' Carol is the best film I've seen in the theatre in the past six years. In fact, I went to go see it five days in a row the winter it came out. Todd Haynes hits the right note on so many things, stealing from the masters like Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and David Lean.
The acting in the film is also phenomenal. Rooney Mara, especially, is just perfect. She has a tremendously rare gift that eludes even many of the best in the business: the ability to pull in or shut out the audience so quietly at will. ("Quietly" meaning the subtlety in her inflections and facial expressions.) Because it's done so quietly, you never get the sense that she's acting. Instead, her actions and words feel completely authentic. Not having this gift doesn't necessarily make someone less of an actor or actress. But it's a formidable gift when you're acting in a film where so much of the tension and emotions remain unspoken and beneath the surface.
Today, we'll see how Todd Haynes enhances Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett's performance in the film. More specifically, how Todd Haynes exploits the set design to amplify each character's state of mind. Or to bring it back to the title of this post: how an auteur "acts" with the actors.
Scene 1: "Your perfume, it's nice."
Scene link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxQy5FrP8fU
If you watch the entire movie, this is the scene where Therese (Rooney Mara) and Carol (Cate Blanchett) meet for the second time and are just getting to know each other. And as "interested" as they are in each other, they don't know how the other feels about them let alone if the other drives on the same side of the road as them. (In Therese's case, she's not even fully aware that romantic attraction between two people of the same sex can exist.)
They are both quite forward with each other, but as lesbians in the 1950s whose attraction to each other was socially unacceptable, their exchange is very coded. They would like to know if the attraction is mutual, but they're still on guard about their attraction to each other. This surreptitious nature of their interaction is mirrored in their seats. Notice how the backs of the seats extend quite high, creating the impression that there's something hidden, that Therese has her walls up. (We're not supposed to notice this and think the director is symbolizing their reluctance to be transparent. It's just how we feel and subconsciously process images.)
Scene 2: "You look wonderful."
Scene link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zjly_txt7U
In this scene, Carol and Therese have gotten to know each other and they're pretty sure the attraction is mutual. Therese is much more transparent, holding Carol's hand and telling her she looks wonderful. Haynes echoes this openness by having the backs of the seats considerably lower. The entirety of the space behind Therese is completely visible and that space is also very open. Again, this isn't a matter of symbolism but one of the many ways Haynes shapes our emotional perception of the characters.
Scene 3: "No, I don't think so."
Scene link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAIFSAAj8aQ
In this scene, the two characters are in very different places. Carol realized giving up Therese was the wrong choice and wants her back. Therese, on the other hand, hasn't forgiven Carol for what she did and has no intention of letting Carol back in her heart. The disparity in their positions is mirrored in what we see behind them.
Although we can't see the back of Therese's chair, we do see a foreboding pillar behind Therese that completely blocks our view of what's behind it. That space is closed and off-limit, visually echoing Therese's attitude towards Carol ('I'm never letting you back in my life.') This is why when Therese says "No, I don't think so," it feels so real and cold.
The space behind Carol, however, is completely visible and feels much more welcoming, mirroring Carol's desire to have Therese back. (If you feel a towering wall of concrete to be more welcoming than curtains and two people dining together, please sue your parents for emotional abuse.) The openness of the space behind Carol -- at least relative to Therese's -- also works to highlight her vulnerability; she's openly voicing her desire to get back with Therese when Therese seems like she wants nothing to do with her.
If you haven't seen Carol, I strongly recommend it. It's on Netflix so you don't have to go to the library and rent it out if you're one of those people who still do that.
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