New Feature Film About Lesbian Mom in 1950s

Question: What 1952 — 1952! — book was about a married mother who leaves her husband for another woman, only to battle him in court for custody of their daughter? Read on for the answer, as well as more about the story coming to the big screen.

The answer is The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith (writing as Claire Morgan). Highsmith is perhaps best known for The Talented Mr. Ripley and the series that followed. In The Price of Salt, a young woman named Therese meets Carol, a married mother who comes into the department store where Therese works. Both are in loveless relationships with men, and eventually take a road trip together where they declare their love for each other. Carol’s estranged husband, suspecting the women’s relationship, has them followed in order to gain evidence against her in the custody hearings over their daughter. Although he gains custody, and she only limited visitation, the fact that Carol and Therese may stay together gives the book an unusually positive ending for its lesbian-pulp genre.

Todd Haynes’ movie adaptation, Carol, will star Cate Blanchett as Carol and Rooney Mara as Therese. It is scheduled for release sometime next year.

Haynes’ 1995 film Safe (1995) starred Julianne Moore as a housewife named Carol who becomes allergic to her middle-class suburban life. His 2002 Far from Heaven starred Moore (and got her an Academy Award nomination) as a 1950s housewife who discovers that her husband is gay, and then falls in love with an African American gardener. Now, Haynes blends elements of each to bring to the screen a dissatisfied 1950s housewife named Carol who discovers that she is gay and falls in love with another woman. Moore won’t appear in this one, although perhaps we can sense shades of her role as a dissatisfied suburban lesbian mom in The Kids Are All Right.

The absence of Moore shouldn’t mean less for Carol, however. Blanchett was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Bob Dylan in Haynes’ 2007 I’m Not There, and Mara played the bisexual hacker Lisbeth Salander in the U.S. adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I think Carol will be in good hands.

Furthermore, The Hollywood Reporter notes that Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley of Number 9 Films are producing the film, with co-financing from Film4 and co-production from Christine Vachon’s Killer Films (Boys Don’t Cry; Kill Your Darlings). Vachon is herself a lesbian mom.

I’m rather excited about Carol. It’s unclear to what extent parenthood will be a major part of the plot; I’m guessing much of it may focus on the relationship between the women, child aside. If nothing else, however, it is yet another reminder of just how long we LGBT parents have been around, fighting to stay with our children while being true to our identities and romantic loves.

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