The New Zealand #glorydayscarolpremiere

On the Telegram today, we are very excited to announce that Glory Days will be hosting the New Zealand premiere of Carol, we give you some background on the film and the seminal novel that it is based on and Creative Director, Rose Jackson, tells you how you can get your hands on the exclusive VIP tickets to the #glorydayscarolpremiere. 

When Glory Days was approached to host the New Zealand premiere of Carol, we were more than a little excited. Editor, Natasha Francois, had just finished reading The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith which the movie is based on and I had been lusting over the film's impeccable 1950s styling and wardrobe.

We were lucky enough to see a review screening before we agreed to host the premiere and it is a beautifully shot, evocative film with a huge emotional undercurrent and for me personally, it boasts one of the best "I love you" lines I've ever seen on screen.

Carol vividly depicts the transitional period of the 1950s following the end of World War II. America is marked by feelings of both paranoia and optimism. As the post-war years ushered in many voices of change, 28-year-old crime author Patricia Highsmith wrote her second novel, The Price of Salt, about an unlikely attraction and love affair between two women living in New York City— Therese Belivet and Carol Aird. Published in 1952, the sexual candor explored in Highsmith’s words made the book one of the seminal pieces of literature to come out of the era.

Highsmith's first novel was Strangers on a Train, proved modestly successful when it was published in 1950. However, Hitchcock's 1951 film adaptation of the novel propelled Highsmith's career and reputation. Soon she became known as a writer of ironic, disturbing psychological mysteries highlighted by stark, startling prose. 

Producers Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley and Christine Vachon were confident in Patricia Highsmith’s universal message on love when they came together for the making of the film adaptation. “I’ve always been interested in seeing films that feature strong female characters in dramatic storylines,” said producer Karlsen. “Highsmith’s book was very daring when it was published, and in a way the story doesn’t feel as though it’s dated. Many aspects of what Carol and Therese endure are still relevant today.”

Highsmith, however, was aware of her personal boldness as the writer of The Price of Salt when it was first published in 1952. Now considered a masterpiece, Highsmith’s novel was initially released under the alias author of Claire Morgan— one of 40 pseudonyms invented by Highsmith throughout her career— due to its homosexual subject matter and she did not publicly associate herself with this book until late in her life. Her other novels adapted for screenplays include: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), Ripley's Game (1974) and Edith's Diary (1977); which all became films.

“Carol is a love story that depicts how truth is the ultimate tonic. If you’re emotionally truthful to who you are and what you believe in, good things may not happen, but you will become a better person,” said writer Phyllis Nagy. The emotional turmoil central to the characters in the film is rooted in the conventional worlds both Carol and Therese have built around them.

Director Todd Haynes paints a beautiful picture of a particularly radical time in history as society’s openness to
homosexual emotions and desires began to shift in the 1950s. The film gives audiences a realistic glimpse into the challenges and hardships of a love not lead by example. The contemporary relevance of the film offers a foreshadowing perspective of what it means to have true happiness in life.

To capture Highsmith’s 1950s New York, Carol was shot in Cincinnati, OHIO over the course of 35 days. The pre-war buildings and apartments in Cincinnati mirrored New York in the 1950s and created a realistic time and place for the story to be recreated.

​Production Designer, Judy Becker, chose to work with a very specific color palette that was based on the colors used in the early 1950s. The film really emphasised, especially in the interiors, the sour greens, yellows, and dirty pinks of the era— slightly soiled colors that give the viewer the feeling of the post-war city before the brightness of the Eisenhower administration had taken over. To bring the final touches to the interior spaces, Set Director Heather Loeffler, added the elements that make a place feel lived in by a particular character. For example, with Carol, she left magazines and books around the house, implicating the idea that she was bored or was looking
for things to do.

Three times Academy Award®-winning costume designer Sandy Powell is undoubtedly one of the industry’s most celebrated and respected creative talents. Powell helped create Haynes’ and Lachman’s vision as the Costume Designer of Carol and 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.”

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HOW TO GET YOUR EXCLUSIVE VIP TICKETS TO THE #GLORYDAYSCAROLPREMIERE

We are thrilled to be hosting the #glorydayscarolpremiere at the Academy Cinema in Auckland on Tuesday the 2nd February. Tickets are extremely limited to this event and cannot be purchased! To secure your ticket...

• Become a Glory Days subscriber, or if you are already a subscriber please check your emails for free ticket details*
• Keep an eye out on our facebook page and Instagram feed for double pass giveaways
• Visit Time Out Bookstore, Mt Eden, and purchase a copy of Glory Days to secure a double pass**

We look forward to getting dressed in glamorous 1950s attire, enjoying pre-film cocktails and watching Carol with you!

* Subscriber ticket giveaways are limited to 50 tickets in total
** Time Out giveaway is limited to four double passes