Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/619377
48 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2 0 1 6 Each of director Todd Haynes' movies takes place in a distinctive, self-contained world that completely envelops the viewer. For Carol, our second collaboration, the goal was to capture the repression of pre-Eisenhower America, a society still recovering from the trauma of World War II. New York City in 1952 is the setting for the story of Therese (Rooney Mara), a young woman, who becomes infatuated with the older, glamorous Carol (Cate Blanchett). Todd always bases his stories in a real, sociopolitical and economic era, and the world of this movie needed to capture that post-war, unsettled New York and reflect the unsettled psychology of the characters. New York in 1952 and 1953 was a run-down, gritty city visually more connected to the 1940s wartime era than to the sunny American dream generally associated with the decade. Todd, cinematographer Ed Lachman and I discussed the look and palette in depth. Our initial influences were the New York images of Edward Hopper and the photographers Saul Leiter, Ernst Haas and many of the female photographers Top: The exterior of the McKinley Motel, a rework of an abandoned motel location in Ohio with a newly fabricated sign. Above: The McKinley Motel Presidential Suite, showing how its size was increased by combining two rooms in the abondoned motel. Still photographs by Wilson Webb and Judy Becker