'Coming into focus': Realizing the potential of strange girl cinema in Todd Haynes's Carol. (1st March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pelucacci, Lindsey
• Is Part Of: Queer studies in media & popular culture. Volume 5:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 69
• Page End: 82
• Publication Date: 2020-03-01
• Subjects: Gender identity in mass media -- Research -- Periodicals; Gays in popular culture -- Research -- Periodicals; Gays in motion pictures -- Research -- Periodicals; Homosexuality in motion pictures -- Research -- Periodicals; 305.3
• DOI: 10.1386/qsmpc_00025_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2055-5695

Abstract

This article explores the 2015 film Carol, reading the two protagonists' mutual coming-into-focus as emblematic of the film's calling-into-focus cinematic representations of love, motherhood and artistry in relation to the intersections of queer and gendered challenges. In observing these challenges, the cinematic camera adopts the disposition of Therese, a 'strange girl', as Carol calls her, who develops a loving inquisitiveness that drives her towards romantic and artistic discovery. The film depicts and itself utilizes what I call a 'strange girl gaze', which, marked by a gentle curiosity and a willingness to listen to alternate perspectives, counters the domineering gaze of heteropatriarchal surveillance. Using a queer understanding of hope, my article considers the cinematic potential of this new way of looking, which attends to socially peripheral individuals, including their painful pasts, with innocence, open-mindedness and compassion.