Cate Blanchett’s lesbian love tales a hit on and off screen

A powerful lesbian love story starring Cate Blanchett and a groundbreaking Holocaust drama emerged as favourites at the Cannes Film Festival.

CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 17: Cate Blanchett attends the Premiere of "Carol" during the 68th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2015 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

A powerful lesbian love story starring Cate Blanchett and a groundbreaking Holocaust drama emerged as favourites as the Cannes Film Festival hit the halfway mark in what critics are calling a banner year.

Blanchett is the festival’s leading lady for artistic excellence and for the number of gossip stories about suggestions she had had several lesbian relationships.

The Australian actress cleared up the claims yesterday while promoting Carol, an adaptation of ­Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, saying her comments to Variety magazine last week were deliberately misconstrued. “From memory, the conversation ran: ‘Have you had relationships with women?’ I said: ‘Yes, many times, but if you mean have I had sexual relationships with women, the answer is no’. But that ­obviously didn’t make it into print.”

Ramin Setoodeh, the author of the article, insisted it was accurate. He wrote on Twitter yesterday: “When I asked Cate Blanchett if she’d had lesbian relationships in real life, she said: ‘Many times’. She was accurately quoted.”

The article stated that when Blanchett was asked if the film was her first turn as a lesbian she ­responded: “In film or real life?” It continued: “Pressed for details about whether she’s had past ­relationships with women, she responds: ‘Yes. Many times’, but doesn’t elaborate.”

Blanchett said her sexual history should not matter. “In 2015, the point should be, who cares?”

Directed by Todd Haynes, Carol stars Blanchett as a wealthy 1950s housewife who falls for a photographer (Rooney Mara).

Rapturous reviewers said Carol had already emerged as an Oscar favourite.Variety called it “an exquisitely drawn, deeply felt love story that teases out every shadow and ­nuance of its characters’ inner lives”.

The unflinching Holocaust feature Son of Saul by Hungarian Laszlo Nemes also drew rave reviews from shocked critics. Cannes watchers said the unique relentlessness of Nemes’s depiction of a 36 hours in the Auschwitz death camp could win over the jury.

French daily Le Monde said Nemes, who lost several family members to the gas chambers, said he clearly made the film to keep the history of the Holocaust alive for “the generations that soon will have no direct contact with the witnesses who can share with them their memories”.

Among the more bizarre entries to win praise was The Lobster by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in a story about single people sequestered in a hotel and given 45 days to find a partner, or be transformed into the animal of their choosing. Italian Nanni Moretti drew high marks for My Mother — a semi-autobiographical film about a director suffering personal and professional crises.

AFP, The Times