Loving Highsmith (2022) was written and directed by
Eva Vitija.
The film is a biography of Patrica Highsmith, who was a successful author and a legendary figure.
Highsmith appears in the movie in archival footage. Many of her friends and lovers give candid interviews. What makes Highsmith different from other successful authors is that she was openly lesbian.
Loving Highsmith reveals that Highsmith was not a lovable woman. She seduced younger women and was a virulent anti-Semite. (She supported Palestinian rights, but this support was overtly linked to her hatred of Jews.)
Highsmith is important because she wrote the first novel about lesbians that had a happy ending. (Novels about lesbians were OK in the 1950's, but they had to have an unhappy ending.) She used a pen name in 1952.
In 1983 the book was republished as Carol, with Highsmith listed as the author. (The book was made into a movie that was highly successful.)
Loving Highsmith was an honest and accurate portrayal of a woman who was hard to like. Maybe Highsmith's story is the reason that the movie has a relatively low IMDb rating of 7.1. I thought it was better than that.
I think that a biopic should be rated on its effective portrayal of its subject--not on whether you like the person portrayed. I rated it 8.
We saw this film as part of Rochester's excellent ImageOut LGBT festival.
The film is a biography of Patrica Highsmith, who was a successful author and a legendary figure.
Highsmith appears in the movie in archival footage. Many of her friends and lovers give candid interviews. What makes Highsmith different from other successful authors is that she was openly lesbian.
Loving Highsmith reveals that Highsmith was not a lovable woman. She seduced younger women and was a virulent anti-Semite. (She supported Palestinian rights, but this support was overtly linked to her hatred of Jews.)
Highsmith is important because she wrote the first novel about lesbians that had a happy ending. (Novels about lesbians were OK in the 1950's, but they had to have an unhappy ending.) She used a pen name in 1952.
In 1983 the book was republished as Carol, with Highsmith listed as the author. (The book was made into a movie that was highly successful.)
Loving Highsmith was an honest and accurate portrayal of a woman who was hard to like. Maybe Highsmith's story is the reason that the movie has a relatively low IMDb rating of 7.1. I thought it was better than that.
I think that a biopic should be rated on its effective portrayal of its subject--not on whether you like the person portrayed. I rated it 8.
We saw this film as part of Rochester's excellent ImageOut LGBT festival.