The movie starts off with the filmmaker saying "I started reading her diaries and fell in love with her."
I'm currently reading her diaries and it really doesn't feel like the filmmaker read them. The docu portrays her as a man-hating lesbian. That's not true. Her diaries show that, while she preferred women, she certainly slept with men. On purpose. And even enjoyed it sometimes.
The relationship with her mother, too, was much more complicated than the filmmaker lets on. She and her mother actually talked about her lesbianism with her mother sometimes commenting about her current girl friend. Both of her parents read her work and, as Highsmith tells it, were helpful and supportive.
The oddest choice was continuing the Texas theme throughout the whole movie. Highsmith left Texas when she was 6. To see the movie, you'd think that Texas was all she thought of. That's just not the case, at least from her diaries.
I suppose I went into this expecting this to blow me away since the diaries are so powerful. The interviews were interesting...except when the white subtitles blended into the white background. Why is this still a thing??
She's a fascinating woman and deserved a better tribute to her.
I'm currently reading her diaries and it really doesn't feel like the filmmaker read them. The docu portrays her as a man-hating lesbian. That's not true. Her diaries show that, while she preferred women, she certainly slept with men. On purpose. And even enjoyed it sometimes.
The relationship with her mother, too, was much more complicated than the filmmaker lets on. She and her mother actually talked about her lesbianism with her mother sometimes commenting about her current girl friend. Both of her parents read her work and, as Highsmith tells it, were helpful and supportive.
The oddest choice was continuing the Texas theme throughout the whole movie. Highsmith left Texas when she was 6. To see the movie, you'd think that Texas was all she thought of. That's just not the case, at least from her diaries.
I suppose I went into this expecting this to blow me away since the diaries are so powerful. The interviews were interesting...except when the white subtitles blended into the white background. Why is this still a thing??
She's a fascinating woman and deserved a better tribute to her.