“Carol,” June 18, 2016 (2015), DVD. Todd Haynes period romantic melodrama (1952-53) stars the wonderful Kate Blanchett as the wife/mother title character in an unhappy marriage, and chronicles her affair with Therese Belivet (Roony Mara), a talented, artistic photographer earning her living as a department store clerk. It follows the characters through Carol’s divorce, their road trip flight away from the pain afflicting her in New York, and the moves both make to an acceptance of who they are. It is a vision of the lipstick lesbian community of the period and societal criticism. This is a wonderfully stylized piece, with clean New York streets and everyone dressed as they should be It screams from the start that this is not “realism”. It is, however, an artistic vision of the time. Lots of cigarette smoke makes for wonderfully gritty windows and scenes, made grainier with 16 mm filming. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s, The Price of Salt, it works well in challenging social stereotypes and prejudices of the day. I’d love to see it, and think it would still work, with two less beautiful actresses.