LOVING HIGHSMITH
A mesmerizing and eye-opening portrait of Patricia
Highsmith, legendary author of Strangers on a Train, The
Talented Mr. Ripley, and Carol. Based on Highsmith’s personal
writings and accounts of her family and lovers, the film casts new light on the
famous thriller writer’s life and oeuvre.
Loving Highsmith is a unique look at the
life of celebrated American author Patricia Highsmith based on
her diaries and notebooks and the intimate reflections of her lovers, friends
and family. Focusing on Highsmith’s quest for love and her troubled identity,
the film sheds new light on her life and writing. Most of Highsmith’s novels
were adapted into movies; the best known of these are Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers
on a Train and Anthony Minghella’s The
Talented Mr. Ripley. Carol, a partly autobiographic
novel, and the first lesbian story with a happy end in 1950s America, was later
adapted for the big screen by Todd Haynes. But Highsmith herself
was forced to lead a double life and had to hide her vibrant love affairs from
her family and the public. Only in her unpublished writings she reflected on
the ever-present subject for her. Excerpts from these notes voiced by Gwendoline
Christie (Game of Thrones, Top of the Lake),
beautifully interwoven with archive material of her and her most famous novel
adaptions, create a vivid, touching portrait of one of the most fascinating
female writers. (Switzerland/Germany, 2022, 83 min., color, DCP | Dir.
Eva Vitija)