Highsmith was by no means tenderhearted (and she developed a pronounced racist streak in her later years). Interviews with Meaker, Blumenschein and others do cast Highsmith in a softer light, as do the excerpts from her diaries (read by Gwendoline Christie). Once it’s covered major early novels like Strangers and The Price of Salt - Highsmith’s pseudonomsly published story of a lesbian romance and also the basis of Todd Haynes’ Carol - it’s not clear what she wrote or when, nor when affairs with women like YA and lesbian pulp fiction author Marijane Meaker and German artist and actress Tabea Blumenschein fell in her life. As one notes, “She had a staggering amount of conquests.”Īfter an early section filled with details of Highsmith’s early life including her difficult relationship with a hateful-sounding mother and experiences in the underground world of Manhattan gay bars, Vitija’s film becomes at times frustratingly vague about the timeline of Highsmith’s life built around interviews, shots of places Highsmith lived in or visited, and clips from the films adapted from her work. “But when I started reading her unpublished diaries I fell in love with Highsmith herself.” The film then flits between testimonials from others who loved Highsmith (and knew her directly), from some surviving relatives in her native Texas to the women with whom Highsmith had affairs. “Like many other filmmakers I was originally drawn to Patricia Highsmith’s writing,” she notes in an early voiceover. People were another matter.įrom the start Eva Vitija’s short but leisurely paced documentary Loving Highsmith announces itself as an attempt to correct that impression. Highsmith was on record as being fond of cats and snails.

Ripley and Strangers on a Train pulse with horrific, remorselessly committed acts of violence, but it’s the cool, free-floating sense of misanthropy that make them so unsettling, a sense that extends beyond her often sociopathic characters. When told by an agent her characters were unlikeable, Highsmith is said to have responded “Perhaps it is because I don’t like anyone.” Highsmith novels like The Talented Mr. It’s tempting to presume the character of an author is reflected in the tone of their work, particularly when the author encourages it.

Leena klammer age