MovieChat Forums > Carol (2016) Discussion > Smoke, glass, mirrors and windows -- wha...

Smoke, glass, mirrors and windows -- what did they symbolise?

posted 8 years ago by looker7
7 replies | jump to latest

I noticed that, quite often, these things were shown/shot in a way as if they signifed or represented something else. I found it interesting that building windows, house windows, interior mirrors, car windows, car mirrors and cigarette smoke seemed to envelope and pervade this movie. Why was this? To illustrate that we, as humans, can't hide from ourselves and that we are always looking in mirrors/windows for answers, deeper meanings to complex human conditions and issues, etc? Was the smoke a motif for uncertainty and ambiguity? A motif that represents lack of transparency, lack of clarity and the more nebulous aspects of life inherent in human behaviour and human conditions? There were two scenes from the movie that I found very interesting that included windows: firstly, in a scene near the beginning of the film, when Therese is in the car and she's looking out its misty window at the busy streets; everything seemed so blurry and confusing. Secondly, there was a scene approximately two thirds into the movie that features Carol looking through an interior building window at the roof of another building; again, the window wasn't clear, but rather a dull, opaque green colour. Did the mistiness, dullness and murkiness of these scenes simply represent that life is often uncertain, unclear and ambiguous?

Would like to hear your opinions on all of the above.

Thanks.

[–] ArchonNianlith 8 years ago

So I'm not alone!I mean it's of course all subjective but to me it represented the true self,almost haunting them as they went on with their unhappy lives. Reflection shots are a common thing in movies with characters that lead double lives.

[–] SwiftWalker 8 years ago

I agree with your assessment of the use of mirrors. In the scene were Carol and Therese first kiss, the shot is set up where were see their faces in the mirror. It's as if we are looking at them in a different light. The refection in a mirror is backwards, opposite, and yet, it reflects something that is real, actual. I think that is an apt metaphor for the the feelings the two of them had for each other. Real, yet opposite of what they were supposed to feel. Actual, yet backwards from what society might think. Great technique.

The mirror also represented them looking upon themselves as they wished they were as opposed to what they really were, or at least what they felt they had to be.

As far as the smoke, one of the songs that played in the background was "Smoke Rings," I think that was the Les Paul & Mary Ford version. Here are the lyrics, I think they really sum up the movie and what the characters are feeling for each other...and about themselves:

Where do they go, the smoke rings I blow each night
What do they do
Those circles of blue and white?
Oh! why do they seem to pictures a dream above
Then why do they fade my phantom parade of love?
Where do they end, the smoke rings I send on high?
Where are they hurled
When they've kissed the world goodbye!
Oh! I'd give my life to laugh at this strife below
I'd be a king I'd follow each ring I blow
Puff puff puff puff your cares away
Puff puff puff night and day
Blow blow them into air silky little rings
Blow, blow them ev'ry where give your troubles wings
What do they tell and what is the spell they cast
Some of them fall and seem to recall the past
But most of them rise away to the skies of blue
Oh little smoke rings I love

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] SwiftWalker 8 years ago

Thanks for your add, Ruby, good stuff. I thought the director's use of muted colors was perfect and I figured that it was done on purpose, for a certain effect. I thought it was very well done.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] looker7 8 years ago

Thanks for the link, Rubymar1. Interesting read.

[–] [email protected] 8 years ago

In film language, mirrors symbolize deception - literally being two-faced. There's a scene in Casablanca when after the underground meeting Lazlo is attending is broken up, he appears at the cafe when, without his knowledge, Elsa, his wife, is upstairs with Rick. Rick calls Carl up to the office, telling him that the back lights were not turned off and he should do it. As Rick opens the door, Elsa hangs back, being reflected in the mirror on the wall. She is being duplicitous now, as she has been ever since she abandoned Rick with a note in Paris.

Carol and Theresa show a false front to the world. They are not what they appear to be nor do they ever state what they are to anyone. While this connects them, it also forces them apart because of the mores of the era.

Smoke is also shorthand for deception - smoke and mirrors is a common phrase indicating a deliberate misleading to obscure the truth. Therese denies a crush on Carol to her boyfriend. While Carol is honest with her husband about her sexuality, she does go through the charade of a psychotherapist to be able to see her daughter. Interestingly, at the end, she refuses to use that as a means to get her daughter, and does threaten to make their divorce an ugly - and honest - examination of their lives together. It is after this that Carol does finally say "I love you" to Therese, although the "cat that got the cream" expression she has at the end of the film when Therese comes back to her makes you wonder just how honest that statement was after all.

Shooting through windows puts the viewer in the position of voyeur. We can see the scene but we are apart from it. There is one shot where Therese is in the New York Times office with Dannie (when he kisses her), and this is shot through windows with large panes whose frames separate Therese from Dannie visually but also physically. While they are in the same room, Therese's sexual interest in women will keep Dannie from getting close to her. So the windows can separate the audience from the character or characters from each other.

So I would think that the entire film is arranged so you never can be sure of the true feelings of each female character. It is curious that in this film, the men are the ones making themselves very plain.