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Patricia Highsmith
Sophie Bassouls/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images
Known for her psychological thrillers and tales of obsession and betrayal, American novelist Patricia Highsmith left behind a surprisingly robust cinematic legacy: Her 22 novels and countless short stories have been adapted into dozens of movies and TV shows, including Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Carol and this year’s Deep Water. Now Swiss director Eva Vitija is turning her lens on the author with the documentary Loving Highsmith, which draws on the novelist’s newly published diaries and notebooks and interviews with lovers and relatives. Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie is voicing the literary legend.
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“Her image is determined to a great extent by … her reputation as a grim, misanthropic crime writer,” Vitija said in a statement. “When I began to study Highsmith’s notebooks and diaries and met with her former friends in various countries, I was extremely moved and surprised to discover a completely different person. It became clear to me during the course of my research and the filming of this work how powerfully the themes of her writing are determined by love.” The film opens on Sept. 2 at Film Forum in New York City and on Sept. 9 at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles before expanding to limited release nationwide. Before learning about the surprising woman behind the stories, here’s your ultimate watchlist of films based on the works of Patricia Highsmith.
The adaptation: Strangers on a Train (1951)
Based on: Strangers on a Train (1950)
The premise: In Alfred Hitchcock’s film noir classic, tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and charming psychopath Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) meet on a train. When their conversation reveals that they both have people in their lives they’d like to get rid of — Guy’s cheating wife, Bruno’s hated father — Bruno suggests that they “swap murders,” so neither gets caught. Highsmith’s novel also inspired a dark comedic version, 1987’s Throw Momma From the Train, starring Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal.
Highsmith trivia: Only 29 when she published this, her first novel, Highsmith was paid a meager $7,500 for the rights to the film. For reference, Margaret Mitchell received $50,000 for Gone With the Wind a decade earlier.
Watch it: Strangers on a Train, on Amazon Prime, Apple TV
The adaptation: Deep Water (2022)
Based on: Deep Water (1957)
The premise: Known for erotic thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal, director Adrian Lyne, 81, was the perfect fit for adapting the dark and sexy world of Highsmith, and this film is his first in two decades, since 2002’s Unfaithful. Ben Affleck, 50, and his then-girlfriend Ana de Armas (who stars as Marilyn Monroe in this year’s Blonde) star as the unhappily married small-town Louisiana couple Vic and Melinda Van Allen, who have an arrangement in which she’s allowed to have as many affairs as she wants as long as she doesn’t leave the family. When one of her lovers disappears, things start to get messy ...
Highsmith trivia: Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, 51, told The Wall Street Journal that Deep Water was one of her favorite novels: “About 10 or 13 years ago, I came across it in a used-book store. I remember thinking, ‘Why has no one told me about it?’ ”
Watch it: Deep Water, on Hulu
The adaptation: Carol (2015)
Based on: The Price of Salt (1952)
The premise: Cate Blanchett, 53, and Rooney Mara earned Oscar nominations for this lush 1950s-set melodrama by Far From Heaven director Todd Haynes, 61. Blanchett stars as Carol Aird, a glamorous married woman who begins a forbidden affair with Rooney’s Therese Belivet, an aspiring photographer and department store salesgirl. The book was revolutionary for its time, because it was one of the first lesbian romances with a happy ending.
Highsmith trivia: Highsmith first published The Price of Salt under the pseudonym “Claire Morgan,” because she didn’t want to be labeled, as she wrote in a 1990 reissue of the book, “a lesbian book writer.”
Watch it: Carol, on Amazon Prime, Apple TV
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