The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)

Director:

Karel Reisz

Writers:

John Fowles (novel)
Harold Pinter (screenplay)

Release Date:

August 1981 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

She was lost from the moment she saw him.

Plot:

A film is being made of a story, set in 19th century England, about Charles, a biologist who's engaged to be married...

Plot Keywords:

Melancholy | Love | 19th Century | Behind The Scenes | Lieutenant

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Meryl Streep	...	Sarah / Anna
Jeremy Irons	...	Charles Henry Smithson / Mike
Hilton McRae	...	Sam
Emily Morgan	...	Mary
Charlotte Mitchell	...	Mrs. Tranter
Lynsey Baxter	...	Ernestina
Jean Faulds	...	Cook
Peter Vaughan	...	Mr. Freeman
Colin Jeavons	...	Vicar
Liz Smith	...	Mrs. Fairley
Patience Collier	...	Mrs. Poulteney
John Barrett	...	Dairyman
Leo McKern	...	Dr. Grogan
Arabella Weir	...	Girl on undercliff
Ben Forster	...	Boy on undercliff

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Singapore:M18 | Australia:M | Argentina:16 | Finland:S | Norway:16 | Sweden:11 | UK:12 (video re-rating) (2001) | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | UK:AA (original rating) | USA:R (certificate #26244) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Borough Market, Borough, London, England, UK

Company:

Juniper Films

Trivia:

An attempt to adapt the novel was made in the 1970's, to star Vanessa Redgrave, but a satisfactory script couldn't be written, and funding was a problem.

Goofs:

Continuity: Early in the film, as Charles is going on to the jetty to warn Sarah, his cape changes in how it is buttoned from shot to shot.

Quotes:

Dr. Grogan: [quoting Dr. Hartmann's treatise on melancholia] "It was as if her torture had become her delight."

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 39th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1982) (TV)

Romanticism without the "base" alloy of actual feeling

This is a real curio of a movie, more a dry experiment with form than a story concerning fleshed-out characters. The primary focus is on the plot developments of a film within the film--a story of two illicit lovers in 19th century England--while a secondary narrative follows the two leads in that film who pursue a similar relationship to the one they portray. The way these two stories intercut back and forth is, unfortunately, one of the few interesting things in the movie. Unique to this presentation is the way the Victorian Era scenes are shown only (with the opening scene being a lone exception) as a finished product, that is, we see that part of the film as its theoretical audience would. There are no shots of cameras in the foreground, no scenes of director and crew watching rushes in a darkened theater. This device might have allowed the viewer to become more involved in the "old-time" goings on--if only we had been given something, anything onto which we could have hung our emotional hats. This is the insurmountable problem of "The French Lieutenant's Woman." While the Victorian Era plot is luxuriantly mounted--while the characters are played by wonderful actors--the "heart" of this film is occupied by this film within a film device. While interesting, it's not enough to keep our interest from flagging. In both story lines, emotions are uniformly muted, or absent altogether. The 20th century story is about two bored actors who engage in their affair simply as a distraction from the tedium of making a movie. No hint of passion here. The Victorian narrative at least provides a HINT of feeling, but always held at arms length--and further attenuated by the inevitable return to the modern story, reminding us that the "costumer" portion of the film is not only not real, but TWICE removed from reality. There is a scene at the end of the movie where all signs point to some grand cathartic denouement--a scene where, finally, we will be swept up into the currents of these players' lives, the promise of romance finally realized. Instead we are given an awkward, bumbled scene without so much as a kiss or an eloquent avowal of love. We are left with a muted, distant view of the two purported lovers on a lake--its surface as calm and unmoved as the film's audience. A disappointing end to a disappointing film.