The French Lieutenant's Woman

...which fits into the genre of movies that take place in two totally different time periods, with parallel/related stories. This is a beautifully produced film with amazing credits, directed by Karel Reisz, written by Harold Pinter, cinematography by Freddie Francis, and starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.

I should have liked this film more than I did, although I did enjoy it. It's beautiful to look at, shot mostly in Lyme Regis on the south coast of England, it focuses on actors making a movie in contemporary times; and the story of that movie, which takes place in Victorian England. Basically, two love stories involving the Meryl and Jeremy characters, one story seemingly tragic, barreling however toward a happy ending; the other, a modern story, ending unhappily, at least for Jeremy. Sometimes, it's almost very briefly unclear at first, which story you are actually watching, which is a nice touch. I liked it but probably would have liked it more, had I seen it in 1981.

Like the Jeanne Moreau character's sailor in The Sailor from Gibraltar, one wonders if the French lieutenant really existed.

I have only seen this film once, about 20 years ago, when I was in my mid teens. It intrigued me then, but went completely over my head. I could dimly perceive grand themes in it, but couldn't bring them into focus. A few years ago a friend gave me a John Fowles book to read, "The Magus" and this caused me to re-evaluate this film entirely. For me, the story's strength does not lie in anything definite. It's main themes are suggestion and allegory. The creative role of the mind in human perception is very clearly depicted in "The Magus" and this is central to TFLW too. The 2 central characters, in their modern guises are caught up in this, as the audience is expected to be. Perhaps there is no central message to be understood ... maybe a viewer should just be delighted by the parallels which are revealed by telling these 2 stories in this way ...

This film is a joy to watch -- as not many films these days are. The settings are superbly created -- the green, grotto-like woodland where Irons and Streep meet in the Victorian world of the film, the murky streets of Lyme, Exeter, and London, and the interior of the lawyer's office, for example. The Victorian part of the film emerges from the dawning of the concept of abnormal psychology (just before Freud) and is really convincing. Streep shows us that her character cannot move on emotionally until she has worked out her own madness. That constitutes a remarkable and complex performance of insanity and self-awareness inhabiting a single psyche. She earns the gentle movement out of the tunnel and onto the calm lake. The turbulence of the unconscious -- that threatening sea of which Irons has warned her -- has been subdued. Seems to me the flaw lies in the 'modern story' (as some here have pointed out). It may be that the Streep character is trying to find a subtext for her fictional heroine, but it looks like the old ennui, so that, while her lack of concern for the relationship is understandable, his obsession with it is not. Though the garden party at the end almost gets it there. Were we shown her decision there? If so, I missed it. I like the concept of the 'two endings' and their contrast, but the ending in the 20th century was a so what? The one in the 19th century was complex and included much of the pain that the relationship had caused both characters. A little more attention to the contemporary love affair -- to suggest that it was more than just a romp on location -- would have helped that dimension of the film per se and also suggested what the Victorian lovers had earned within their Hardyesque world.

There are wide extremes of opinion expressed on this board about this film. The film certainly has defects, but they pale when compared to its achievements. It is a tour de force of the cinematic art. The switching between Victorian and Modern eras is seamlessly announced by tone, costume and manerism of character. Meryl Streep's depiction of two women, in differing circumstances and, more importantly, different times is intellectually challenging. But if you do not connect with her fragile appeal or Jeremy Irons soulful searching for fulfillment, as two very different characters, then this will be lost on you. While technically this is film making at its finest, ultimately it is a love story. You either feel for the characters or you don't.

It's a quality production and Streep and Irons bring impeccable acting to the table, but this stretched out to an overlong melodrama (times two), and I just didn't feel connected to the characters. At its strongest, the film shows the suffocating world of a woman in the Victorian age, with judgmental old prudes keeping a close eye on sinful walks in the woods (gasp!), and women at risk of being committed to an institution for simply not following a conventional prim and proper path. I'm not sure I felt the passion however, and the film seemed a little detached and manipulative, say what you will about the power of Victorian repression. I got even less out of the modern story and the 'film within a film' aspect, though it was interesting to see the power shift in the woman's favor in the following century. All in all, it's a decent enough film, but it's one I wouldn't want to revisit.