In association with

The French Lieutenant's Woman [1981]
from MGM Entertainment
starring Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Hilton McRae, Emily Morgan, Charlotte Mitchell
directed by Karel Reisz

Features:

• Anamorphic
• Dubbed
• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

Writer Harold Pinter (Betrayal) and director Karel Reisz (Isadora) take an experimental spin with John Fowles's magnificent novel set in Victorian England, and come up with something puzzling. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the forbidden lovers in Fowles's story, but in a parallel story line they also play contemporary actors performing those characters in a movie production and having an affair of their own during off-hours. Got that? Considering that Fowles himself presents alternative endings in his novel, something equally eccentric is called for here. But little is accomplished by this intertwining of a fictional past and present, and the opportunity to do justice to a great story is lost. On the plus side, Irons and Streep are instantly striking as a natural couple on screen, and their presence makes watching The French Lieutenant's Woman easy enough despite the larger problems. --Tom Keogh

With The French Lieutenant's Woman writer Harold Pinter and director Karel Reisz take an experimental spin on John Fowles' magnificent novel set in Victorian England, and come up with something puzzling. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the forbidden lovers in Fowles' story, but in a parallel story line they also play contemporary actors performing those characters in a movie production and having an affair of their own during off-hours. Got that? Considering that Fowles himself presents alternative endings in his novel, something equally eccentric is called for here. But little is accomplished by this intertwining of a fictional past and present, and the opportunity to do justice to a great story is lost. On the plus side, Irons and Streep are instantly striking as a natural couple on screen, and their presence makes watching this film easy enough despite the larger problems. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• What A Load Of Cobb
  It seems to fall to me to rain on the parade of admiring reviews here. Yes, the film is beautifully filmed, especially at Lyme Regis, which I know quite well. The main street (and the Cobb, a kind of mole jutting out into the sea) was totally turned back in time and brilliantly. Yes, the acting is excellent, though I do not find Iron's lugubrious bourgeois almost-gentleman in Angst act too enthralling (as seen elsewhere, e.g. in Brideshead Revisited).
  In the end, I just did not find this story of... more info

• Emotionally powerful
  The French Lieutenant's Woman tells two stories, the story of two lovers in the Victorian age (the biologist Charles played by Jeremy Irons and the outcast Sarah played by Meryl Streep) whose story are being filmed. The two married actors playing the roles of Charles and Sarah, Mike (Irons) and Anna (Streep) are also having an affair during the shooting of the film, thereby giving subtle commentary/enlightenment on the story of the Victorian lovers.
  It is emotionally very powerful, as you are strongly... more info

• "It was as if her torture had become her delight."
  Harold Pinter's screenplay of John Fowles's novel, combined with Karel Reisz's direction, creates a stunning vehicle for Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons as they bring an enigmatic 19th century love story to life. But this film is actually two love stories. Streep and Irons also play contemporary actors making a film of the 19th century love story, and their relationship clearly parallels the story they are filming. Sarah Woodruff (Streep), known as "the French Lieutenant's woman," is an outcast in mid-19th... more info

• "I have a freedom they cannot understand."
  "Outside of marriage, your Victorian gentleman could look forward to 2.4 [sexual encounters] a week," Mike (Jeremy Irons) coolly calculates after Anna (Meryl Streep) has read to him the statistics according to which, while London's male population in 1857 was 1 1/4 million, the city's estimated 80,000 prostitutes were receiving a total of 2 million clients per week. And frequently, Anna adds, the women thus forced to earn their living came from respectable positions like that of a governess, simply having... more info

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