The Virgin and the Gypsy

The Virgin and the Gypsy was a novella by D. H. Lawrence that contrasted the suffocating closeness and inhibited atmosphere of an English cleric and his extended family with the awakening sexuality of his eldest daughter and the free spirited influence of a gypsy whom she meets.

The excellent screenplay by Alan Plater who also did the screenplay for "The Priest of Love", a biography of D. H. Lawrence, complements the direction by Christopher Miles. Their efforts helped create a film that matches if it does not surpass, the prose of D. H. Lawrence. A few scenes still stand out; the hysteria of Aunt Cissie who screams insults through the door at Yvette., the comedy of the church social evening when Uncle Fred sings a bawdy, music-hall song and the scene in which the Gypsy confronts and stares down several English youths.

I saw Franco Nero earlier in the film "Camelot." He plays the Gypsy in this film with quiet, machismo, atitude. Joanna Shimkus also played with quiet, understated style that plays well with that of Nero.

I saw this film during its initial release in 1970. I hope television networks may eventually air this film again or that it finds its way into a video or DVD.

This film (written by Alan Plater from the story by DH Lawrence, and directed at a slow pace by Christopher Miles) is engrossing, evocative, and boasts fine performances from Franco Nero as the Gypsy and Joanna Shimkus as the frustrated, rebellious Yvette.

Yvette has been away in France at school and returns to the stifling atmosphere of the family Rectory (father Maurice Denham is a righteous sort who resents the desertion of his wife when Yvette and her sister Lucille were children; aunt Kay Walsh is a ranting religious nut who sees the presence of the devil in Yvette's free spirited ways; Grandma Fay Compton is senile, difficult, and has a viper's tongue; Uncle Fred, Norman Bird, is laid back and given to quiet tolerance of the family ways; and sister Harriet Harper is full of guilt at the betrayal of the mother when she flew the nest).

She finds free spirited friends (Honor Blackman and Mark Burns as the shockingly living-in-sin pair Mrs Fawcett and Maj Eastwood) and becomes enamoured of the brooding gypsy (Nero) whose blue eyes look at her with true desire.

There are recurring motifs throughout the film - mainly of water, which has much to contribute to the climax of events which make up Yvette's mind conclusively. Does she stay and marry Leo (a rich man's son with little personality - played by Jeremy Bulloch) or does she take her chance in a world which accepts her? It is interesting to compare this film with the earlier 'Sky West and Crooked' which took similar themes (and the same story as a starting point of suggestion) but went in a quite different direction.

Browsing through and cataloguing my tapes just now (I genuinely had nothing better to do) I found this film 'The Virgin and the Gypsy', which I must have taped off channel 5 some time back for the sole purpose of forwarding through to the saucy bits, weapon at the ready and perched alertly over the remote.

Now that I'm too old for such shenanigans (and not living at home has taken away the 'someone-could-walk-in-at-any-minute' edge), I thought I'd actually watch the film.

To summarise, it's not that great, not that bad, some nice photography, I just found out the main bird is Mrs Sidney Poitier, she is very good looking in it, but provides very little amusement for adolescent armchair residents, especially in these days of the internet (where nothing less than a horse-midget combo will do). And I reckon the guy (the 'Gypsy' of the title) inspired Kevin Rowland's Dexy's 'look'.

Whilst Franco Nero does quite a decent job here as the smouldering traveller, the rest of the cast really needed an Alan Bates or Julie Christie to ignite some sort of spark into this rather timid adaptation of D. H. Lawrence shorter story. On their way to her the home she shares with her vicar father (Maurice Denham) and her family, "Yvette" (Joanna Shimkus) encounters the swarthy gypsy who invites them to have their fortunes told. Sceptical, they agree and shortly afterwards leave full of disdain for their erstwhile hosts. She, however, is smitten! Her sense of loneliness at home, a feeling she is unloved and merely waiting to be married off coupled with her increasingly raging hormones and desires starts to reap discord a-plenty at home, especially with the traditionalist granny "Fay Compton) and her aunt "Cissie" (Kay Walsh). Things aren't helped by the visit of the adulterous "Mrs. Fawcett" (Honor Blackman) and her beau "Maj. Eastwood" (Mark Burns) turning their otherwise sleepy community into a veritable hotbed of sin and depravity - well, sort of! Anyway, there's allegory galore as the story develops, the frustrations mount and the dam eventually bursts. The production standards are high, the costumes and general look of the film work well - but the screenplay produces way too much chatter and this illustration of story lacks bite, passion - indeed just about anything. It's not the best of stories from this author, but this adaptation is just all a bit too tame.

This year June 2020 marks the 50th Anniversary of the release of the film 'The Virgin and the Gypsy' based on a novelette written by D.H.Lawrence. It launched the career of two young men, Christopher Miles aged 29yrs Director, and Alan Plater aged 33yrs, Scriptwriter and Playwright.

The film which stars Franco Nero as the Gypsy, and Joanna Skimkus as the Virgin, won enormous critical acclaim both here in England where it ran for 18 months in the West End and in America where it broke the box office records and was voted best film on both sides of the Atlantic.

The drama critically stands the test of time. It portrays two young sisters who return home to the family rectory from a French finishing school. Yvette the young 'virgin', rebels unlike her sister Lucille against the family and her father, the divorced rector played by Maurice Denham. Her sexual desires are supressed by the moralistic religious society of the 1920's she is raised in, and desperately wants romance in her life. She has erotic daydreams when she meets the local filandering gypsy, a free spirit with blue smouldering passionate eyes.

Christopher Miles direction is methodic and sensitive, and visually full of poetry, set in the tranquil idyllic landscape of Derbyshire in the village of Youlgrave. Yvette's passions are finally released in a flood of emotion, when the elements fire, earth and water come together as she is rescued by the gypsy in the dramatic conclusion of the film.

Both Alan Plater and Christopher Miles collaborated together 11 years later in 1981 on another of D.H.Lawrence novel, 'Priest of Love', starring Ian McKellen as the author, and Janet Suzman, his German wife.

Honor Blackman who plays Mrs Fawcett so wittily in the film, died this year 5thApril 2020.

Richard Cole, Author and Artist.