Love

This faithful adaptation by Ken Russell of one of D.H. Lawrence's best works is just as powerful & just as profound now, over 30 years after its initial release. The story is set in England a few years after World War I, at a time when many women of marriageable age were forced to examine their assumptions about relationships. When the Brangwen sisters complain about the lack of men, it's true. Many of the men who should have been available to them were lost in the war.

The film was made @ the dawn of the women's movement, once again a time when many women of a certain age were driven to examine their own assumptions about relationships, and looked to Lawrence (& then to Russell) for answers to questions beyond words.

This is not to deny the importance of the men in this story. Both Rupert & Gerald are drawn to the kind of women who ask these questions. Both of them have a myriad of other choices, but they're not satified by less.

So Russell finds a visual way to tell this story, & much of it would seem to be "over the top" were it not so obviously sincere & courageous. Glenda Jackson, a relative unknown at the time, won her first Oscar. We agree. She gives an extraordinary performance in a most difficult role: Gudrun is not likeable, but she IS honest.

Can you imagine the effect this movie had in 1969? I is still ahead of the times. Merit, in great part, of Larry Kramer who adapted DH Lawrence's work in a way nobody else could have. Scrumptious, subversive, extraordinary. Director Ken Russell with some startling titles to his name - his BBC production of Isadora Duncan with a sublime Vivien Pickles in the title role, for instance - reaches here some kind of mountain top. Glenda Jackson became a household name, Alan Bates confirmed what we all knew, that he was one of the greatest actors that ever lived. I devoured the film with utter pleasure 48 years after its first released. Literature and cinema in an insanely beautiful alliance.

One of the best literary adaptations ever to grace the screen this wonderful movie does justice to Lawrence's novel but more importantly to his vision. The cast is magical bringing to life Lawrence's characters at perfect pitch. Alan Bates IS D. H. Lawrence/ Rupert Birkin and Oliver Reed, Jennie Linden and Glenda Jackson, who won an Oscar for her role, are superb. The script is excellent and draws on Lawrence's writings in addition to titled novel. For instance the scene where they are having lunch in the garden and Rupert (Bates) expounds on the fig fruit is actually taken from a poem by Lawrence called The Fig. It is little touches like this that really show the research and respect that went in to the adaptation. I don't know of a braver writer of relationships then Lawrence and this film is unflinching in its portrayal of every kind.

This film seems to get better the more I go back to it. Close to the source novel for the most part (the one big divergence being in the Water Party section but in the sense of the film the change is acceptable and gives a disturbing gloss to the story) and with sequence after sequence of powerful images, it has been much misunderstood and often dismissed but I would hope in time it is given the credit it deserves. 8/10

No apology for including this with my 'extreme' movies because not only was it considered so in 1969 it has held up remarkably well and still packs a punch. Whilst I recall it was the fully nude male wrestling scene that attracted most attention originally, it is clear to see now that there was so much more going on that was of just as an extreme nature. For good and bad Lawrence seems extremely well represented with his, love hate relationship with women and his fondness of the work ethic. The full force and carnality of the sexuality in Lawrence's Lady Chatterly is somewhat more muted here but it is the questioning of the trueness of love and the inclusion of same sex relationships that helps this to still be as thought provoking and stimulating. Plus, the performances are fine and the photography excellent with the direction faultless. Runs longer than stated on the box and one wonders if in fact it was ever shown uncut in the cinemas.