Women in Love
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Movie Reviews of Women in Love
Movie Review: Time Has No Power Over Women In Love
Summary: 5 Stars
***This comment may content spoilers***
Ken Russell's adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love is one of my favorite films. It explores the hearts and minds, personalities, and philosophies of four intelligent and educated young people in the beginning of 20-th century and their romantic relationships (heterosexual and homosexual, friendship, love and desire). They are played by Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, and Jennie Linden.
Glenda Jackson who was relatively unknown at the time won her first Oscar for a magnificent performance in a most difficult role: her Gudrun is not a likable character, she is an self-centered predator, but she is honest and very interesting. I read some comments that she was not beautiful. Well, she may not have been pretty but I believe there is more than prettiness to make a woman loved, and admired otherwise a lot of women in this world would never be able to learn the feeling. Gudrun's intelligence, strong character, and self-confidence make her very attractive and desirable.
The film has many unforgettable scenes with two that stand alone after all these years. First of them is one of the most provocative and delightful sexual scenes ever filmed. It takes place during a picnic. Alan Bates dressed in a light white suite describes to the others how to eat a fig. He carefully holds it, and then pulls it open while he compares the process to a woman and looks teasingly at shy Ursula, Gudrun's sister (Jennie Linden). This little scene is as powerful as a famous wrestling scene, even though everybody who saw the film would recall the wrestling scene as a most memorable in "Women in Love".
The wrestling in the nude was Lawrence's (and Russell's ) solution to allow two men to relieve the horror and dreadfulness of the drowning tragedy that occurred shortly before. The scene takes place for long time, 5-10 minutes, with the fire from fireplace highlighting Reed's and Bate's bodies as each struggles against the other. The scene is extremely sensual but whether they engaged in sex or not we don't know...
This is a very special film that has not lost its beauty and appeal now even though it was made over 35 years ago. Extraordinarily striking and highly sensual, it is a must see for anyone truly interested in film.
Movie Review: Key to Lawrence
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a necessary film to getting a handle on D.H. Lawrence, a writer much more discussed than understood. Director Russell properly finds his key and turns it relentlessly: the art deco aesthetic, both formal and almost too self-consciously daring, which prevailed in Europe between World War I and Wold War II. It never took total flight and is easily parodied; it is thought of today mainly as a style of decorating furniture or buildings. It had a short life and was obliterated since the second war; Lawrence was quite up to his neck in it, and its strangeness throws people off who plunge into his works looking for the sexual liberator. That is all there, all right, but in his time the chick was still largely imprisoned in the egg, so to speak, of late 19th century Victorian aesthetics too.
Simply, it was a transitional period, and can be a little edgy. Russell is not afraid of it at all and has the guts to drink his Lawrence straight. So you get marvelous visual emblems wide open to parody or ridicule in lesser hands, stunningly presented: the dead couple like a bas relief sculpture on the floor of the drained pond; the naked male wrestlers curling into each other in a dark room, their forms outlined by dim light. Like it or not this was what was beautiful in Lawrence and the film pays it due homage without being subservient; Russell gets in his licks too. The aesthetic was so self-conscious that it can be delightfully hoisted up the flag-pole for a laugh, too, as in the wicked scene of Hermione and her parlor dancers.
There is no need to summarize the story of the two sets of lovers; just see it. The major actors have never been better. They become the complex characters, who while not totally explained are something better: totally present and alive. They pick up a big slice of the private and public aura of the period in their wake. Also, the film has the most incredible punch line at the end which Russell just perfectly transmits.
Movie Review: WOMEN IN LOVE
Summary: 5 Stars
Very seldom has a movie been such a faithful adaptation from the book it was based on. That is the case of WOMEN IN LOVE,a wonderful and perfect movie with settings, performances, and plot that are worth seeing. As far as its plot is concerned, WOMEN IN LOVE is a philosophical experiment on what love actually is and on the role it plays in human life. Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen,marvelously played by Glenda Jackson and Jeannie Linden,are the two sisters who go by the several phases love can show itself, many of which are awfully pleasant whereas others bring sorrow and uncertainty. They get married to Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich (Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in outstanding performances as well), who are two close friends who seem to have different conceptions of true love at first, but in the long run they turn out to have different outlooks on the meaning of true love even beteween two men, which brings out in Gerald a feeling of insecurity and a lack of self-acceptance.
What is really challenging about D.H.Lawrence's book WOMEN IN LOVE and Ken Russell's brilliant screen version is the possibility of true love not only between people of opposite sexes but also between people of the same sex.
In Lawrence's bold point of view (mainly for the time he lived in),love is love, regardless of the sex of one's object of love. The closing scene of the movie, a truly faithful adaptation from the book, shows the impact of Rupert Birkin's words both on his wife and possibly on some viewers. However, nobody can deny the beauty both the book and the film provide, and the anthological and symbolical scene of the fight between Rupert and Gerald, which takes place in the chapter of the book named GLADIATORIAL,is far above any possible prejudice that can derive, since it shows nothing but the possibility of love, a feeling whose absolute absence would already have done away with the whole world. A true masterpiece!
Movie Review: The movie that made Ken Russell known to the world
Summary: 5 Stars
If there is one British movie made in the sixties that people should see, it's definitely women in love. An adaptation of a great British novel by D H Lawrence, it is a story where two sisters, both with different personalities but with the same desire for love, live their respective relationships with the aristocrat Gerald Crich and Rupert Birkin, his best friend. Shot exactly like his documentaries for the BBC, Ken Russell shows his talent with the use of symbolism and, like a neo-realistic Italian movie, he manages to represent the life of the British society with an extremely seductive power. And with his excellent actors, who each gave some of the most incredible and passionate performances I ever saw in cinema, it is no wonder that Ken Russell became respected in mainstream cinema during the seventies. For if it hadn't been for this movie, none would have heard of his Music Lovers, of its amazing actors, and seen what is still considered controversial in a mainstream movie, which is full frontal male nudity, during a wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed.
Both a pioneer in the art of moviemaking and for british cinema, it was the beginning of Ken Russell's controversial, but fascinating career. And the first of his excellent adaptations of D H Lawrence's novels.
Movie Review: Warning: A Serious Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Folks seeking light-hearted romance need go elsewhere.
I recommend that you rent the film first. If it strikes a chord, you will want to see it many times, for it is superbly realized on the screen and will teach you something every time you see it. But some may be put off by the highly literate dialog, the general lack of humor, and the frequent use of symbolism--a technique that may be confusing to some, revelatory to others.
That being said, the offers a deep and wide-ranging examination of the manifestation of love as reflected in four characters, the actors for whom give performances of a lifetime.
The overall theme is that love is a compelling business, driven by nature, offering greater rewards for those who risk facing their inner selves, but deadly dangerous.
Ken Russell's realization succeeds in so many areas, one could write a book. One important element reflects Russell's experience as a ballet dancer: the movement of actors and camera have a musical fluidity as seductive as the passions of the characters.
For those who treasure serious filmmaking, this edition, with priceless commentary by director and screenwriter, belongs on the "10-best" shelf.