Women In Love [DVD]

The director and his cast clearly know the novel inside out: it is remarkably faithful to Lawrence's challenging text and makes the BBC's obsession with producing period soap operas with the names of famous novels attached to them look as tawdry and patronising as it is. I wonder if anyone will make a film so honest, so daring in today's Philistine climate? There's all the energy and confidence of the 1960s here, and a cast of actors very unlikely to be matched again: Glenda Jackson IS Gundrun and Oliver Reed quite extraordinarily compelling as Gerald, hair colouring apart. Alan Bates is rather too charming for the troubled Lawrence/Birkin character but Vladek Sheybal is superb as the repulsive Loerke and Eleanor Bron is perfect for Hermione/Lady Ottoline. A wonderful way into a complex and troubled novel for any student: the sense of location and period are captivating: a pity there wasn't a larger budget for the drowning scene.Now we need someone as intelligent, respectful of the text and visually imaginative to film the original, 1916 version!

Classic love drama starring Oliver Reed and Alan Bates who match up with Glenda Jackson and Jennie Linden in an interesting movie of love, lust, power, betrayal, jealousy, and latent homosexuality. Great acting, superb directing from Ken Russell, a fabulous screenplay adapted from D. H. Lawrence's classic novel, and wonderful costumes and locations all add up to a timeless movie masterpiece not to be missed. Well recommended.

Watch five minutes of this classic British film and if you've ever read any D.H. Lawrence you'll sense his spirit at work. I was drawn to this after watching the perplexing recent TV adaptation on the BBC Women in Love [DVD ]which attempts, one presumes not ambitiously but for the sake of economy, to amalgamate Women in Love with its prequel The Rainbow. There is a difference of attitude, I found as well, with the 21st century spotlight inclined to sneer (disbelieve) in Lawrence's ideas and to overplay the Rupert-was-a-homosexual perspective.However we may live now, within half an hour I had concluded that this Oscar-winning film directed by Ken Russell was so immeasurably superior to the TV version as to make its production feeling totally pointless. The beauty of the locations and the romantic quest for sensuality and self-actualization, on the part of all four leading actors, is so vivid, the script better shaped to delineate those characters and the colour of mind and spirit which makes each so very unique.In a way it can't help being coloured by the era of production, the 1960s. At times I felt they were living in the '60s, not after WW1 but the spirit of the '60s apparently has more in common with the 1920s than our hyper-post-ironical-modernism in the new millennium.Alan Bates and Oliver Reed make much more plausible lovers than the recent chaps and the ladies here are more bewitchingly and passionately intriguing than the duo of Rosamund Pike and Rachael Stirling - attractive though they are. The film is full of unforgettable scenes: Hermione's dance of the widows, Gudrun spooking the cattle, the tableau of drowned lovers, Rupert and Gerald wrestling, Rupert running from the house and going feral, etc.Visually stunning, winningly scripted and superbly cast.

This is a nice film, satisfying in so many ways, even if the sad conclusion is anything but, but that's the nature of romantic tragedy. This is Oliver Reed's finest film performance (apart from maybe Gladiator), and must be Ken Russell's best movie bar none. Good authentic adaption of DHL, a writer whose works often arouse strong emotions one way or another. In fact human emotion is often the main focus of all his works, rather than the more overt themes of class, or raw passion. This film has a lovely period feel to it, is very intimate in its portrayal of the relationships between people with different personalities and feelings, and it distills the mood or essence of DHL perfectly, including clear undertones of misogyny. If you're prepared for a slightly more detached and arty kind of romantic drama then this film is for you. More emotionally engaging than it may look, with its emphasis on the visual rather than the dramatic, as always with Russell. But what saves this becoming a mere art piece is a great piece of acting from Jackson in particular, but also a deep and broodingly memorable performance by Reed, which was probably coaxed out of him by his great drinking partner, Russell.