Priest Of Love

Christopher Miles adapted DH Lawrence's The Virgin and the Gypsy and tried for years to make a film of Lawrence's risky Mexican novel The Plumed Serpent. Instead, as if in a mood of compromise, Miles made this biopic of the novelist, dealing with Lawrence's early life (in flashback) and the controversy his novels caused in England, bringing about his various exiles — to New Mexico and Provence where he coughs himself to death. The locations are often lavish but the movie feels puny, mainly due to Ian McKellen's pedantic, archly theatrical performance. Janet Suzman plays his German wife and there's a clutch of distracting cameos, from Ava Gardner to John Gielgud to Miles's sister, Sarah.

An extremely disappointing film, seeming to consist of aimless travelling by fractious people who never have anything interesting to say. Stilted in all departments.