loading...
Women In Love
1969
D.H. Lawrence's 1920 novel revolving around the torrid relationships between two sisters and the men in their lives is here well-adapted for the big screen by Ken Russell. Starring Jennie Linden as Ursula and Glenda Jackson in a galvanizing, Academy Award-winning performance as Gudrun. This is nearly overshadowed by the .. Read more
| Starring | Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed, Jennie Linden |
|---|---|
| Director | Ken Russell |
| Genres | Drama |
loading...
Women In Love
D.H. Lawrence's 1920 novel revolving around the torrid relationships between two sisters and the men in their lives is here well-adapted for the big screen by Ken Russell. Starring Jennie Linden as Ursula and Glenda Jackson in a galvanizing, Academy Award-winning performance as Gudrun. This is nearly overshadowed by the ambiguously sensuous nude wrestling scene between their philandering suitors (Bates and Reed).
| Starring | Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed, Jennie Linden, Michael Gough, Eleanor Bron |
|---|---|
| Director | Ken Russell |
| Studio | MGM ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 5 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 02 Aug 2004 Production year: 1969 |
| Format | DVD |
-
Critics' reviews (3)
View all -
This is one of Ken Russell's most successful and, for its time, sensational forays into literature, and it works so well because it is cohesively respectful of its source (DH Lawrence), besides allowing its stars acting leeway. Set in the mining community of Nottinghamshire, it stars Oliver Reed and Alan Bates who woo Glenda Jackson (an Oscar winner) and Jennie Linden, in the process bringing love and tragedy upon them all. The nude male wrestling scene makes unnecessary macho points that didn't need emphasis, but emphasis gave the film notoriety. And where would Russell be without notoriety?
-
Satisfactory rendering of a celebrated novel, with excellent period detail atoning for rather irritating characters. The nude wrestling scene was a famous first.
-
Most helpful member's review
View all -
10 out of 13 people found this review helpful
So bad it's...bad
Everything that's clumsy and dated about D.H. Lawrence leaps to the screen with cringe-making gusto in this unintentionally hilarious film.
Oliver Reed is miscast (Gerald Crich is meant to be cruel and glacial, not wild and hairy) and looks like he's dying of embarrassment. Poor Alan Bates has to explain why a fig is like a woman's bits and then eat one with a straight face. The girls pout and flicker their false eyelashes about a lot (See? Women have feelings too!). It's a stark lesson that some things really are best left to the imagination - the supposedly primal (homo)(erotic) masculinity of chums having a good nude wrestle doesn't really, er, stand up once people get their giblets out.
I would say it's worth it for a giggle, but long stretches of humourless pontificating somehow make it as dull as it is embarrassing. A bit like hearing the facts-of-life from a worthy, velvet-clad aunt who once had a 'very naughty' encounter with a moustached drama teacher some time in the mid '70s.
The ending is supposed to be elemental and tragic, but you can't help feeling if you were stuck in this movie you'd pray for the same fate! -
Most recent members' review
View all -
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
*****
A great film, if you love DH Lawrence's introspective meansderings and Russell's surrealism this is 4 u!
-
More like this
View all
Related user collection
Academy Award Winners: Best Picture (79)
91.4% from 15 members
