Women in Love

WOMEN IN LOVE (18)

D: Ken Russell

United Artists/Brandywine (Larry Kramer & Martin Rosen)

UK 1969

131 mins

Drama/Romance

W: Larry Kramer [based on the novel by D.H. Lawrence]

DP: Billy Williams

Ed: Michael Bradsell

Mus: Georges Delerue & Michael Garrett

PD: Ken Jones

Cos: Shirley Russell

Glenda Jackson (Gudren Brangwen), Alan Bates (Rupert Birkin), Oliver Reed (Gerald Crich), Jennie Linden (Ursula Brangwen), Eleanor Bron (Hermione Roddice)

A hugely risqué production for the late 1960's, although when you consider the source material of D.H. Lawrence's 1920 novel, much was toned down in order to bring this story to the screen.

The plot follows a pair of sexually liberal sisters as they turn their attentions on a pair of friends in a small mining town in northern England at the turn of the 20th Century, and their relationships all suffer as a result of promiscuity and commitment.

Glenda Jackson won an Oscar for her performance, becoming the first woman to win for (what was at the time) an X-rated movie. 

Modern standards would deem the film rather tame, but the naked wrestling scene between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates was hugely controversial at the time, even earning the film a ban in many countries who claimed it was depicting an act of homosexuality.

The performances are all fantastic, but the film as a whole could probably be trimmed by 20-30 minutes for pacing purposes.

7/10