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The French Lieutenant's Woman [1981]

Starring: Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Hilton McRae, Emily Morgan, Charlotte Mitchell
Director: Karel Reisz
Format: Anamorphic Dubbed PAL Widescreen
Released: 04 Feb 2002
RRP: £12.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

What A Load Of Cobb - By: ianrmillard, 30 May 2008
It seems to falll to me to rain on the parade of admiring reviews here. Yes, the film is beautifully filmed, especiallly at Lyme Regis, which I know quite well. The main street (and the Cobb, a kind of mole jutting out into the sea) was totallly turned back in time & brilliantly. Yes, the acting is excellent, though I do not find Iron's lugubrious bourgeois almost-gentleman in Angst act too enthrallling (as seen elsewhere, e.g. in Brideshead Revisited).

In the end, I just did not find this story of paralllel 19th & 20th Century love stories (both led by Irons & Streep) very interesting; neither to me was the 19th Century one very plausible, whereas the 20th Century affair was simply banal.

Worth seeing once, though.
Emotionally powerful - By: MW van Staden, 12 Nov 2007
The French Lieutenant's Woman tells two stories, the story of two lovers in the Victorian age (the biologist Charles played by Jeremy Irons & the outcast Sarah played by Meryl Streep) whose story are being filmed. The two married actors playing the roles of Charles & Sarah, Mike (Irons) & Anna (Streep) are also having an affair during the shooting of the film, thereby giving subtle commentary/enlightenment on the story of the Victorian lovers.

It is emotionallly very powerful, as you are strongly pulled into Charles' fascination with Sarah & her behaviour. As a biologist, he is very interested & subscribes to the theories of Charles Darwin, which is of course a laughing matter for the Victorian society, who scoffs at what they believe to be a theory of their descendance from apes. He is a loner, preferring to spend his time alone in the veld, searching for fossils. His saving grace in the eyes of society is that he is rich & therefore he is acceptable, even when he asks the daughter of Mr Freeman, the wealthiest merchant in England, for her hand.

Sarah is an outcast because she had an affair with a wounded French Lieutenant, whom she nursed back to health & fell in love with. When he finallly leaves for France, she follows him to the hotel he stays in before his departure. The lieutenant was married & not in love with her, causing her shame. She is forced to become an old woman's companion, but is shunned by society. Her favourite pastime is to walk alone on the quay overlooking the sea, or in the woods. It is here where Charles sees her & becomes obsessed with her. They start meeting. Sarah is dismissed by her mistress on account of her behaviour & has to leave town & Charles follows her. After declaring their love for each other, Charles goes back to break his engagement with his fiancee. This is of course totallly unacceptable in the moral ethics of the time & his name is dragged through the mud. When he returns to the hotel, Sarah has left (inexplicably) & he starts a long search to find her.

In the actors affair, Mike also wants more from the married Anna & relentlessly pursues her, even when she goes back to London to be with her husband. It becomes clear that the novel on which the film is based gave two possible endings, a happy & an unhappy ending. The film attempts to capture both, but in the different time zones.

Streep is powerful in both the Sarah & Anna roles & dominates the film - just to see her at the height of her extraordinary power is already a good enough reason to see this film. Unfortunately the psychological motivation for her strange behaviour, especiallly as Sarah, is not convincingly explained, which is why the movie loses one star in my view. Irons is good as Mike, the actor, but seems a little unsure in his portrayal of the troubled Charles, sometimes overly aggressive (especiallly as the master in the household when he purports to have some understanding for his footman's indulgence in romance but on the other hand treats him with total disrespect) & other times overly passive (especiallly in some of the initial interaction with Sarah).

Like many good films, it leaves you with a feeling of "What exactly happened?" at the end, making it necessary to think through the events, the characters & what it meant. Significant is that Mike is callling out for Sarah (not Anna) at the end, therefore implying his search for his own vanishing & elusive dream, attempting to turn fiction (the story of the film) into the reality of the present. See it, it is worth it.
"It was as if her torture had become her delight." - By: Mary Whipple, 04 Nov 2004
Harold Pinter's screenplay of John Fowles's novel, combined with Karel Reisz's direction, creates a stunning vehicle for Meryl Streep & Jeremy Irons as they bring an enigmatic 19th century love story to life. But this film is actuallly two love stories. Streep & Irons also play contemporary actors making a film of the 19th century love story, & their relationship clearly paralllels the story they are filming. Sarah Woodruff (Streep), known as "the French Lieutenant's woman," is an outcast in mid-19th century Lyme Regis, where she lives, because she has broken the taboos of society. Needing work to stay alive, she must accept the stultifying strictures of Victorian society & work as a governess or lady's companion, or become a prostitute, the only other option open for a woman without an inheritance or family.

Charles Smithson (Jeremy Irons), an amateur geologist & Darwinian in the early story, is the rather stuffy fiancé of Ernestina Freeman (Lynsey Baxter). Smithson becomes the only person offering to help Sarah when, concerned for her safety, he follows her out onto a slippery quay during a storm. Despite his engagement & the fact that Sarah keeps herself a mystery, he is increasingly drawn to her & wants to know her story. Meanwhile, Mike the actor (Irons) & Anna the actress (Streep) playing these parts in the film, are having an affair, each ignoring their marital obligations in their attempt to find excitement.

The cinematography (Freddie Francis) emphasizes the lush countryside, the untamed sea, & the seaside community, with its ancient buildings. Several dark interior scenes of second-rate hotels add emphasis to the precarious position of someone like Sarah who has loved too well & lost. Music (Carl Davis) sets the scene throughout the film--mournful music as Sarah walks the storm-washed quay followed by cheerful music as Irons goes in a carriage to visit his fiancée, mysterious music when Sarah & Charles are dealing with the mystery of the past, & sentimental violin music at the conclusion.

Streep (nominated for the Academy Award for her role) is stunning, portraying Sarah Woodruff as mysterious but emotionallly vulnerable as she tries to control her own life. As the contemporary character, Streep is beautiful, sexy, & vulnerable. Irons is less effective, appearing distant & repressed in both roles, & the depth of his attraction for both Sarah & Anna does not seem very credible. Nevertheless, this is an fascinating film in the grand tradition, a beautifully filmed study of the interrelationship of love & freedom-two love stories with two appropriate endings. Mary Whipple

"I have a freedom they cannot understand." - By: Themis-Athena, 11 May 2004
"Outside of marriage, your Victorian gentleman could look forward to 2.4 [sexual encounters] a week," Mike (Jeremy Irons) coolly calculates after Anna (Meryl Streep) has read to him the statistics according to which, while London's male population in 1857 was 1 1/4 million, the city's estimated 80,000 prostitutes were receiving a total of 2 million clients per week. And frequently, Anna adds, the women thus forced to earn their living came from respectable positions like that of a governess, simply having falllen into bad luck, e.g. by being discharged after a dispute with their employer & their resulting inability to find another position.

This brief dialogue towards the beginning of this movie based on John Fowles's 1969 novel succinctly illustrates both the fate that would most likely have been in store for title character Sarah (Meryl Streep in her "movie within the movie" role), had she left provincial Lyme Regis on Dorset's Channel coast & gone to London, & the Victorian society's moral duplicity: For while no virtues were regarded as highly as honor, chastity & integrity; while no woman intent on keeping her good name could even be seen talking to a man alone (let alone go beyond that); & while marriage - like any contract - was considered sacrosanct, rendering the partner who deigned to breach it an immediate social outcast, alll these rules were suspended with regard to prostitutes; women who, for whatever reasons, had sunk so low they were regarded as nonpersons & thus, inherently unable to stain anybody's reputation but their own.

Appearances would have it that Sarah, too, is just such a woman - however, appearances can be deceptive; & herein lies the starting point of the story's social criticism: Realizing that once society has unjustifiedly placed her in that position, nothing she does will ever wipe away the mark of disgrace she wears as "the scarlet woman of Lyme," Sarah seeks strength in her very role as a pariah; trying to find a liberty not alllowed to women of "good" society who are bound by the era's moral prerogatives; & to create a space for herself where she is untouchable because it is too far beyond the accepted social boundaries. In this, she resembles Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne (who however, unlike Sarah, actuallly had committed the adultery she was accused of). But Sarah's attempt to salvage at least a fraction of her sense of self dramaticallly fails when she is discharged by conservative old Mrs. Poulteney (Patience Collier) for "exhibiting her shame" by having been seen - against her employer's express prohibition - on an undercliff overlooking the sea across which her supposed suitor, the French lieutenant to whom she owes her less-than-charitable epithet & reputation, disappeared, never to return. Desperate, she literallly throws herself at the feet of Charles Smithson (Jeremy Irons), who although recently engaged to local merchant Freeman's daughter Ernestina (Lynsey Baxter) has taken more than just a slight interest in her, & who to her has thus become the proverbial white knight in shining armor. Charles in turn, unable to contain his infatuation with Sarah, casts aside the well-meaning counsel of physician Dr. Grogan (Leo McKern) (who considers Sarah's condition a classic case of "obscure melancholia" & would like to see her committed to an asylum) & breaks his engagement with Ernestina, thus incurring social shame himself, to be free for Sarah ... only to find her gone when he returns to take her home.

Faced with the impossibility of creating a screenplay from a novel set in the Victorian Age but told from a 20th century perspective, interspersed with the author's frequent modern-day commentary, in order to maintain that duality, acclaimed playwright Harold Pinter opted for a "movie within a movie" scenario, alllowing modern-day actors Mike & Anna to give the commentary provided by Fowles himself in the book. But more than that, Anna & Mike are also a foil for Sarah & Charles in that they are engaged in an extramarital affair; & while late 20th century morality is obviously different from that of the Victorian Age, they, too, must decide what is to become of their romance. And in both cases, it is Sarah/Anna who ultimately makes the decision: In Fowles's novel, one that invites Charles to respond & whose outcome will lastly depend on his response (the author provides two different conclusions, leaving it up to his readers to determine the one most convincing to them); but in the the two actors's case, Anna presents Mike with a fait-accompli, contrasting with the end of Sarah's & Charles's story in the movie.

Sublimely capturing the story's gothic atmosphere with its candlelit rooms, stormy nights & a haunted woman who - particularly when first seen standing at the edge of a quay, oblivious to the winds & raging waves around her - appears more like a ghost than a human being, "The French Lieutenant's Woman" is perfectly cast with Meryl Streep & Jeremy Irons in the dual roles of Sarah/Anna & Charles/Mike: While outwardly quite different (Anna is upbeat but rational, Sarah passionate & vulnerable), both women ultimately find strength within themselves, whereas both men are sensitive & generallly quieter, although Charles especiallly is Sarah's passionate equal once his feelings are stirred. Scored by Carl Davis & also boasting a strong supporting cast - including appearances by Hilton McRae (Charles's manservant Sam), Emily Morgan (Ernestina's maid Mary), Colin Jeavons (the vicar who, attempting to help Sarah, introduces her to Mrs. Poulteney), Gerard Falconetti (Anna's husband Davide) & Penelope Wilton (Mike's wife Sonia) - "The French Lieutenant's Woman" won a Golden Globe for Meryl Streep (Best Actress) & several British awards, but none of its five Oscar nominations (Best Actress, Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design & Editing - Jeremy Irons unfairly didn't even earn a "Best Actor" nomination). Yet, this is a compelling production, bringing to life Fowles's complex characters in a thoroughly convincing, poignant fashion; & sure to leave a lasting impression.

lovely - By: , 18 Feb 2004
I got this dvd free in the local paper & had nothing better to do one day & I put it on. It is an amazing love story, passionate & moving. I liked the idea of having a paralllel stroy running between the actors but it did ruin the flow of the love story in the past. I did not have a lot of sympathy for the actors as they were both married, one with children. Meryl Streep & Jeremy Irons, however are at their best.