Stars: Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Leo McKern, Hilton McRae

Director: Karel Reisz

Summary: An adaptation of John Fowles' best selling story of a scandalous romance between a 'gentleman' and a 'tainted' woman.

In this dramatic film, director Karel Reisz and screenwriter Harold Pinter adapt the complex romantic novel by John Fowles, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN. Set in 1867, Sarah Woodrough (Meryl Streep), a beautiful young woman, is condemned by society and driven into a deep melancholy because of her tragic affair with a French lieutenant. Fowles adds depth and texture to the story by including direct historical asides and scientific lessons by Charles Smithson (Jeremy Irons), a wealthy amateur paleontologist and follower of Charles Darwin. In addition, there is a film within the film in which modern-day (1981) characters Anna (Streep) and Mike (Irons) provide comments on the characters they're portraying, and a little history, but primarily provide a parallel story as they enter an adulterous affair of their own. The contrast between the Victorian and the contemporary affairs, at first jarring, is beautifully staged and photographed. Streep's two performances, as the passionate Sarah, with her beautiful head of pre-Raphaelite hair and as the cool, modern Anna, never converge; the distinctness of the division between the two characters symbolises the almost unconscious perception that however distant a person feels from their repressed Victorian sexuality, it's still connected to them, as Darwin would say.

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Reviewed by: davybozal24-7
Posted on April 12, 2006 9:05 PM

Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons star as two seperate pairs of lovers in this engaging and beautifully visualised film .
Embraced by audiences and critics alike - and garnering five 1981
Academy Award nominations , including Best Actress ( Streep ) -
The French Lieutenant's Woman will forever remain one of the most literate , imaginative and stunning love stories ever to grace the screen .

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With The French Lieutenant's Womanwriter Harold Pinter and director Karel Reisz take an experimental spin on John Fowles' magnificent novel set in Victorian England, and come up with something puzzling. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the forbidden lovers in Fowles' story, but in a parallel story line they also play contemporary actors performing those characters in a movie production and having an affair of their own during off-hours. Got that? Considering that Fowles himself presents alternative endings in his novel, something equally eccentric is called for here. But little is accomplished by this intertwining of a fictional past and present, and the opportunity to do justice to a great story is lost. On the plus side, Irons and Streep are instantly striking as a natural couple on screen, and their presence makes watching this film easy enough despite the larger problems. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Original Theatrical Trailer, Interactive Menu, Chapter Selection
Subtitles:	Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish
Year:	1981
Release Date:	February 4, 2002
Runtime:	119 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	16174 D V D
Keywords:	Woman, General, Wide, Screen, French, Romantic, Drama, Lieutenant's
Genre:	Drama