Women in Love

Genre: psychological drama
Director: Ken Russell
Release: 1969
Studio: Brandywine Productions – United Artists
Rating: R
MBiS score: 8.2/10


What Is This Thing Called Love? (with many thanks to Cole Porter)


WOMEN IN LOVE is set in an English mining town during the 20s. The sisters Brangwen, Gudrun (Glenda Jackson) and Ursula (Jennie Linden), have reached that time in life when sentiments clamour or, more prosaically, a woman in their situation must resign herself to marriage. But whom should they wed? For her part, Ursula favours Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates), a philosophizing school inspector, while Gudrun is attracted to the fiery Gerald Crich (Oliver Reed). With Eleanor Bron (Hermione Roddice), Alan Webb (Thomas Crich, Gerald’s father), Catherine Willmer (Gerald’s mother), Sharon Gurney (Laura, his sister), Christopher Gable (Tibby Lupton) and Vladek Sheybal (Loerke).

To avoid any disappointment on your part, I should warn you not to expect a neat and tidy story from WOMEN IN LOVE, which is based on a D.H. Lawrence novel. Like a work in progress, this atypical and very startling film follows its four main characters over some time and doesn’t provide a definite denouement. Through Gudrun, Ursula and their mates (who, contrary to the film’s title, take up nearly as much space in the narrative), WOMEN IN LOVE’s odd screenplay examines several philosophies of love. But a film about love is not necessarily a smoochfest and, in this case, hate, misunderstanding, jealousy and cruelty spring up ever so often to mess up lives that hang by a thread. Characters discuss their feelings, complain about the duplicity around them and rail against the hardships of existence; love, it seems, won’t chase away for long their chronic, deeply rooted melancholy.

If you find such issues depressing, let me reassure you: WOMEN IN LOVE also contains eye-opening scenes of sheer bizarreness that you’d never imagine in a period film. Yes, this movie is both wrenching drama and squirmy fun. Anyway, it did teach me a few things about labour relations, graveyard etiquette, picnics and fireside sports. Seeing is believing!

Concretely, WOMEN IN LOVE is a quality motion picture. It boasts fine production values and a sturdy cast led by two intense thespians, Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson (in her first of two Oscar-winning performances). Ken Russell’s direction is effective and sober − one tender scene between Rupert and Ursula struck me as simply ravishing − with artistic touches here and there that add symbolism to the narrative.

Is there something else I should tell you? Not really, I believe. When you feel ready for a lesson in love, even one delivered by imperfect and vacillating teachers, I do hope you’ll turn to Gudrun, Ursula, Rupert and Gerald. Ken Russell’s WOMEN IN LOVE is waiting for you.


MBiS

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