Taglines: She was lost from the moment she saw him.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman movie storyline. John Fowles’ original novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” was distinguished by a literary technique that involved telling a story of Victorian sexual and social oppression within the bounds of a 1970s viewpoint. How does one convey this time-frame dichotomy on film? The decision made by Writer and Director Karel Reisz and Screenwriter Harold Pinter was to frame Fowles’ basic plot within a “modern” context of their own making.
While we watch as Sarah, a nineteenth century Englishwoman ruined by an affair with a French Lieutenant, enters into another disastrous relationship with principled young Charles (Jeremy Irons), we are constantly made aware that what we’re seeing is only a movie. This is done by surrounding the story with a modern narrative, focusing on a movie production company which is on-location filming “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”.
Meryl Streep doubles in the role of Sara and the American actress who plays her, while Jeremy Irons essays the dual role of Charles and the handsome Briton playing Charles. Likewise, everyone else in the cast is seen as “themselves” and as their French Lieutenant’s Woman characters. Not surprisingly, the “real” Streep and Irons enter into an affair which closely parallels their characters’ relationship.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman is a 1981 British romantic drama film directed by Karel Reisz, produced by Leon Clore, and adapted by the playwright Harold Pinter. It is based on The French Lieutenant’s Woman, a 1969 novel by John Fowles. The music score is by Carl Davis and the cinematography by Freddie Francis.
The film stars Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. Other featured actors include Hilton McRae, Peter Vaughan, Colin Jeavons, Liz Smith, Patience Collier, Richard Griffiths, David Warner, Alun Armstrong, Penelope Wilton, and Leo McKern. The film received five Oscar nominations. Streep was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and Pinter for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
About the Story
The film intercuts the stories of two romantic affairs. One is within a Victorian period drama involving a gentleman palaeontologist, Charles Smithson, and the complex and troubled Sarah Woodruff, known as “the French lieutenant’s woman”. The other affair is between the actors Mike and Anna, playing the lead roles in a modern filming of the story. In both segments, Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the lead roles.
John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman had multiple endings, and the two parallel stories in the movie have different outcomes. In the Victorian story, Charles enters into an intensely emotional relationship with Sarah, an enigmatic and self-imposed exile he meets while visiting his fiancée Ernestina (Lynsey Baxter) in Lyme Regis. Charles and Sarah meet secretly in the Lyme Regis Undercliff, and eventually have sex in an Exeter hotel.
This leads to Charles’ breaking his engagement, but then Sarah disappears. In social disgrace after being sued for breach of promise by Ernestina, Charles searches for Sarah, fearing she has become a prostitute in London. After three years, Sarah, who has a job as a governess in the Lake District, contacts Charles to explain that she needed time to find herself. Despite Charles’s initial anger, he forgives her, and the two are reconciled. They are finally seen boating on Windermere.
In the modern story, the American actress Anna and the English actor Mike, both married, are shown as having an extended affair during the making of the Victorian film, in which Anna plays Sarah and Mike portrays Charles. As filming concludes, Mike wishes to continue the relationship, but Anna becomes increasingly cool about the affair and avoids Mike in favour of spending time with her French husband. During the film’s wrap party, Anna leaves without saying goodbye to Mike. Mike calls to Anna from an upstairs window on the set where Charles and Sarah had reconciled, as she drives away, using her character’s name Sarah.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
Directed by: Karel Reisz
Starring: Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Hilton McRae, Emily Morgan, Charlotte Mitchell, Lynsey Baxter, Peter Vaughan, Arabella Weir, Colin Jeavons, Liz Smith, Patience Collier
Screenplay by: Harold Pinter
Production Design by: Assheton Gorton
Cinematography by: Freddie Francis
Film Editing by: John Bloom
Costume Design by: Tom Rand
Set Decoration by: Ann Mollo
Art Direction by: Allan Cameron, Norman Dorme, Terry Pritchard
Music by: Carl Davis
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: September 18, 1981
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