Although John Fowles's novel is set in the Victorian period and deals with a love affair, it is more than just a period romance. Throughout the book there is a strong authorial voice, which Fowles uses to comment on Victorian social and sexual mores, and the way in which they contrast with those of Fowles's own day. The book famously has two alternative endings, one happy and the other tragic; this device is perhaps Fowles's ironic comment on literary conventions and on the "omniscient narrator" persona which he adopts elsewhere in the work.
These stylistic devices therefore mean that this is not the easiest of novels to transfer to the screen. The solution that Harold Pinter came up with was to combine Fowles's Victorian story with another story, set in the present day. The film moves back and forth between the two periods. A similar device was used in another British film of this period, "Heat and Dust", although in that case both stories were present in the film's literary source.
The Victorian part of the film tells the story of Charles Smithson, a wealthy gentleman and amateur scientist, who visits Lyme Regis in Dorset in order to search for fossils. (The area around Lyme has become known as "The Jurassic Coast" because of the rich fossil beds in the area). While there he meets and falls in love with a young woman named Sarah Woodruffe, even though he is already engaged to Ernestina, the pretty daughter of a wealthy businessman.
Some years ago, Sarah was jilted by her sweetheart, a French lieutenant, and has been named by the locals "Poor Tragedy" from her habit of walking along the seashore, dressed in black, looking out to sea as though waiting for his return. The belief that she was the man's mistress has gained her the more contemptuous title of "The French Lieutenant's Whore"; the film's title derives from the reluctance of the genteel Ernestina to use the word "whore". Charles's initial feeling is simply one of concern for the young woman's welfare, but he soon feels a powerful attraction for her and decides that he must leave Ernestina for her, despite being warned by his friend Dr Grogan not to do so. Grogan has diagnosed Sarah as suffering from what he calls "obscure melancholy", a condition which manifests itself in intense guilt feelings and in the masochistic tendency to inflict emotional pain on herself.
The modern-day part of the film concerns the attempt to make a film about the story of Charles and Sarah, and the affair between Mike and Anna, the actors cast in the two leading roles. Jeremy Irons plays both Charles and Mike, and Meryl Streep both Sarah and Anna.
The Victorian part of the film works very well as a powerful and potentially tragic love-story, conjuring up the sexual repression and double standards which dominated that period. Sarah and her French sweetheart were not, in fact, lovers in the physical sense, but many local people believed they were, and this suspicion has been enough to blight her life. It is unlikely that a man's reputation would have been destroyed by a casual encounter in this way. On the other hand, double standards could also sometimes work against the male sex as well. A woman, for example, who decided she had made a mistake by getting engaged would have found it much easier to break her engagement. Charles only avoids being sued for breach of promise by signing a humiliating confession, in which he acknowledges that he has forfeited the right to be considered a gentleman, and is haunted by guilt over broken engagement, especially as Ernestina has done nothing to deserve such treatment. In the book Ernestina comes across as rather insipid, but here Lynsey Baxter, only sixteen at the time and appearing in her first film, makes her a delightful young lady.
Irons and Streep are excellent as Charles and Sarah. (This was also Irons's first leading film role, and the one which made him a major star). Streep copes perfectly with the British accent, although she did perhaps sound a bit too upper-class for Sarah, who comes from a lower-middle-class background. She also looks particularly striking in this film, with her red hair and pale alabaster complexion contrasting with her black clothing. The scene where Charles first meets her, on the storm-swept Cobb in Lyme, has become one of the most iconic scenes in the cinema of the eighties. There are also excellent performances from Leo McKern as the perceptive and kindly Grogan, from Peter Vaughan as Ernestina's doting father and from Patience Collier as Sarah's obnoxious employer Mrs Poulteney.
I am a great admirer of the original novel, but what works on the printed page cannot always be transferred to the screen, and Pinter's attempt to find a cinematic equivalent to Fowles's literary devices struck me as a vain one. The modern-day love story always seemed weak and trivial by comparison with the much more serious Victorian one. Neither Mike nor Anna was a sympathetic character, especially as both were married and cheating on their spouses. When Anna decides not to leave her husband for Mike we do not feel pity for him in the way that we pity Charles when he is abandoned by Sarah. I felt that the film-makers would have done better to omit the modern scenes and to concentrate exclusively on the Victorian story. The result would have been a different film, but in my view probably a better one. Nevertheless, the film we have is a fine one. 8/10
These stylistic devices therefore mean that this is not the easiest of novels to transfer to the screen. The solution that Harold Pinter came up with was to combine Fowles's Victorian story with another story, set in the present day. The film moves back and forth between the two periods. A similar device was used in another British film of this period, "Heat and Dust", although in that case both stories were present in the film's literary source.
The Victorian part of the film tells the story of Charles Smithson, a wealthy gentleman and amateur scientist, who visits Lyme Regis in Dorset in order to search for fossils. (The area around Lyme has become known as "The Jurassic Coast" because of the rich fossil beds in the area). While there he meets and falls in love with a young woman named Sarah Woodruffe, even though he is already engaged to Ernestina, the pretty daughter of a wealthy businessman.
Some years ago, Sarah was jilted by her sweetheart, a French lieutenant, and has been named by the locals "Poor Tragedy" from her habit of walking along the seashore, dressed in black, looking out to sea as though waiting for his return. The belief that she was the man's mistress has gained her the more contemptuous title of "The French Lieutenant's Whore"; the film's title derives from the reluctance of the genteel Ernestina to use the word "whore". Charles's initial feeling is simply one of concern for the young woman's welfare, but he soon feels a powerful attraction for her and decides that he must leave Ernestina for her, despite being warned by his friend Dr Grogan not to do so. Grogan has diagnosed Sarah as suffering from what he calls "obscure melancholy", a condition which manifests itself in intense guilt feelings and in the masochistic tendency to inflict emotional pain on herself.
The modern-day part of the film concerns the attempt to make a film about the story of Charles and Sarah, and the affair between Mike and Anna, the actors cast in the two leading roles. Jeremy Irons plays both Charles and Mike, and Meryl Streep both Sarah and Anna.
The Victorian part of the film works very well as a powerful and potentially tragic love-story, conjuring up the sexual repression and double standards which dominated that period. Sarah and her French sweetheart were not, in fact, lovers in the physical sense, but many local people believed they were, and this suspicion has been enough to blight her life. It is unlikely that a man's reputation would have been destroyed by a casual encounter in this way. On the other hand, double standards could also sometimes work against the male sex as well. A woman, for example, who decided she had made a mistake by getting engaged would have found it much easier to break her engagement. Charles only avoids being sued for breach of promise by signing a humiliating confession, in which he acknowledges that he has forfeited the right to be considered a gentleman, and is haunted by guilt over broken engagement, especially as Ernestina has done nothing to deserve such treatment. In the book Ernestina comes across as rather insipid, but here Lynsey Baxter, only sixteen at the time and appearing in her first film, makes her a delightful young lady.
Irons and Streep are excellent as Charles and Sarah. (This was also Irons's first leading film role, and the one which made him a major star). Streep copes perfectly with the British accent, although she did perhaps sound a bit too upper-class for Sarah, who comes from a lower-middle-class background. She also looks particularly striking in this film, with her red hair and pale alabaster complexion contrasting with her black clothing. The scene where Charles first meets her, on the storm-swept Cobb in Lyme, has become one of the most iconic scenes in the cinema of the eighties. There are also excellent performances from Leo McKern as the perceptive and kindly Grogan, from Peter Vaughan as Ernestina's doting father and from Patience Collier as Sarah's obnoxious employer Mrs Poulteney.
I am a great admirer of the original novel, but what works on the printed page cannot always be transferred to the screen, and Pinter's attempt to find a cinematic equivalent to Fowles's literary devices struck me as a vain one. The modern-day love story always seemed weak and trivial by comparison with the much more serious Victorian one. Neither Mike nor Anna was a sympathetic character, especially as both were married and cheating on their spouses. When Anna decides not to leave her husband for Mike we do not feel pity for him in the way that we pity Charles when he is abandoned by Sarah. I felt that the film-makers would have done better to omit the modern scenes and to concentrate exclusively on the Victorian story. The result would have been a different film, but in my view probably a better one. Nevertheless, the film we have is a fine one. 8/10