Ken Russell's "Women in Love" was adapted from a novel written at the awakening of the roaring twenties by D. H. Lawrence. I haven't read the book but judging from the film, this must be one of these long works with interminable monologues expressing the kind of inner thoughts destined challenge the intellect maybe a little more than arouse your senses.
I guess I expected more in the sensorial side from the film and it sure has its share of graphic and yet strangely hypnotic imagery but let not that make sound like a heterosexual prejudice but I was kind of frustrated not to see more sensuality between men and women and I'm afraid after that extraordinary wrestling scene between two naked Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, the film never lives up to that promise and becomes a series of engaging build-ups to one climax that never dares to happen.
I blame it on the title, "Women in Love", I don't know the perspective from which the film was written but "Men in Quest for Love" would have been more appropriate. I might be too analytical but I don't hold that judgement against the film, nor the treatment of Ken Russell that feature some of the best cinematography British cinema ever offered. However, I learned from classics such as "Ryan's Daughter" and "Far From the Madding Crowd" that the greatest efforts in bringing a life of its own to small towns or natural settings don't amount to much when you don't have a story to justify it.
Ken Russell's directing and Billy Williams's cinematography are perfect and worthy of their Oscar nominations as far as technicality is concerned and there's an extraordinary sensual scene between Bates and Jennie Linden shot in a dizzying horizontal style that must have been quite a sight in the cozy intimacy of dark rooms in 1969 but the images were still too feeble given the turmoils that kept tantalizing the bodies of our protagonists.
Let's get to the two women arguably in love, they're not much in love as they're in love with a certain idea of what love is. That these two sisters share opposite views create a perfect juxtaposition of ideas and values that ironically find equal contentment from men who have also their different vision. The two sisters are Gudrun (Glenda Jackson) and Ursula (Linden), Gudrun is the kind of woman who embraces the liberation of mores after the first World War. She enjoys walking past a group of black-clad miners and hearing their raunchy comments have an ambivalent effect, she knows she had the potential to turn on men, which entitles her to sell at a high price the treasure of her hidden passions not any man has the key to.
Paradoxically, despite her hedonistic approach to life and her penchant for teasing men, she's acting both as a woman ahead of her time for her constant seeking of the basic pleasures of life and yet she accepts the separations of classes that make her inaccessible to the common man. In a crucial scene, where she teases one of the miner with a comment on flesh and thighs, the man is first puzzled and yet can only react through a desperate burst of 'toxic masculinity'. Notice that the mere sight of Gerald, his boss' son, played by Oliver Reed, is enough to put the man in his place.
Interestingly, Gerald is also man caught between two times, he doesn't share the benevolence of his sickly father (Alan Webb) and is much aware of his privilege and yet he doesn't hesitate to assert his masculinity by getting into the mine himself of forcing a poor horse to cross a railway while a freight is passing, much to the horror of Gudrun and even more from Ursula. He's the most enigmatic character as he probably doesn't know himself where he stands. Beyond his pose as a macho man, he shows genuine care for his father and disdain for her mother (Catherine WIllmer), a woman at the edge of insanity who can't cope with this mix of classes.
That Gerald works for the industrial world makes him a rather traditional model where he's got enough to content the appetites of Gudrun but maybe not what would make the package complete. It's only during an escapade to the Alps that Gudrun meets Loerke, Vladek Sheybal, a German who describes himself as a homosexual fan of secret games, that she finds the closest to a soulmate. In fact, she's a sapio-sexual and her vision of pleasure operates in the body contact as well as the intellect, a man who makes her come is one thing, but one who makes her think is a superior league. And Gerald, with all his masculinity must endure Loerke's harsh blow about his physicality, only the expression of mass in grotesque motion... while ironically he's the most capable of homoeroticism.
"Women in Love" is the tale of the incompatibility of love in couples where one seeks more than the other has to offer. .Ursula is the most ordinary as the least demanding, however Rupert can't get over the gap left by an exclusive relationship with a woman and that a man only can fill. It makes sense that his first woman was Hermione (Eleanor Bron) a dark woman of the dominating side but too enamored with her own image to be capable of anything mutual. Definitely Rupert finds the perfect partner in Gerald, as only a man can complete him and be him, as magnificently shown in the 'fight' scene.
British cinema was going through the same revolution as the New Hollywood with movies questioning love and sex (one that could be paralleled with the 20s), on that level "Women in Love" succeeds in both intellectualizing love and making it something more than a basic carnal need... needless to say that there's no room for pure love, for the only couple showing it, dies in a freak accident...
I guess I expected more in the sensorial side from the film and it sure has its share of graphic and yet strangely hypnotic imagery but let not that make sound like a heterosexual prejudice but I was kind of frustrated not to see more sensuality between men and women and I'm afraid after that extraordinary wrestling scene between two naked Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, the film never lives up to that promise and becomes a series of engaging build-ups to one climax that never dares to happen.
I blame it on the title, "Women in Love", I don't know the perspective from which the film was written but "Men in Quest for Love" would have been more appropriate. I might be too analytical but I don't hold that judgement against the film, nor the treatment of Ken Russell that feature some of the best cinematography British cinema ever offered. However, I learned from classics such as "Ryan's Daughter" and "Far From the Madding Crowd" that the greatest efforts in bringing a life of its own to small towns or natural settings don't amount to much when you don't have a story to justify it.
Ken Russell's directing and Billy Williams's cinematography are perfect and worthy of their Oscar nominations as far as technicality is concerned and there's an extraordinary sensual scene between Bates and Jennie Linden shot in a dizzying horizontal style that must have been quite a sight in the cozy intimacy of dark rooms in 1969 but the images were still too feeble given the turmoils that kept tantalizing the bodies of our protagonists.
Let's get to the two women arguably in love, they're not much in love as they're in love with a certain idea of what love is. That these two sisters share opposite views create a perfect juxtaposition of ideas and values that ironically find equal contentment from men who have also their different vision. The two sisters are Gudrun (Glenda Jackson) and Ursula (Linden), Gudrun is the kind of woman who embraces the liberation of mores after the first World War. She enjoys walking past a group of black-clad miners and hearing their raunchy comments have an ambivalent effect, she knows she had the potential to turn on men, which entitles her to sell at a high price the treasure of her hidden passions not any man has the key to.
Paradoxically, despite her hedonistic approach to life and her penchant for teasing men, she's acting both as a woman ahead of her time for her constant seeking of the basic pleasures of life and yet she accepts the separations of classes that make her inaccessible to the common man. In a crucial scene, where she teases one of the miner with a comment on flesh and thighs, the man is first puzzled and yet can only react through a desperate burst of 'toxic masculinity'. Notice that the mere sight of Gerald, his boss' son, played by Oliver Reed, is enough to put the man in his place.
Interestingly, Gerald is also man caught between two times, he doesn't share the benevolence of his sickly father (Alan Webb) and is much aware of his privilege and yet he doesn't hesitate to assert his masculinity by getting into the mine himself of forcing a poor horse to cross a railway while a freight is passing, much to the horror of Gudrun and even more from Ursula. He's the most enigmatic character as he probably doesn't know himself where he stands. Beyond his pose as a macho man, he shows genuine care for his father and disdain for her mother (Catherine WIllmer), a woman at the edge of insanity who can't cope with this mix of classes.
That Gerald works for the industrial world makes him a rather traditional model where he's got enough to content the appetites of Gudrun but maybe not what would make the package complete. It's only during an escapade to the Alps that Gudrun meets Loerke, Vladek Sheybal, a German who describes himself as a homosexual fan of secret games, that she finds the closest to a soulmate. In fact, she's a sapio-sexual and her vision of pleasure operates in the body contact as well as the intellect, a man who makes her come is one thing, but one who makes her think is a superior league. And Gerald, with all his masculinity must endure Loerke's harsh blow about his physicality, only the expression of mass in grotesque motion... while ironically he's the most capable of homoeroticism.
"Women in Love" is the tale of the incompatibility of love in couples where one seeks more than the other has to offer. .Ursula is the most ordinary as the least demanding, however Rupert can't get over the gap left by an exclusive relationship with a woman and that a man only can fill. It makes sense that his first woman was Hermione (Eleanor Bron) a dark woman of the dominating side but too enamored with her own image to be capable of anything mutual. Definitely Rupert finds the perfect partner in Gerald, as only a man can complete him and be him, as magnificently shown in the 'fight' scene.
British cinema was going through the same revolution as the New Hollywood with movies questioning love and sex (one that could be paralleled with the 20s), on that level "Women in Love" succeeds in both intellectualizing love and making it something more than a basic carnal need... needless to say that there's no room for pure love, for the only couple showing it, dies in a freak accident...