The French Lieutenant's Woman (film)

The French Lieutenant's Woman
Original film poster
Directed by	Karel Reisz
Produced by	Leon Clore
Written by	Harold Pinter John Fowles (novel)
Starring	Meryl Streep Jeremy Irons David Warner
Music by	Carl Davis
Cinematography	Freddie Francis
Editing by	John Bloom
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	United States: 18 September 1981
Running time	127 minutes
Country	UK
Language	English
Budget	$9 million
Box office	$26,890,068

The French Lieutenant's Woman is a 1981 film directed by Karel Reisz and adapted by playwright Harold Pinter. It is based on the novel of the same title by John Fowles. The music score is by Carl Davis and the cinematography by Freddie Francis.

The film stars Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons with Hilton McRae, Jean Faulds, Peter Vaughan, Colin Jeavons, Liz Smith, Patience Collier, Richard Griffiths, David Warner, Alun Armstrong, Penelope Wilton and Leo McKern.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Streep was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress, and the film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), but both lost to On Golden Pond.

Plot

The film interweaves two story lines: the book's original story of Sarah Woodruff and Charles Smithson set in Victorian England, and the story of the two actors who portray them, Anna and Mike, set in approximately 1980. Fowles wrote two endings for the book—one happy, one not. Rather than attempting to incorporate both endings in Charles and Sarah's story, Pinter added the storyline of the actors for the unhappy ending.

Charles Smithson, a Victorian palaeontologist, is engaged to a young society girl in Lyme Regis as the film opens. Sarah Woodruff is a woman dubbed "tragedy" or "the French Lieutenant's Whore" by the townspeople of Lyme Regis. Charles and Sarah have several encounters along the undercliff outside Lyme Regis, and eventually Charles learns Sarah's story and develops feelings for her. Anna—who is in relationship with David—and Mike, who is married with children, are in the midst of an affair that appears to have begun during the making of the film.

Charles and Sarah's relationship develops to consummation and his engagement and reputation are destroyed, while the actors struggle with the weight of their affair.

Background

In the original book, the author is very much present - constantly addressing the reader directly and commenting on his characters, and on Victorian society in general, from his Twentieth-century perspective. A direct adaptation would have required a continual voice over.

Instead, the film creates the effect of the 19th Century society looked at from a 20th Century perspective by having a story within a story, the Victorian story being a film being shot in the present and the actors portraying the two Victorian characters having a love affair in their actual life, with the film shifting constantly between the two centuries. And though the actors are not bound by Victorian mores in their actual present-day lives, their affair still presents hard dilemmas since each is in a relationship with somebody else.

Instead of trying to create a literal translation of the novel's alternate endings, Pinter's screenplay adopted a more cinematic approach by having the characters' story end one way and the actors' another.

Production notes

The book was published in 1969. Its transfer to the big screen was a protracted process, with film rights changing hands a number of times before a treatment, funding and cast were finalized. Originally, Malcolm Bradbury and Christopher Bigsby approached Fowles to suggest a television adaptation, to which Fowles was amenable, but producer Saul Zaentz finally arranged for the film version to go ahead.

A number of directors were attached to the project: Sidney Lumet, Robert Bolt, Fred Zinnemann and Milos Forman. The script went through a number of treatments, including one by Dennis Potter in 1975 and by James Costigan in 1976, before Pinter's final draft.

Actors considered for the role of Charles Smithson/Mike included Robert Redford and Richard Chamberlain and Sarah/Anna included Francesca Annis, Gemma Jones and Fowles' choice Helen Mirren.

The award-winning music composed by Carl Davis and performed by an unidentified orchestra and viola soloist Kenneth Essex.

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Nominations

• Best Actress in a Leading Role: Meryl Streep
• Best Art Direction-Set Decoration: Assheton Gorton, Ann Mollo
• Best Costume Design
• Best Film Editing
• Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

BAFTA Awards

Wins

• Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music: Carl Davis
• Best Actress: Meryl Streep
• Best Sound: Don Sharp, Ivan Sharrock, Bill Rowe

Nominations

• Best Film
• Best Actor: Jeremy Irons
• Best Cinematography: Freddie Francis
• Best Costume Design: Tom Rand
• Best Direction: Karel Reisz
• Best Editing: John Bloom
• Best Production Design/Art Direction: Assheton Gorton
• Best Screenplay: Harold Pinter

Golden Globe Awards

Win

• Best Actress: Meryl Streep

Nominations

• Best Motion Picture - Drama
• Best Screenplay: Harold Pinter

Other awards

• Evening Standard British Film Award Best Film: Karel Reisz
• David di Donatello Awards: Best Screenplay - Foreign Film: Harold Pinter
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards: Best Actress: Meryl Streep

External links

• FowlesBooks.com -- The Official John Fowles web site
• The French Lieutenant's Woman at the Internet Movie Database