The French Lieutenant's Woman (film)
Encyclopedia
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
.
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 and its consequences.
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.
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.
Nominations
Nominations
1981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....
film directed by Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
and adapted by playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
. It is based on the novel of the same title
The French Lieutenant's Woman
The French Lieutenant’s Woman , by John Fowles, is a period novel inspired by the 1823 novel Ourika, by Claire de Duras, which Fowles translated into English in 1977...
by John Fowles
John Fowles
John Robert Fowles was an English novelist and essayist. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Fowles among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Birth and family:...
. The music score is by
Carl Davis
Carl Davis
Carl Davis CBE is an American born conductor and composer who has made his home in the UK since 1961. In 1970 he married the English actress Jean Boht....
and the cinematography by Freddie Francis
Freddie Francis
Frederick William Francis BSC was an English cinematographer and film director.He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer, including winning two Academy Awards, for Sons and Lovers and Glory...
.
The film stars Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
and Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
with Hilton McRae
Hilton McRae
Hilton McRae is a Scottish actor in the fields of theatre, television and film.-Career:McRae was part of the radical theatre group 7:84 before graduating from Edinburgh University, and by 1977 he had joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. His most mainstream American film was his role as Green...
, Jean Faulds, Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts...
, Colin Jeavons
Colin Jeavons
Colin Jeavons is a Welsh television actor.-Career:Jeavons is best known as Inspector Lestrade in the Granada television serials The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or the part of the undertaker, Shadrack, in the television situation comedy written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall from...
, Liz Smith
Liz Smith (actress)
Liz Smith, MBE is a British actress, best-known for her roles in the sitcoms The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family. She also appeared in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
, Patience Collier, Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths, OBE is an English actor of stage, film and television. He has received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor...
, David Warner
David Warner (actor)
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...
, Alun Armstrong
Alun Armstrong (actor)
Alun Armstrong is a prolific British character actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of...
, Penelope Wilton
Penelope Wilton
Penelope Alice Wilton, OBE is an English actress.-Life and career:Penelope Alice Wilton was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, to a former actress mother and a businessman father. She is a niece of actors Bill Travers and Linden Travers and a cousin of the actor Richard Morant...
and Leo McKern
Leo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...
.
The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Streep was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, and the film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), but both lost to On Golden Pond
On Golden Pond (1981 film)
On Golden Pond is a 1981 American drama film directed by Mark Rydell. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his 1979 play of the same title. Henry Fonda won the Academy Award in what was his final film role. Co-star Katharine Hepburn also received an Oscar, as did Thompson for his...
.
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
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
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
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-Devon border...
. Charles and Sarah have several encounters along the undercliff
The Undercliff
The Undercliff is the name of several areas of landslip on the south coast of England. They include ones on the Isle of Wight; on the Dorset-Devon border near Lyme Regis; on cliffs near Branscombe in East Devon; and at White Nothe, Dorset...
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
Infidelity
In many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...
that appears to have begun during the making of the film.
Charles and Sarah's relationship develops to consummation
Consummation
Consummation is the initial sexual act made within a marriage.Consummation can also refer to:* Consummation , 1970 recordingSee also:* Consummation of days, event predicted in Daniel Chapter 12, verses 1-4...
and his engagement and reputation are destroyed, while the actors struggle with the weight of their affair and its consequences.
Cast
- Meryl StreepMeryl StreepMary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
- Jeremy IronsJeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
- Hilton McRaeHilton McRaeHilton McRae is a Scottish actor in the fields of theatre, television and film.-Career:McRae was part of the radical theatre group 7:84 before graduating from Edinburgh University, and by 1977 he had joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. His most mainstream American film was his role as Green...
- David WarnerDavid Warner (actor)David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...
- Penelope WiltonPenelope WiltonPenelope Alice Wilton, OBE is an English actress.-Life and career:Penelope Alice Wilton was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, to a former actress mother and a businessman father. She is a niece of actors Bill Travers and Linden Travers and a cousin of the actor Richard Morant...
- Lynsey BaxterLynsey BaxterLynsey Baxter is an English actress. Born in London, she began as a child actress in 1974 and later trained at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts...
- Leo McKernLeo McKernReginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...
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
Story within a story
A story within a story, also rendered story-within-a-story, is a literary device in which one narrative is presented during the action of another narrative. Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device...
, 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
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
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 BradburyMalcolm Bradbury
Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic.-Life:Bradbury was the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
and Christopher Bigsby
Christopher Bigsby
Christopher Bigsby is a British literary analyst and novelist, with more than forty books to his credit. Earlier in his writing career, his books were published under the name C. W. E. Bigsby....
approached Fowles to suggest a television adaptation, to which Fowles was amenable, but producer Saul Zaentz
Saul Zaentz
Saul Zaentz is an American film producer and former record company executive. He has won the Academy Award for Best Picture three times and in 1996 was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award....
finally arranged for the film version to go ahead.
A number of directors were attached to the project: Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
, Robert Bolt
Robert Bolt
Robert Oxton Bolt, CBE was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar winning screenwriter.-Career:He was born in Sale, Cheshire. At Manchester Grammar School his affinity for Sir Thomas More first developed. He attended the University of Manchester, and, after war service, the University of...
, Fred Zinnemann
Fred Zinnemann
Fred Zinnemann was an Austrian-American film director. He won four Academy Awards and directed films like High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons.-Life and career:...
and Milos Forman
Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...
. The script went through a number of treatments, including one by Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
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
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
and Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
and Sarah/Anna included Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis is an English actress, known for her film and television appearances, most recently in the BBC series Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and Deceit.-Early life and education:...
, Gemma Jones
Gemma Jones
Gemma Jones is an English character actress on both stage and screen.-Early life:Jones was born in London, England, the daughter of Irene and Griffith Jones, an actor. Her brother, Nicholas Jones, is also an actor...
and Fowles' choice Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
.
The award-winning music composed by Carl Davis
Carl Davis
Carl Davis CBE is an American born conductor and composer who has made his home in the UK since 1961. In 1970 he married the English actress Jean Boht....
and performed by an unidentified orchestra and viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
soloist Kenneth Essex.
Academy Awards
Nominations- Best Actress in a Leading RoleAcademy Award for Best ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
: Meryl Streep - Best Art Direction-Set DecorationAcademy Award for Best Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
: Assheton GortonAssheton GortonAssheton Gorton is an English production designer. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film The French Lieutenant's Woman and was the BAFTA nominated art director for Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup.-Selected filmography:*The Knack ...and How...
, Ann MolloAnn MolloAnn Mollo is a British set decorator. She was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film The French Lieutenant's Woman.-Selected filmography:* The French Lieutenant's Woman -External links:... - Best Costume DesignAcademy Award for Costume DesignThe Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....
- Best Film EditingAcademy Award for Film EditingThe Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
- Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another MediumAcademy Award for Writing Adapted ScreenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
.
BAFTA Awards
Wins- Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music: Carl Davis
- Best ActressBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleBest Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...
: Meryl Streep - Best Sound: Don Sharp, Ivan Sharrock, Bill Rowe
Nominations
- Best FilmBAFTA Award for Best FilmThis page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
- 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 ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture DramaThe Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture - Drama was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951...
: Meryl Streep
Nominations
- Best Motion Picture - DramaGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - DramaThis page lists the winners and nominees for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, since its institution in 1951. The organizer, Hollywood Foreign Press Association , is an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications...
- 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