Review of The Rainbow (1989) by Stuart K — 19 Nov 2009

20 years after the release of Women of Love (1969), which had put Ken Russell on the map as a director, and won Glenda Jackson an Oscar. Russell returned to D.H. Lawrence's work, and took on his 1915 book, (published 5 years before Women in Love), The Rainbow.

It is a very good film, with some good performances and visually amazing with it's locations and oddities we've all come to expect from Ken. :P It focuses on the young life of Ursula Brangwen (Sammi Davis), who lives with her father Will (Christopher Gable) and mother Anna (Glenda Jackson, playing the mother of the character she played in Women in Love) and her brothers and sisters.

Ursula is courting soldier Anton Skrebensky (Paul McGann) and she has a lesbian love affair with her teacher Winifred Inger (Amanda Donohoe), who eventually marries Ursula's Uncle Henry (David Hemmings).

Ursula gets a job as a schoolteacher, but finds misery from the schoolkids and headmaster (Jim Carter). It's good that Ken returned to do this as a prequel to the film that made him a household name, in terms of story and structure, it's not as good as Women in Love, but there's good performances on display here, (Davis is wonderful, as is Donohoe), and typical of Ken, there's alot of nudity on display!! :P.