Review of Women in Love (1969) by Alfonso D — 18 Aug 2007

One either has a taste for Ken Russell or one doesn't. His only mainstream successes were Tommy and Lair of the White Worm. Russell is the king of excess and mostly, it doesn't work but when it does, he hits it in spades. Women in Love is his best.

Not as over-the-top as The Music Lovers, Women in Love is a fairly straightforward adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel. The script and the casting are top notch. Glenda Jackson at the very height of her career (and just a year away from here groundbreaking performance in the BBC Elizabeth R series).

Everyone knows this film for its explicit wrestling scene with Bates and Reed. In the US we saw a truncated version. The UK version was uncut (ahem) and much more erotic. It definitely left a lasting impression (I sent Reed a big fan letter and like Bates' character, Rupert Birkin says at the end of the movie "I did offer myself to him" and like Reed's character, Gerald Critch, he never accepted). But the most amazing scene is where Birkin splits open and tongues out the contents of a freshly picked fig while blithely comparing the act as an explanation on the workings of the female anatomy.

Yikes!