#916: RUSSELL, Ken: Women In Love (1969)

RUSSELL, Ken (United Kingdom)
Women In Love [1969]
Spine #916
Blu-ray


With this film, the audacious Ken Russell vaulted onto the international stage, drawing on the psychosexual radicalism of D. H. Lawrence's classic novel to shatter taboos in his own time. Set in an English mining community on the cusp of modernity, Women in Love traces the shifting currents of desire that link the emancipated Brangwen sisters (Jennie Linden and an Oscar-winning Glenda Jackson) to a freethinking dreamer (Alan Bates) and a hard-willed industrialist (Oliver Reed) — as well as the men's own erotically charged friendship. Coupling earthy sensuality with kaleidoscopically stylized images, Russell pursues this quartet to the extremes of agony and ecstasy, crafting a breathtaking drama of human sexuality at its most liberating, dominating, and destructive.

131 minutes
Color
Monaural
1:75:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2018
Director/Writers


Adapted from the novel by D.H. Lawrence.
Screenplay by Larry Kramer.
Ken Russell was 42 when he directed Women in Love.

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Eight-panel foldout poster featuring an essay by scholar Linda Ruth Williams.

Commentary
  1. Featuring director Russell.
  2. Featuring screen writer-producer Kramer.
Segments

From a 2007 interview with Russell for BAFTA Los Angeles Heritage Archive.

A British Picture: Portrait of an Enfant Terrible

Russell’s 1989 biopic on his own life and career.

Interview

From 1976 with actor Jackson.

Interviews 1

With Kramer and actor Bates and Linden from the set.

Interviews 2

With DP Billy Williams and editor Michael Bradsell.

1972 short film

Second Best, based on a D.H. Lawrence story, produced and starring Bates.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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