The French Lieutenant's Woman

The French Lieutenant's Woman

1981

dir. Karel Reisz st. Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons

Let's get one thing straight off the bat: I watched this because of Meryl Streep. I had never heard of Jeremy Irons before this.

This film is two stories in one. The main story is of The French Lieutenant's Woman, taking place in the 1800s, and her descent and resurrection from madness. The second one, is of this story being filmed and the two leads (also played by Streep and Irons) falling in torturous love, even though both are already married. So you have two love stories for the price of one ticket, consisting of flashbacks into the 1800s, and the occasional insert of the filming of the story. (in 1981) The only problem I had with this technique was the first scene of 1981, for the previous half an hour, maybe it was only fifteen minutes, you saw the set up for the 1800s. And then you saw Jeremy Irons in bed and then he picks up a phone. When I saw this, I was thouroughly confused, convinced that the director or writer was stupid enough to think that there were 1980 style phones in the 1800s.

I shall first refer to the 1800s love story, and then the 1981 story, just so that we don't

The film was shot on location, so in Exeter and Lyme,( I believe this was this town.) and it was lush. The cinematography really brought out the shades of green of the English country side, and showed that it has life, but when the story was shot in the city, cool filters that really brought out the grey were used.

The 1800s love story is quite compelling, and of course, Streep is amazing as ever.

Now for the 1981 love story.

I honestly wish that either they had made this the main story of the film, and showed them shooting the 1800s film, or left it out completely. To me, it was just a hindrance to the actual story that we were wanting to learn more about. But that is just my opinion.