The French Lieutenant's Woman

1981

Action / Drama / Romance

20
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 83% · 29 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 67% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 16964 17K

adultery based on novel or book lieutenant love tragedy dorset

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Plot summary

In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.

Director

Karel Reisz Photo
Karel Reisz

Top cast

Leo McKern Photo
Leo McKern as Dr. Grogan
Meryl Streep Photo
Meryl Streep as Sarah and Anna
Jeremy Irons Photo
Jeremy Irons as Charles and Mike
Hilton McRae Photo
Hilton McRae as Sam
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.11 GB
1280*682
English 2.0
R
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 3 min
Seeds 5
2.06 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
R
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 3 min
Seeds 19

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 7 / 10

Usually if there are two separate timelines featured

Usually if there are two separate timelines featured in a story, the director tries to ensure that we cannot readily distinguish between one that might be true and one that might be artificial. It's the complete opposite that really works well here as we mingle the story of an 18th century woman living within the constraints of high Victorian society with a more profligate 1970s one. To fit out the earlier scenario, we meet the shy "Sarah" (Meryl Streep) who is rebounding from a liaison with the titular French lieutenant by having an even less suitable assignation with the altogether more decent "Charles" (Jeremy Irons). The modern day scenario has the same two actors playing "Anna" and "Mike", only both are married to others and they are the "real" life actors portraying these other characters in a film of their lives. Now we get to experience the story of both relationships undulating in parallel. It sounds way more complex than it actually is as a combination of Harold Pinter's adaptation of the original novel and the acting from both Streep and Irons manages to convince us that though we are seeing two separate stories play out before us, they have remarkable similarities in the life imitating art sort of space. I preferred the older scenario, but only because the supporting cast of characters could make much more of their rigid, sexist and downright hypocritical environment and Streep works well with her frankly quite insipid "Sarah". The more modern day story tended more to soap for my liking: their behaviour more duplicitous, selfish and that led to a disappointing degree of predicability. More relatable, if you like. I'm not really a fan of Irons, but here he works well across both iterations and gels remarkably well with a Streep who seems to morph from both of her persona effortlessly and convincingly. The pace can dawdle at times, and maybe Karel Reisz could have just tightened things up a little at the rather plodding start, but the production design across both storylines looks good and it's once the tram lines are laid down and the two become entrenched, it becomes quite a compelling story of love, lust, betrayal and lies.
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Reviewed by AlsExGal 7 / 10

It's surprising that I'd never seen this film...

...which fits into the genre of movies that take place in two totally different time periods, with parallel/related stories. This is a beautifully produced film with amazing credits, directed by Karel Reisz, written by Harold Pinter, cinematography by Freddie Francis, and starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.

I should have liked this film more than I did, although I did enjoy it. It's beautiful to look at, shot mostly in Lyme Regis on the south coast of England, it focuses on actors making a movie in contemporary times; and the story of that movie, which takes place in Victorian England. Basically, two love stories involving the Meryl and Jeremy characters, one story seemingly tragic, barreling however toward a happy ending; the other, a modern story, ending unhappily, at least for Jeremy. Sometimes, it's almost very briefly unclear at first, which story you are actually watching, which is a nice touch. I liked it but probably would have liked it more, had I seen it in 1981.

Like the Jeanne Moreau character's sailor in The Sailor from Gibraltar, one wonders if the French lieutenant really existed.

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