Women in Love (1969) [The Criterion Collection]

Director: Ken Russell
Writers: D.H. Lawrence (novel), Larry Kramer (written for the screen by)
Stars: Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson

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 crest 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 heights of agony and ecstasy, crafting a breathtaking drama of human sexuality at its most liberating, dominating, and destructive extremes.



Commentary tracks:
– Audio Commentary with director Ken Russell
– Audio Commentary with writer/producer Larry Kramer

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