DIRECTOR: Ken Russell
BOTTOM LINE: Future gay activist Larry Kramer’s (founder of both GMHC and ACT UP) adaptation of D.H Lawrence’s 1920 novel “Women in Love” was an enormous critical and commercial success, earning four Oscar Nominations:
- Best Actress: Glenda Jackson (won).
- Best Director: Ken Russell (nominated).
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Larry Kramer (nominated).
- Best Cinematography: Billy Williams (nominated).
The film takes place in 1920 in the midlands mining town of Beldover. Two sisters, Ursula (Jennie Lindon) and Gudrun (Jackson) discuss marriage on their way to the wedding of Laura Crich, daughter of the town’s wealthy mine owner. At the village church, a particular wedding party member fascinates each sister – Gudrun is taken by Laura’s brother, Gerald (Oliver Reed), and Ursula is impressed by Gerald’s best friend, Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates). Ursula is a schoolteacher, and Rupert is a school inspector; she remembers his visit to her classroom, interrupting her botany lesson to discourse on the sexual nature of the catkin. A mutual friend later brings the four together, and as Jennie and Rupert start dating, so do Gudrun and Gerald.
What makes this a queer film is the famous nude wrestling scene by Firelight between Redd (Gerald) and Bates (Rupert). Rupert enjoys their closeness and says they should swear to love each other. Still, Gerald cannot understand Rupert’s idea of wanting to have an emotional union with a man and a dynamic and physical union with a woman.
NOT AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING. THE DVD IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON.
https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967
https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967-table-summary
https://thebrownees.net/fifty-two-post-hays-code-queer-films-released-in-the-decade-1967-1976
