Where there is not a single novel, play or poem of literary distinction that ever goes beyond the sensuality of a kiss, where Dr. Where the female body had never been so hidden from view and where every sculptor was judged by his ability to carve naked women. Where the penal system was progressively humanized and flagellation so rife that a Frenchman set out quite seriously to prove that the Marquis de Sade must have had English ancestry. Where the sanctity of marriage (and the chastity before marriage) was proclaimed from every pulpit, in every newspaper editorial and public utterance and where never – or hardly ever – have so many great public figures, from the future king on down, led scandalous private lives. Where more churches were built in the whole previous history of the country and where one in sixty houses in London was a brothel (the modern ratio would be nearer one in six thousand). “What are we faced with in the nineteenth century? An age where woman was sacred and where you could buy a thirteen-year-old girl for a few pounds – a few shillings, if you wanted her for only an hour or two. It is a brilliant post-modern attempt at looking at a forbidden romance in the Victorian Era, an era which is brilliant summed up in a quote I think I felt was too long to include in my original review: That might not seem like that high a praise, being ranked down at 99 out of 100 but it means that out of the thousands of novels I have read, I ranked it at #99 all-time. I ranked this novel at #99 all-time when I did my Top 100 Novels list.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles (1969) It has a brilliant performance from Streep and is easily my #1 adapted screenplay of the year. It still can’t make it into the Top 5 in a year such as this (four of the films above it are original scripts which is why it so easily wins this category) but it really is a great film and it deserves a bump up to a solid ****. But watching it this time (and I suspected this might be the case when I was re-reading the book yet again) I realized I have long been under-rating this film. I stressed in that review the brilliant way that Harold Pinter managed to approach a novel that was very deliberately post-modern but set in the Victoria Era and managed to bring both those things into the script in a fantastic way. I have already reviewed this film when I wrote about the novel as one of my Top 100 (see below). Nominees that are Original: Gregory’s Girl, Atlantic City, Chariots of Fire My Top 10 The French Lieutenant’s Woman Nominees that are Original: Absence of Malice, The Four Seasons, Reds Oscar Nominees (Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium):
The French Lieutenant’s Woman (112 pts).My original list did have six films but I ended up cutting Buddy Buddy after watching it again (which is unlikely to bother anyone since it seemed I had a higher opinion of it than most). The brilliant ending to the film that isn’t in the novel but fits the novel’s post-modern metaphysical style.
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