Women in Love

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Women in Love

R

Released Mar 25, 1970

2h 10m

Romance

LGBTQ+

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

83%

Tomatometer

23 Reviews

74%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Close friends Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates) and Gerald Crich (Oliver Reed) begin romances with siblings Ursula (Jennie Linden) and Gudrun Brangwen (Glenda Jackson). After the couples wed, they take a joint honeymoon to Switzerland, where things begin happily -- but they become increasingly complicated as the trip continues. Rupert and Ursula are determined to stay faithful to one another, while the aloof Gerald and the eccentric Gudrun turn to infidelity and sexual exploration.

Critics Consensus

A quartet of nuanced performances and Ken Russell's off-kilter direction brings D.H. Lawrence's battle of the sexes to tactile life.

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Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Despite a growing portentousness towards the end, and moments of silliness scattered throughout, a surprisingly restrained, even respectful adaptation of DH Lawrence's novel.

Jun 11, 2019

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Directed with style and punch by Ken Russell, this is an episodic but challenging and holding pic.

Jun 11, 2019

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Melissa Anderson

Artforum

Yet it is to the film's great credit that, in depicting that "puritanical insistence," heterosexuality is revealed to be the most unnatural form of coupling.

Aug 14, 2018

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

The story occasionally grows choppy and diffuse, yet the visual splendors never fail to take command.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 30, 2021

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

A sterling confluence of three distinct icons, Women in Love is a key masterpiece of 1970s era British cinema, and one which has outlasted its infamous bits to reveal a decadent, lush, study on the amorphous subjects of love and sexuality.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 25, 2020

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Paul Schrader

Cinema

The most successful adaptation of a Lawrence novel to the screen.

Jun 30, 2020

Full Review

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Alec B

Bates, Linden, Reed, and Jackson are all superb. Russel's willingness to push the sexual content to a near frenzy gives the film a wild and unpredictable energy that is endlessly rewarding.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/05/24

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Mat L

Alan Bates is unforgettable in this classic masterpiece.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/04/23

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Leaburn O

I can't think of anything to praise about this bore fest. Made it onto the BFI Top 100 and contains one of the gayest scenes ever put to film. The rest of the picture is just rambling boring nonsense. Stunningly boring.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

08/30/23

Full Review

Shioka O

You have Reed and Bates at the same time in this Ken Russel's. Pretentious as you expect. Filmed in the style, it's not coherent. The naked fighting scene is unforgettable as if Roman paintings.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

delysid d

some things i liked about this but overall, i didn't much like it

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/19/22

Full Review

William L

I like that some critics describe Women in Love as having "homoerotic undertones" when there is literally a scene with two men wrestling naked in front of a fireplace, after which one of them expresses his distaste for marriage to women and the need for closer companionship with other men; that's some real "Sappho and her friend" matierial. While completely unfamiliar with the source novel, I can recognize some real ambition in the narrative for a novel from 1920 and have been assured that there is considerable context that only literature can adequately convey. However, that ambition falls rather flat in this film adaptation, which seems to be more pretentious musings than sincere commentary on the nature of romance and sexuality among the upper classes. Some intermittent individual scenes appear well-composed, but the final product doesn't seem cohesive and the film often feels unrealistic or tonally confused in its efforts to be artistic. The performances are good, but Russel's strange surrealism just doesn't seem like a fit for the plot. In 2020, I can't look at mustachioed Oliver Reed without thinking that it is a strangely dramatic turn for present-day Mark Hamill. (3/5)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/08/20

Full Review

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Ken Russell

Director

Alan Bates

Rupert Birkin

Glenda Jackson

Gudrun Brangwen

Oliver Reed

Gerald Crich

Jennie Linden

Ursula Brangwen

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Synopsis

Close friends Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates) and Gerald Crich (Oliver Reed) begin romances with siblings Ursula (Jennie Linden) and Gudrun Brangwen (Glenda Jackson). After the couples wed, they take a joint honeymoon to Switzerland, where things begin happily -- but they become increasingly complicated as the trip continues. Rupert and Ursula are determined to stay faithful to one another, while the aloof Gerald and the eccentric Gudrun turn to infidelity and sexual exploration.

Director: Ken Russell
Producer: Larry Kramer
Screenwriter: Larry Kramer, D.H. Lawrence
Distributor: United Artists
Production Co: Brandywine Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Romance, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 25, 1970, Wide
Release Date (DVD): Mar 4, 2003
Runtime: 2h 10m
Sound Mix: Mono