Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

Women in Love Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 3, 2018

Winner of Oscar Award for Best Actress, Ken Russell's "Women in Love" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original vintage trailer for the film; exclusive new video interviews with cinematographer Billy Williams and editor Michael Bradsell; two archival audio commentaries with the director and screenwriter and producer Larry Kramer; additional archival interviews and footage; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by writer and scholar Linda Ruth Williams and technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The sisters

Ken Russell’s cinematic interpretation of D.H. Lawrence’s popular novel is one big and lavish masterclass in human psychology staged during the early 1920s. Its main points are formulated while following the actions of two young women and two slightly older men with contrasting understandings of what love is supposed to represent and how it should be consumed.

The four are first seen together at a wedding ceremony at the home of Thomas Crich (Alan Webb), a very wealthy mine owner who for decades has employed the majority of the healthy men in the provincial town of Beldover. Here the sisters Gudrun (Glenda Jackson) and Ursula (Jennie Linden) pick the old man’s son, Gerald (Oliver Reed), and his childhood friend, Rupert (Alan Bates), as the perfect men that they would want to start a family and spend the rest of the their lives with. (The many reasons behind their picks are then systematically identified throughout the film). Eventually, after a tragic event the couples are formed -- Gudrun begins an affair with Gerald while Ursula ends up with Rupert. After the initial euphoria that their romantic encounters produce, however, the four gradually become frustrated with their relationships and begin to question their perceptions of true love. While on a honeymoon in Switzerland, Gudrun even experiments with a frivolous bisexual sculptor (Vladek Sheybal) and in the process completely destroys Gerald’s faith in love.

The brilliance of this film stems from Russell’s ability to present four contrasting points of view that over its course become impossible to discard. So what emerges of the struggles between the two couples is actually yet another validation of the old truth that above all else love is essentially a series of compromises that protect and straighten the deep feelings two people have for each other.

Something else worth highlighting is that the order in which various events are presented in the film is largely unimportant. The manner in which the main protagonists react in specific situations where their core beliefs are tested and they have to defend them is of far greater significance because it allows Russell to successfully discredit them whenever they define love in terms that align only with their personal views. So the episodic narrative is actually the center piece of a very delicate game of subversion in which right and wrong and strong and weak are constantly interchanged by Russell to reveal the flaws of various conventional stereotypes about the ways in which people discover love and allow it to define how they live their lives.

The film is full of memorable segments. Early on, for instance, Bates uses a ripe fig to deliver a strikingly cynical comparison that even the biggest prudes would have an awfully difficult time dismissing as inaccurate and idiotic. Then there is also that iconic segment in which Reed and Bates engage in a very intense fight, completely naked, to prove a point.

Russell’s decision to work with cinematographer Billy Williams (Gandhi) was undoubtedly the right one because the film’s period appearance is spectacular. The soundtrack was created by Oscar-winner Georges Delerue (The Conformist).

Women in Love Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.75:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Ken Russell's Women in Love arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 4K on a Northlight film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative and restored at Deluxe 142 in London. Cinematographer Billy Williams supervised the color grading, referencing his own dye-transfer Technicolor release print. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the magnetic track masters.

Transfer supervisors: Ben Thompson, Kieron Webb/BFI National Archive, Berkhamsted, England.
Colorist: Stephen Bearman/Deluxe, 142."

Until very recently the only release of this film that I had in my library was this early DVD release from MGM which was quite problematic even by that format's standards. Quite predictably, the recent 4K restoration offers a wide range of drastic improvements. Indeed, in terms of clarity and depth the improvements are so dramatic that just about all of the indoor and nighttime footage now has 'new' miniature details and nuances. Fluidity is also a lot better. A majority of viewers will almost certainly be very impressed with the healthy and clean color palette that supports the film's superb period appearance. Some of the visuals are really quite striking. There are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening adjustments. Image stability is excellent. Finally, there are no age-related imperfections to report. Great restoration. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Women in Love Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The upgrade in quality that the lossless track offers is just as impressive. In fact, the monaural track is probably one of the best that you are likely to hear on Blu-ray because it has the type of dynamic nuances that are typically present on much later films. It is also very healthy and boasting excellent overall balance.

Women in Love Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Women in Love. In English, not subtitled. (4 min, 1080p).

• A British Picture: Portrait of an Enfant Terrible - this very entertaining documentary was produced by Ken Russell and functions a bit like a confession because in it the iconic director reveals the origins of his passion for cinema and discusses how it changed his life. The documentary was made made for British television in 1989. In English, not subtitled. (49 min, 1080i).

• Ken Russell - presented here is an excerpt from an archival interview with Ken Russell in which the director explains how the classic silent German films he saw early in his life made him fall in love with cinema, and discusses his pursuit of the "perfect image and perfect sound" throughout his career as well as his work on Women in Love. The interview was conducted in 2007 in Los Angeles. In English, not subtitled. (14 min, 1080i).

• Glenda Jackson - in this archival interview, Glenda Jackson recalls her first acting experience and discusses the progression of her career over the years. There are also some interesting comments about her experience of working with Ken Russell and his directing methods. The interview was conducted by Colin Grimshaw for the television program Film Talk in 1976. In English, not subtitled. (20 min, 1080i).

• Billy Williams - in this brand new video interview, cinematographer Billy Williams discuses his early work, which was mostly commercials, and the first feature film that he shot with Ken Russell (Billion Dollar Brain), as well as their collaboration on Women in Love, the film's unique visual style and tone, the quality of the original script, and the final version of the film. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in London in 2017. In English, not subtitled. (25 min, 1080p).

• Michael Bradsell - in this brand new video interview, editor Michael Bradsell recalls what it was like to work with Ken Russell on Women in Love, and discusses the film's fluidity and period atmosphere, the contemporary overtones that emerge throughout it, the structure and editing/cutting of specific segments, etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in London in 2017. In English, not subtitled. (18 min, 1080p).

• ATV Today - presented here is a segment from the British television show ATV Today in which actors Alan Bates and Jennie Linden and screenwriter and producer Larry Kramer discuss the adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's popular novel and the ongoing production work. The interviews were conducted on-location during the shooting of Women in Love in Derby, England, in 1968. In English, not subtitled. (11 min, 1080p).

• Second Best - presented here is an adaptation of a short story by D.H. Lawrence that was produced by Alan Bates. Also included is a short interview with the actor. Both aired on British television in 1972. In English, not subtitled. (30 min, 1080i).

• Audio Commentary by Ken Russell - this archival audio commentary was also included on the old DVD release that MGM produced in the United States in 2003.
  
  1. Casting
  2. Birkin is Lawrence
  3. Editing solution
  4. Period costumes
  5. "The Fig"
  6. Isadora-inspired
  7. Control and power
  8. War Trauma
  9. Class distinction
  10. Symbolic fire
  11. Real locations
  12. Stampede
  13. Dusk scenes
  14. Shooting in a circle
  15. Wrestling scene
  16. Class by color
  17. Lawrentian dialogue
  18. Ironic love scene
  19. Production design
  20. Gudrun's art
  21. Reflecting a relationship
  22. Telepathy with actors
  23. Sinister character
  24. Pregnant Glenda
  25. Mountain films
  26. Censors
  27. People to rely on
  28. Good sense or nonsense
  29. Men in Love?

• Audio Commentary by Larry Kramer - this archival audio commentary with screenwriter and producer Larry Kramer was also included on the old DVD release that MGM produced in the United States in 2003.
  
  1. Great novel
  2. Oliver Reed
  3. Autobiographical details
  4. Tough women
  5. Prolific writers
  6. Faithful to the book
  7. Star equilibrium
  8. Strained relationship
  9. No harm done
  10. Variety of locations
  11. Longest sequence
  12. Favorite shots
  13. Oliver's weight
  14. Lawrentian philosophy
  15. Closed set
  16. Eye of architecture
  17. Vidal Sassoon
  18. Untarnished landscape
  19. Sexuality
  20. Filming in England
  21. Visualizing the text
  22. Rumors
  23. Not in the book
  24. Klaus Kinski
  25. Cuts to script
  26. Alan Bates
  27. The plunge
  28. Canon to writers
  29. Dare to adapt

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring writer and scholar Linda Ruth Williams' essay "Bohemian Rhapsody" and technical credits.

Women in Love Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The struggle of the two sexes to convincingly define what love means to them and agree on how to properly consume it has been documented in many great novels and films over the years. Women in Love was Ken Russell's attempt to explore the struggle while also reimagining D.H. Lawrence's popular novel in a very unique way. The end result is a wonderfully fluid period film that perhaps somewhat surprisingly has a lot of accurate observations about the ways in which 'modern' men and women continue to misjudge each other. Criterion's new Blu-ray release is sourced from a very strong organic 4K restoration that was supervised by cinematographer Billy Williams. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.