French Lieutenants Woman (1981)

When I saw this was on Sky, it was an immediate must record! I've never seen this story within a story movie before or read any of the original books it is based on (The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969), by John Fowles, is a period novel inspired by the 1823 novel Ourika, by Claire de Duras).

The book is famous for its alternative endings, happy and sad, and Pinter cleverly incorporates this into the movie having the historical characters in the film within the film acheive a happy ending, but having the actors that play these characters suffer the unhappy ending.

All told, I sat throught the 2 hour movie reasonably happily. Happy to be adding another classic movie to the list of movies I have seen, but, I did not look back at the end of it and think of it as a great. The story was not overly interesting and it stumbled alon for me.

Having been nominated for 5 acadaemy awards back in its day, perhaps my view if it is spoiled by the comparison with other modern day productions.