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The Virgin and the Gypsy
General | Posted 16 years ago Or, as the great master of 20th century English erotica spelled it, "Gipsy."
This evening I took 90 minutes out of my busy schedule to revisit the 1970 film with Franco Nero and Joanna Shimkus, based on D. H. Lawrence's novel that was published posthumously in 1930. I had seen it only once before, in about 1975 or so, and have been looking for a chance to see it again ever since.
Lawrence was a master of understatement. The film is slightly more explicit than his text, but not by much. The sexuality is so intense that it oozes from every moment, every line, and yet nothing really happens on camera. We know, of course, what happened that we did not actually see, but we don't need to see it to understand. I've been a bit of a Franco Nero fan ever since I saw him as Lancelot in the film version of Camelot but I consider this his finest performance. The word "smoldering" is trite and overused, yet it describes his portrayal accurately. If you can't imagine blue eyes burning you with their gaze, you need to see this.
Today's writers of erotica really need to read and learn from the source. D. H. Lawrence didn't have to describe sex explicitly. His writing is much more powerful precisely because he leaves it out and makes the reader imagine it... in technicolor (which hadn't even been invented back then.)
The film itself is photographed exquisitely, with accurate attention to scenery, costume, and English manners in "polite" society of the time of King George V. It's like seeing a series of watercolor paintings of the English countryside come to life, populated with people so tightly wrapped in their own narrow vision and inhibitions that they can't even understand their own misery. Into that the gypsy rides on his dark stallion, to free young Yvette who has just returned home from school in France. But in the end, she must free herself, for only she can cut the ropes that bind her.
There are moments of humor, intense passion, and unpleasant hatred and intolerance. All of it is about the human condition. Sexuality plays a huge role, like the elephant in the room that no one will admit is there, but the elephant remains invisible. The eroticism is that much more powerful as a result. Read the book or see the film, it will do you good.
This evening I took 90 minutes out of my busy schedule to revisit the 1970 film with Franco Nero and Joanna Shimkus, based on D. H. Lawrence's novel that was published posthumously in 1930. I had seen it only once before, in about 1975 or so, and have been looking for a chance to see it again ever since.
Lawrence was a master of understatement. The film is slightly more explicit than his text, but not by much. The sexuality is so intense that it oozes from every moment, every line, and yet nothing really happens on camera. We know, of course, what happened that we did not actually see, but we don't need to see it to understand. I've been a bit of a Franco Nero fan ever since I saw him as Lancelot in the film version of Camelot but I consider this his finest performance. The word "smoldering" is trite and overused, yet it describes his portrayal accurately. If you can't imagine blue eyes burning you with their gaze, you need to see this.
Today's writers of erotica really need to read and learn from the source. D. H. Lawrence didn't have to describe sex explicitly. His writing is much more powerful precisely because he leaves it out and makes the reader imagine it... in technicolor (which hadn't even been invented back then.)
The film itself is photographed exquisitely, with accurate attention to scenery, costume, and English manners in "polite" society of the time of King George V. It's like seeing a series of watercolor paintings of the English countryside come to life, populated with people so tightly wrapped in their own narrow vision and inhibitions that they can't even understand their own misery. Into that the gypsy rides on his dark stallion, to free young Yvette who has just returned home from school in France. But in the end, she must free herself, for only she can cut the ropes that bind her.
There are moments of humor, intense passion, and unpleasant hatred and intolerance. All of it is about the human condition. Sexuality plays a huge role, like the elephant in the room that no one will admit is there, but the elephant remains invisible. The eroticism is that much more powerful as a result. Read the book or see the film, it will do you good.
