The French Lieutenant's Woman

The French Lieutenant's Woman

1981

A Victorian novelist researching a story about a mysterious woman who spurned her French lover becomes dangerously entangled with his own leading actress, blurring the line between fiction and reality. Harold Pinter's adaptation of John Fowles' novel plays inventively with dual timelines and questions of authorship and desire.

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Director

  • Karel Reisz

Cast

  • Meryl Streep
  • Jeremy Irons
  • David Warner

Filming Locations

  • Borough Market

    The area around Borough, including Green Dragon Court near the Globe pub, was used for scenes in which Charles (Jeremy Irons) searches for Sarah among the London poor.

  • Dart Valley Railway

    The Dart Valley Railway (Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway) provided the steam railway sequences, with an ex-GWR locomotive hauling period carriages for scenes depicting Victorian rail travel.

  • Kingswear

    Kingswear, across the River Dart from Dartmouth, was used to represent Victorian Exeter, with Kingswear station featuring a period GWR steam locomotive arriving with a train carrying Charles Smithson.

  • Lyme Regis

    Meryl Streep's hooded figure standing on the wind-swept Cobb (the sea wall) at Lyme Regis is the film's most evocative image.

  • Shad Thames

    The Shad Thames area in Bermondsey, including St Saviour's Dock, was used for Victorian London dockside scenes, including the sequence in which Charles travels to ask Mr Freeman for permission to marry Ernestina.

  • Torbay

    The Torbay area and the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway line were used for Victorian railway and harbour scenes, with a period GWR locomotive brought in specifically for filming.