Priest of Love: Difference between revisions

Priest of Love is a British biographical film about D. H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda (née Von Richthofen). It was produced and directed by Christopher Miles and co-produced by Andrew Donally. The screenplay was by Alan Plater from the biography A Priest of Love by Harry T. Moore. The music score was by Francis James Brown and Stanley Joseph Seeger, credited jointly as "Joseph James", the cinematography by Ted Moore.

The film was first released by Filmways in New York on 11th October 1981 ^[1] and then by Enterprise Pictures Ltd in London with a Royal Premiere on 18th February 1981 ^[2]

Subsequently the film was re-cut in 1985 by the director, for the centenary of D.H.Lawrence’s birth, and was re-released in cinemas by Enterprise Pictures to a more commercial and critical success. In his DVD interview Christopher Miles says he made the cuts as there was “too much meandering as the (original) film didn't concentrate on the main theme of the relationship between Lawrence and Frieda… the scenes I cut were true events, but were not part of the dramatic curve”

Daily Telegraph ^[3] “Can a film, only slightly faulted, be redeemed by re-editing, This is one of the rare occasions when it can….the film is now revised with some new material by Mr Miles to give a shorter, sharper, more chronological account…. as a result the emphasis falls strongly on relations between Frieda and Lawrence, so illustrating precisely what he tried to convey in his major works.”

The Times ^[4] “Honourable and absorbing… with vivid, rounded, warty characterizations of Lawrence and Frieda by Ian McKellen and Janet Suzman”.

Daily Mail ^[5] “Back in a new, terser version Christopher Miles’s film biography of D.H. Lawrence looks better than ever”.

Dilys Powell ^{[6] [7]}“With astonished delight one finds, watching a film which when first seen four years ago seemed indeed reputable but not really equal to its subject, that it now shows itself as a work of deep understanding… There are small additions, but I think it is the cutting which has effected the transformation as ‘Priest of Love’ now concentrates on Lawrence’s life with his wife (played by Janet Suzman with a strength of comprehension not as clear in 1982)…and the writer, played by Ian McKellen is powerful in his untamed creative force, and heart-rending in his struggle to live…the more one reads the more clearly one sees that the errors of genius are in the bones of genius. If one is an admirer, one must accept them. Mr Miles’s’ film rightly urges one thankfully to accept ‘Lady ....Chatterley’’s Lover’.

DVD’s

This 1985 Centenary Version was then re-mastered in 2011 for a new DVD release in the USA (Kino International – standard DVD & Blu-Ray) and in the UK (Odeon Entertainment – standard DVD - 2012). The extras on both DVDs include interviews with Ian McKellen and Christopher Miles, and Penelope Keith narrates ‘The way we got it together’ on the making of the film.

The film stars Ian McKellen, Janet Suzman, Ava Gardner and Penelope Keith with Jorge Rivero, John Gielgud, Maurizio Merli, James Faulkner, Massimo Ranieri and Graham Faulkner.

• Priest of Love at IMDb

• Christopher Miles

USA Blu-ray Reviews of 1985 Centenary Version

• DVD Talk

• Twitch Film

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