Film

Women in Love

Ken Russell's 1969 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel follows two sisters navigating desire, intimacy and self-discovery in Jazz Age England. It's sensual and unflinching, alive with the texture of bodies and landscapes, occasionally bewildering but never dull. For viewers ready to sit with uncomfortable truths about love and power.

TMDb rating3.3

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Sunday Bloody Sunday1971

Another 70s masterpiece about desire and entanglement, with John Schlesinger's cool precision tracking a love triangle that refuses easy resolution. Glenda Jackson is extraordinary.

But It's quieter and more emotionally ambiguous than Women in Love—less baroque, which some find distant rather than moving.

Sunday Bloody Sunday poster

The Savage Innocents1960

Nicholas Ray's film about desire across cultures has the same Lawrence-like fascination with bodies, instinct and the collision between different ways of being. Anthony Quinn is unforgettable.

But It's a product of its era in ways that haven't entirely aged well, and the framing can feel patronising from a modern perspective.

The Savage Innocents poster

A Bigger Splash2015

Luca Guadagnino's sun-soaked thriller shares Women in Love's obsession with desire as a destabilising force. Ralph Fiennes's arrival into a couple's life mirrors Crich and Birkin's impact on the sisters.

But It's slower and more painterly than you might expect, and sexual tension doesn't translate to plot momentum for everyone.

A Bigger Splash poster

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The Holy Mountain1973

Both are maximalist 70s films using the body and sensuality as vehicles for metaphysical inquiry; both reject restraint and narrative tidiness in service of something rawer.

Jodorowsky's surrealist epic is Russell's closest contemporary in sheer visual audacity and interest in the spiritual through the bodily. Both directors treat desire and transformation as sacred material.

But It's genuinely difficult—non-narrative, grotesque in places, and asks viewers to abandon conventional logic entirely.

The Holy Mountain poster
More like this (7)

The Kreutzer Sonata2008

Brady Corbet's adaptation of Tolstoy is similarly unafraid of bodies and jealousy; it captures the same intellectual-erotic combustion that powers Russell's film.

But It's bleak and quite austere in its approach, and the minimal dialogue can feel punishing to viewers seeking narrative propulsion.

The Kreutzer Sonata poster

Come and See1985

Elem Klimov's devastating war film has the same register as Women in Love's final tragedy—unflinching about destruction and the body, refusing sentiment.

But This is extremely difficult viewing. It's not analogous in subject matter; it's paired for tone and moral seriousness only.

Come and See poster

The Servant1963

Joseph Losey's film tracks power, desire and class through intimate spaces with the same precision Russell brings to Lawrence. The psychological games are excruciating.

But It's more formally controlled than Women in Love—less sensual, more architectural. Some find the glacial pace tedious.

The Servant poster

A Taste of Honey1961

Tony Richardson's film has the same interest in working-class life and unconventional desire, shot through with the same nervous energy about bodies and feeling.

But It's gentler and more comic than Russell, which can make it feel slight by comparison.

A Taste of Honey poster

Last Year at Marienbad1961

Alain Resnais's puzzle-box about memory, desire and reality shares Women in Love's refusal to explain itself—you're meant to feel it, not decode it.

But It's abstract and frustrating, constructed to resist comprehension. If you need plot clarity, this will infuriate you.

Last Year at Marienbad poster

An Angel at My Table1990

Both centre female desire and artistic aspiration as equally valid to romantic love; both are interested in the cost of being fully yourself.

Jane Campion's three-part portrait of Janet Frame follows a woman navigating creative ambition, love and self-discovery with the same psychological acuity Russell brings to his two couples. Deeply moving.

But It's more conventional in structure and less visually experimental; the reward is emotional rather than formal.

An Angel at My Table poster

The Night of the Iguana1964

Both adapt major literary figures fascinated by passion as a force that unmakes people; both use landscape and weather as expressions of emotional temperature.

John Huston's adaptation of Tennessee Williams is voluptuous, morally ambiguous filmmaking about desire in a claustrophobic setting. Richard Burton and Ava Gardner grapple with hunger in ways that echo Russell's vision.

But It's melodramatic where Women in Love is intellectual, and the framework is more heteronormative and conventional.

The Night of the Iguana poster

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Sons and Lovers, Yves Saint Laurent, Darling, O Lucky Man!, A Town Like Alice, The Fox, Venusberg