The French Lieutenant's Woman (film) Award for Best Actress, and Pinter for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film intercuts the stories of two affairs. One is a Victorian period drama involving the gentleman palaeontologist Charles Smithson and the complex and troubled Sarah Woodruff, known as "the French lieutenant's woman." The other story is between actors Mike and Anna, playing the lead roles in a modern filming of the story. In both segments, Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the lead roles. John Fowles's "The French Lieutenant's Woman" had multiple endings, and the two parallel stories in the movie have different outcomes. In
The French Lieutenant's Woman (film) number of treatments, including one by Dennis Potter in 1975 and by James Costigan in 1976, before Pinter's final draft. Actors considered for the role of Charles Smithson/Mike included Robert Redford and Richard Chamberlain, and Sarah/Anna included Francesca Annis, Charlotte Rampling, Gemma Jones, and Fowles's choice Helen Mirren. The award-winning music was composed by Carl Davis and performed by an unidentified orchestra and viola soloist Kenneth Essex. "The French Lieutenant's Woman" holds a rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 19 reviews. The French Lieutenant's Woman (film) The French Lieutenant's Woman is a 1981 British romantic drama film directed