Director's Comments

I had already read the D.H.Lawrence novella "The Virgin and the Gypsy", when Kenneth Harper, the producer, came to me with the project, as my father had a first edition at home. The story was in fact a precursor to "Lady Chatterley's Lover", and was never revised by Lawrence; but it had some of the same themes more subtly stated. A rough countryman's affair with a woman of a superior class, was an idea also present in "The White Peacock" and "Sons and Lovers". In fact it is the story of David Lawrence, himself a miner's son, and Frieda Weekley, the aristocratic wife of a professor, who ran away together in 1912.

Yvette, the rebellious daughter of the Rev. Saywell, has parallels with Frieda's ex-husband Professor Weekley and her daughters Barby and Elsa, who visited their mother and Lawrence at Sportonoin in Italy during 1926. A daughter rebelling against her parents' wishes by having a love affair with a man of whom they disapprove, which climaxes, and is then resolved by the destructive forces of water, is something I return to later with "The Clandestine Marriage".

After working on the screenplay with Alan Plater, Kenneth and I took the first draft to Columbia Pictures (UK), who were then backing the project. To our surprise they were not pleased that we had kept to the original Lawrence story, as they wanted the gypsy to be in the first reel. Kenneth and I disagreed, pointing out that the gypsy was an enigmatic figure of few words, and to introduce him at the start, would unbalance, what was already, a delicate story. Yvette's boredom and frustration of rectory life had to be shown before encountering the gypsy.

When I finished the technical shooting script, the Lawrentian elements of fire and water were incorporated - the sterile stuffy fire of the Rectory, contrasting with the real warmth of the gypsy's own fire - the insidious gentleness of the rectory river, suddenly metamorphosing into the cataclysmic waters from the dam, showing the undeniable power of nature and the gypsy to sweep away the old hypocrisies and ways of life. Unlike Lawrence, who ends with Yvette sniveling in bed with a cold, we gave her freedom to leave with the sympathetic Eastwoods.

That decision, not to go with Columbia, cost us a further two years in trying to raise alternative finance. But, through a chance meeting with Irene Finch, an agent who was helping with the casting, I found Dimitri de Grunwald. At that time he was collaborating with Lord Catto, at the Merchant Bankers Morgan Grenfell, and they had just started making UK based feature films with a European Film Consortium, of which Dimitri was co-founder.

Having studied at the I.D.H.E.C. in Paris, I was aware of some of the European actors, and that Joanna Shimkus had just made a film in France called "Tante Zita". Knowing she was a Canadian, we went over to Paris to see her as we were having trouble in casting English "virgins" who meant something in the UK cinema. Franco Nero, also helped with European distribution, being better known in Italy at the time.

The rest of the cast were excellent and all English, as was the crew.

Michael Craig, had been cast as Major Eastwood, but his filming in Australia ran over, so Mark Burns had to be rushed to the set for costume fittings, in order to begin filming immediately. However the first take of the flood scene at the end was nearly a disaster. Both this, and the films denouement, I cover in more detail in "Carrying the Can".

When we opened the critics were excellent throughout the world, which is always helpful to an independent filmmaker. Box office records were also broken in New York and London, where it stayed at the Odeon Haymarket for over a year. It also caught the 'flower-power gypsy' feeling at he time, and influenced several dress designers, as well as being the direct inspiration for the long-running television series "Country Matters"

I shall never forget the smile on Kenneth Harper's face as he sent a copy of the film to Columbia Pictures in Soho, and then turned to me saying that he wasn't too bothered about their reaction now!

Two years later, the film's estimated gross from the USA was $15 million, a considerable amount in those days. However just at this critical moment, something happened which wiped the smile from all our faces. The reasons for this, and why the flood scene went completely out of control, I cover in more detail in "Carrying the Can".

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