The Romantic Englishwoman. 1975. UK. Directed by Joseph Losey. Screenplay by Tom Stoppard, Thomas Wiseman, based on the novel by Wiseman. With Michael Caine, Glenda Jackson, Helmut Berger. 35mm. 115 min.
Tempted by the prospect of working with Joseph Losey, the director of The Servant, but less enchanted to discover his humorlessness on set, Michael Caine took a rather dim view of this “art movie” about bourgeois infidelity and gamesmanship, which Tom Stoppard reworked from Thomas Wiseman’s contemporary novel with what Pauline Kael called “a few Noël Cowardish bitch-nifties” of his own. Nonetheless, Caine’s performance as the cuckolded husband Lewis Fielding, a “rather ineffective and passive pseudo-intellectual wimp” who stands by as his restless wife (Glenda Jackson) beds down with a German playboy-poet (Helmut Berger), exemplifies the actor’s gift for playing identifiable losers. “The only actress I ever met who was not shy at all during her nude scene was Glenda in The Romantic Englishwoman,” Caine recounted. “She reacted throughout as if she had been fully clothed. As a matter of fact, I was more embarrassed than she was, which I suppose says more about my uptight attitude than it does about her. But with or without clothes she was an extraordinary actress to work with and I’m glad that I did the film, if only for that reason.”