The Rainbow

The Rainbow is a 1989 British drama film co-written and directed by Ken Russell and adapted from the D. H. Lawrence novel The Rainbow (1915). Sammi Davis stars as Ursula, a sheltered young pupil, then schoolteacher, who is taken under the wing (sexually and otherwise) by the more sophisticated Winifred (Amanda Donohoe). Russell's film was a companion to his 1969 adaption of Lawrence's second novel about the Brangwen sisters Women in Love (1920). Glenda Jackson appears as the mother of the character she played in Women in Love (1969). Leonard Maltin commented that "Many beautiful and striking moments don't quite gel, but still worth watching". The film was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. Plot Set during the final years of England's Victorian era, Ursula Brangwen is the eldest of several children of wealthy Derbyshire farmer Will Brangwen and his wife Anna. Since the age of 3, Ursula has had a fascination with rainbows, and after one rainstorm, she runs off with a suitcase hoping to look for a pot of gold at the end of it. Will tries to ease her fascination by making her a jam sandwich with several spreads of different flavoured jam resembling a rainbow. During her teenage years, Ursula falls into a same sex romance with her older swimming and gym teacher Winifred Inger, while at the same time, Ursula also begins having romantic feelings for Anton Skrebensky, a student at the nearby boys' high school who plans to enlist in the Army after graduation. Ursula and Winifred spend romantic weekends together at Winifred's house as well as hiking in the hills around the area. Winifred introduces Ursula to an artist friend of hers who encourages Ursula to model in the nude for his paintings, and when the artist, Mac, makes sexual advances towards Ursula and refuses to pay her for her modeling, she walks out.