THE FOX
US, 1967, 119 minutes, Colour.
Sandy Dennis, Anne Heywood, Keir Dullea.
Directed by Mark Rydell.
The Fox is an American version of a D.H. Lawrence short story. The plot has been updated, but the film seems to convey much of the Lawrence philosophy and insights into human relationships and sexuality. The fox itself is a symbol of the predatory male and its symbolism is reinforced and strengthened by the theme of a lesbian relationship between Jill and Ellen March, the two principal characters.
While a description of the theme of The Fox might give cause for alarm at some of the questions raised, the film itself handles the themes with restraint, sensitivity and intelligence which make the film excellent cinema for an adult audience and make it compare favourably with the film version of another Lawrence short story, Christopher Miles' The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970) and with Ken Russell's version of the more complex novel Women in Love (1969).
T.V. director Mark Rydell has used colour, music and symbols to enhance the special atmosphere of the story and to illuminate the actions and motivations of the three principal characters. The film itself looks and sounds beautiful.
The acting is excellent, Anne Heywood's mixture of masculinity and femininity showing us a real Ellen March. Sandy Dennis uses her familiar techniques (which irritate some audiences) well and Keir Dullea is restrained as Paul, the human fox of the story.
1. What was the significance of the winter landscapes as the setting for this film, more beautiful than barren?
2. How did the musical score effect the mood of the film, especially, the heavy chords and the romantic theme?
3. How did the opening of the film set its mood - the fox attacking the chickens (and the camera subjectively rising towards the coop), the shots and the escape of the fox?
4. What was the significance of the title of the film? Note: Ellen's inability to kill the fox, Jill wanting it killed; the fox's eyes and Ellen's staring (communing?) Ellen's explanation of the fox's staring to Jill? Paul’s killing of the fox (and the camera's likening Paul to the fox - peering, stalking, etc,) Ellen saying the dead fox is beautiful, but she is glad it is dead; Paul slitting the dead fox, the final shot of the drying, dead fox skin?
5. Why were Jill and Ellen on the farm? What did they want from it? from life? from each other? were they happy?
6. What was the relationship between Jill and March - the relative roles of manual work and house and book-keeping, friendship, companionship, Jill saying Ellen 'March', the sequence of chasing the cow and March's imagination in the stills, the way they hurt each other?
7. Ellen: ‘March’, her soft and sweeter voice, her calm and silence, clothes, work, self-reliance, insecurity, her reading, the massage and bathroom sequence, her hurting Jill by taunts, her relationship to the fox (looking at herself as a woman and finding the fox watching her), her communing with the fox, her reaction to Paul (attraction and being repelled), her being drunk and singing, her discussion with Paul about the nature of hunting and shooting the deer, willing to put a bullet into the heart of the fox, her reaction to marriage, her change of dress, her growing independence of Jill, her walk with Paul, the sexual fulfilment, Paul’s absence and presence and the impact of his physical presence, her emotional response to Jill's unhappiness ("temporary but real"}, Paul's return, the tree, Jill’s death, the final wondering whether she would be happy?
Jill: dominant, but feminine (the ducks, cooking, book-keeping etc.), ‘March’, her sensitivity to taunts, the graduation story, acceptance of Paul, prudish, her fear of Paul, her reaction to the marriage and the attempt to dominate March, her selfishness, her search for March counter pointing the sexual climax, trying to buy off Paul, her moping then the embrace, temporary happiness, the tree, her death (on the level of realism? on the level of symbolism?)?
Paul: the fox, his vulpine look, his eyes, he stalks the house at his entry - ready to be shot, his background, Paul as a man (seen at first, suspiciously, through their eyes and then as more normal), his friendship, work, the rebuffs (the pheasant, the cooking), his love, the proposal (his forcing it - yet what else did Ellen have, his anger, why did he kill the fox, in the light of his speech on hunting)? He then becomes Ellen's fox, taunting Jill, the sexual fulfilment, his return, the tree, his responsibility for Jill's death, taking Ellen away? What future did they have?
8. Was the symbolism too obtrusive or was it evident but subtly effective; winter, isolation, the tree (life and death, phallic) the fox, chickens, flowers and rebirth, Ellen and Jill's playing in the snow, eyes, confrontations?
9. What insights did the film give on Lawrence's themes of love (both sensual and personal), relationships, needs and fulfilment, death?
