The Virgin And The Gypsy (1970)

Set in the 1920s, a young woman (Joanna Shimkus) and her sister (Harriet Harper) return from a boarding school in France to the cold repressive atmosphere of their father's (Maurice Denham) home. Also in the household are a belligerent grandmother (Fay Compton) and a mean spirited Aunt (Kay Walsh). But things change when the young woman meets a handsome gypsy (Franco Nero) who awakens her budding sexuality. Based on the novella by D.H. Lawrence and directed by Christopher Miles (PRIEST OF LOVE). The film goes beyond Lawrence's book by having the virgin and the gypsy consummate their sexual passion which doesn't occur in the book. The ending is also less ambiguous and the film has her walking away from her family. It's a lovely little film and Shimkus (who would retire a few years later to marry Sidney Poitier) conveys a quiet sensuality underneath her dissatisfaction with the conventionality of her prejudiced family and her emotional growth is slow but inevitable. Nero doesn't have to do much other than reek of sex and he does that easily. In supporting roles, Honor Blackman and Mark Burns are very good as an older woman and her younger lover waiting for her divorce to go through. The flood sequence at the film's end is nicely done. With Imogen Hassall and Norman Bird.