Henry And June Review

Henry And June
Paris: 1920s. Anais Nin meets Henry Miller and his wife June. Intrigued by them both, she begins expanding her sexual horizons with her husband Hugo as well as with Henry and others.

by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1990

Running Time:

136 minutes

Certificate:

18

Original Title:

Henry And June

In an adaptation of the autobiographical tale by Anais Nin, Fred Ward with impeccably shaved head taps away at his typewriter in 20s Paris as budding author Henry Miller, while torn between wife June (Thurman) and his raging passion for Anais (de Medieros).

Although it's amazing old Henry got any action whatsoever given the quality of his chat-up lines: "I've never been with a woman I could be so sincere with", "Everybody says sex is obscene. The only true obscenity is war". They get better folks, "I saw your true nature when you were dancing out there" and finally "I'd love you at eleven--I love you now--I will love you at a hundred."

Two-long, two talky, but strangely intruiging, Harry and June was nominated for an Oscar for Philip Rousellot's gorgeous soft focus Cinematography and feaatures solid performances from future stars Thurman, de Mediros and Kevin Spacey.

An old-fashioned literary biopic with all cliches intact and some pseudo-steamy grapplings to keep interest, if you must, up.
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