Whispers in the Sounds of Sirens

I viewed Sirens this evening, starring (among others) Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzgerald, and Portia de Rossi (who I did not know was Australian).

It reminded me of the late John Fowles' short story "The Ebony Tower," although – not having read it for a decade or so – I would be hard pressed to articulate precise similarities. The plots of both are hung on a braided armature of art, sex, and social values, but the perspectives are rather different: in the story, the protagonist is a man, while in the film she's a woman.

I was also reminded, for reasons that are completely opaque to me, of Mr. Fowles' novel The French Lieutenant's Woman. I have the vague feeling that Sirens' Mrs. Campion might offer a window into Miss Woodruff (the French lieutenant's woman of The French Lieutenant's Woman), who baffles me. Since I don't understand Miss Woodruff, it's difficult to identify the subtextual parallels between the two climaxes (or should I say, four?). But though I cannot say what they are, I am at least not blind to their existence. And, like the protagonist in "The Ebony Tower," it seems that Miss Woodruff is in some ways an inversion of Mrs. Campion (and, of course, vice versa, in both instances). That, I think, is how Mrs. Campion might illuminate Miss Woodruff. But that would be a couple of days' work, at least.