Venus: the movie

Peter O'Toole is absolutely great in this film. Its about an old actor, Maurice, who falls in love with a unhappy young girl, Jessie, who is convinced she is worthless and unattractive. He sees her beauty, and also understands that she has been wounded by life. She tells him that her mother told her that her birth "ruined her life." Later Maurice tells her the most beautiful thing a man will ever see is a naked woman, and she asks, what is the most beautiful thing a woman sees? He answers, her first born child. She cries. Later Maurice finds out she was pregnant but mommy dearest made her get an abortion. Maurice takes Jessie to a museum, and they see a picture of Venus, nude. He starts calling her Venus. When she tells him of her unhappy childhood, he recites Shakespeare to her: shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Of course the end is near, but Jessie manages to provide Maurice with a happy death. O'Toole is absolutely brilliant: the scene where he is standing on a bucket trying to view Jessie who is posing nude for an art class, and the door opens with him hanging on it, he falls down upturning easels - physical comedy, well done, and at his age of 74! I can't believe he never received an Oscar - some acting polls rank his performance in Lawrence of Arabia as the best film performance ever.