While traveling in Paris, author Henry Miller and his wife, June, meet Anais Nin, and sexual sparks fly as Nin starts an affair with the openly bisexual June. When June is forced to return to the U.S., she gives Nin her blessing to sleep with her husband. Then, when June returns to France, an unexpected, and sometimes contentious, threesome forms.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.1/10
IMDb: 6.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.20/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 60%
Metacritic: 62
TMDB: 6.0/10
Director
Philip Kaufman
Production
Universal Pictures, Walrus & Associates
Cast
Fred Ward, Uma Thurman, Maria de Medeiros, Richard E. Grant, Kevin Spacey, Jean-Philippe Écoffey, Bruce Myers, Juan Luis Buñuel, Féodor Atkine, Sylvie Huguel, Artus de Penguern, Erika Maury-Lascoux, Brigitte Lahaie, Maïté Maillé, Annie Fratellini, Annie Vincent, Gary Oldman, Jean-Marc Cozic
Curator Review
Verdict
A lush, literate erotic drama with strong period atmosphere and unusually frank interest in bisexual desire, but it’s also uneven and often feels filtered through a male gaze that flattens Anaïs Nin’s perspective. The cast is appealing and the Parisian setting has real allure, yet the film’s emotional insight is less consistent than its sensuality.
Best for
viewers interested in literary erotica and bohemian Paris
fans of period dramas with adult sexual frankness
people curious about Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller-adjacent history
audiences who prioritize atmosphere and casting over narrative precision
Skip if
you want a nuanced feminist portrait of its central woman
you dislike explicit sexual content and conversational eroticism
you prefer tightly structured storytelling
you’re sensitive to films that feel dated in their treatment of bisexuality and gender
Overview
Henry & June is most effective as a mood piece: smoky rooms, Parisian cafés, notebooks, longing, and bodies in motion. Philip Kaufman gives the film a polished, sensuous surface, and the casting helps sell the triangle’s charge even when the script doesn’t fully understand the people inside it.
Worth noting
The movie’s biggest appeal is its willingness to treat desire as something messy, intellectual, and performative rather than merely scandalous. It has a literary self-consciousness that fits the material, but that same quality can make it feel distant, as if the film is observing Anaïs Nin more than inhabiting her.
Bottom line
For viewers drawn to adult period drama and erotic art cinema, there’s enough here to admire and discuss. For anyone hoping for a deeper, more centered portrait of Nin’s interior life, the film is likely to feel frustratingly partial.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Anika (2★) · 161 likes
I blacked out while watching this and now I've got a tattoo on my inner thigh that says "Property of Anais Nin"
Dizze Dahmer (3★) · 150 likes
More June less Henry.
Michela (1.5★) · 121 likes
This movie suffers from being written and directed by men who don't understand women, sexual exploration, and bisexuality. Anais Nin is such an incredible and curious historical figure, and this movie reduces and infantalizes her. While it is cast quite well, I wish it could be remade with someone who understood her journey.
Vishwas Verma 🟠🟢🔵 (3★) · 109 likes
I liked this film. Typical romance flick.
Maria de Mederios was fab. The story was good, characters were good, casting was also good. Uma Thurman is goddess ❤️
Cecily 🍊 (3★) · 87 likes
if my husband’s nickname for me was “pussywillow” i would straight up divorce him