Lady Chatterley - July 14/16/17
Classification: M - Moderate sex scenes and nudity
Lady Chatterly was not easily conceived for DH Lawrence - and not only because his book was so widely banned. It addresses difficult issues which may be found in our own lives - ‘though most of us deny it.
Lady Chatterly is the sexually frustrated wife of WW1 cripple Clifford who finds his own life in managing his inheritance (but it might just as well be his boat, a tv program or his favourite football team). She discovers sex and love in the arms of the gamekeeper, crossing the issues of our individual right to seek fulfilment, with infidelity and the very deep conflicts in their wide class difference.
Director Pascale Ferran takes this story very gently and very slowly - two and a half hours - celebrating the womans touch in a usually male genre. There is ample opportunity for the audience to transpose these issues to their own experience, to reflect on the authenticity of the scenario presented, to savour the cinematography, and the eroticism.
English speakers may find some surprise in the French soundtrack to what is an English story. This is perhaps a deliberate endeavour to separate us from the conventional presumptions of our English inheritance - to endeavour to put the issues in a different light.
Ty Burr (Boston Globe) suggests this as a good ‘third-date’ movie. If your beliefs or upbringing confine your sense of sexuality to ‘dirty’ you may struggle to deal with some of the issues this film explores.
Origin: France 2006
Director: Pascale Ferran
Cast: Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo’ch, Hippolyte Girardot
Duration: 161 minutes
Genre: Drama, Romance
Sources: IMDB, Boston Globe
Compiled by: Peter Hoban