Lady Chatterly (2007)
Certified: 18
Duration: 168 minutes
Directed by: Pascale Ferran
Starring: Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo’ch, Hippolyte Girardot, Hélène Alexandridis
KRS release
Winner of five César awards, Lady Chatterly is a prestigious, passion-filled film.
It is an adaptation of John Thomas and Lady Jayne, the 1927 novel by D.H. Lawrence which was an alternate early draft of the controversial 1928 Lady Chatterly’s Lover.
The result is a film that is as elegant as it is intelligent. This is probably the best adaptation that the Lady Chatterly story has ever had.
It is a tale of liberation told in a frank and natural manner that complements the erotic elements ofthe story.
Director Pascale Ferran managed to distil the novel from its controversial elements. She has looked at the novel with fresh eyes, seeing once more the connection between man, nature and sex.
The sexual interaction here is less about lust and sex but more about discovery of self, nature and of one’s partner. The film thus celebrates emotion and life and the importance of living life to the full.
Constance lives in a manor and seems to have everything in life. She spends her time taking care of her husband Clifford (Hipployte Girardot), who has come back from the war paralysed from the waist down.
He is in charge of the local coal mines that pump up the wealth.
Constance’s health suddenly deteriorates which leads to Clifford getting a nurse to take care of him, so that Constance has more chance to enjoy the countryside and recover her health. It is then that Constance sees the gamekeeper,Parkin (Jean-Louis Coullo’ch), bathing shirtless. The film follows the ensuing affair.
The character of Constance goes through a transformation – from her living in her husband’s shadow, to her yearnings and awakenings after each encounter with the gamekeeper. This is a woman who is not going to accept what fate and society have dictated for her.
This in itself had made the novel more controversial than any of the story’s sexual encounters.
Marina Hands immerses herself completely in her role. She is balanced out well by Jean-Louis Coullo’ch who provides the film with its strength and poignancy.
The two central protagonists are very much in synch with one other and the more they are comfortable with each other after each tryst, the more we are with them.
The film also balances out themes of class division and the way industrialisation plundered nature and subjugated it.
Lady Chatterly stamps the lid on the D.H. Lawrence adaptation and removes the shadow of all the lurid soft core adaptations and its turmoil-filled history.