Product Details

• Actors: Rafe Spall, Louise Delamere, Mary Healey, Gerard Horan, David Fairweather
• Directors: James Hawes
• Writers: Andrew Davies
• Producers: Bethan Jones, Dawn Walters, Julie Gardner, Karen Lewis
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Acorn Media
• DVD Release Date: January 30, 2007
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000K7UBV6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,293 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Chatterley Affair" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Louise Delamere and Rafe Spall star as lusty jurors in The Chatterley Affair, a docudrama based on the obscenity trial held in October 1960 over D.H. Lawrence's book, Lady Chatterley's Lover. Mixing historical fact into this love story about Keith, a married man (Spall) and divorcée Helena (Delamere), the film reiterates Lawrence's book's message about infusing dull daily life with passion and vitality. As the jurors read the book in court, the hearing proceeds with various actors filling in for those who were originally involved, like Allen Lane, founder of Penguin Books. The couple's affair heats up as they read passages from Lady Chatterley, and decide to reenact scenes to experience the novel's power firsthand. Though a real documentary about this banned book would be more historically valuable, the notion of creating a story inspired by the novel, framed by the novel itself as read by jurors, is an interesting experiment. Certain scenes are lame compared to the novel's potent passages, for example when Helena and Keith practice Lawrence's "bawdy" vocabulary in bed. The Chatterley Affair reminds the viewer how this important piece of literature succeeded in teaching readers that sex is a weapon against "society's ills," but the film's meta-narrative is less resounding than the actual book. Nevertheless, the film will educate viewers, serving as a reminder that our freedom to read is one we have fought for. --Trinie Dalton

Product Description

It was the most famous obscenity trial in history, challenging long-held notions about sex, class, and language. All the details are on record, except what the jury said, thought . . . and did.

Banned in England for 30 years for its graphic language and depictions of illicit sex, D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover finally came before a jury of ordinary citizens in October 1960. In this compelling and highly original BBC drama, Louise Delamere (Cor Blimey!) and Rafe Spall (The Lion in Winter) star as fictional jurors whose passions are inflamed by Lawrence’s prose. After weighing the evidence in court each day, they explore new erotic frontiers. In the end, they must decide whether the novel might deprave and corrupt the book-buying public—and if that is what has happened to them.

Acclaimed writer Andrew Davies (Bleak House, Tipping the Velvet) mixes documentary, historical facts, and imagination to capture a defining moment in history and tell a passionate love story. Also starring David Tennant (Doctor Who, Casanova), Claire Bloom (Brideshead Revisited, Crimes and Misdemeanors), Pip Torrens (Rome), and Donald Sumpter (The Constant Gardener).

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE trial background, D.H. Lawrence biography, and cast filmographies.

Contains coarse language, nudity, and sexual situations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Exploring the definition of obscenity, December 28, 2011

By 

kacunnin (Bowie, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Chatterley Affair (DVD)

THE CHATTERLEY AFFAIR is a British docudrama about the 1960 obscenity trial surrounding the publication of D. H. Lawrence's novel LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER (which had been banned in England for 30 years). The film focuses on two members of the jury, a young married man named Keith (Rafe Spall) and a free-spirited divorcee named Helena (Louise Delamere), who find themselves inspired by Lawrence's prose to explore their own sexuality with each other.

Scenes of the trial itself are fascinating. The jurors are asked to read the novel, and then witnesses testify as to whether or not Lawrence's story of an illicit affair between an aristocratic lady (wife of Lord Chatterley, paralyzed during WWI) and the gamekeeper constitutes obscenity. Lawrence's language is quoted to demonstrate his fixation on bodily functions and prurient imagery (his use of crude and offensive terms for bodily parts and the sex act is both attacked and defended by different witnesses). The question the film asks is whether or not sex itself is obscene, and whether adult human beings should be trusted to read explicit material without being tainted by it.

The relationship between Keith and Helena, however, is less successful in the film. The two characters are quickly attracted to each other, and their reading of the book seems to free them to act sexually in ways they otherwise never would. Their affair reflects the actions in the novel, as they act out Lady Chatterley's romance with gamekeeper Mellors through a series of after-court trysts. The fact the Keith is married (his wife is shown briefly as an uneducated and trusting young woman) doesn't bother either of them very much.

Lawrence's novel is actually about the wide gulf that existed in the early 20th century between the aristocracy in England and the working class. Lawrence envisioned sex as a liberating force that had the power to bring human beings to a higher, more spiritual level that could transcend class. At the same time, he saw modern humans (and especially modern women) as unable to truly "let go" of their selfish, controlling, egotistical selves in order to truly experience this transcendence. The film never quite gets this, but focuses instead on Lawrence's descriptions of the various sex acts and his use of supposedly obscene language.

The film is worth watching for the obscenity trial itself. Unfortunately, the affair between Keith and Helena suggests that the prosecutor may be correct - Lawrence's novel DOES seem to provoke their adulterous affair (Keith would never have cheated on his wife if it hadn't been for the book and Helena's advances). This is clearly not what the film wants us to think, but it's an unavoidable conclusion. Watch the film for the historical trial, but take the affair with a proverbial grain of salt. Lawrence's novel is far more interesting than Keith and Helena's afternoon activities.