Customer Reviews

The Chatterley Affair

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.