Customer Reviews

Lady Chatterley (2006)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

DH Lawrence's novels may be tough to translate to the screen, so much of his writing is dependent on the words on the page as they form images of extraordinary beauty and sensuality. His novels are quintessentially British and reflect on the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization, confronting issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, sexuality, and human instinct. During his lifetime he was even labeled a pornographer, but that was then and now is now, and under the gifted guidance of director/writer (with Roger Bohbot and Pierre Trividic) Pascale Ferran, Lawrence's exquisite tale of sexual awakening has found what for this viewer is the finest transition of the novel to the screen.

The place is England after WW I and Sir Clifford Chatterley (Hippolyte Girardot) is the paraplegic wealthy husband of Constance/Lady Chatterley (a radiant Marina Hands). Quite apropos for the era, Constance tends to her impotent husband, does needlepoint, and takes walks to while away her boredom. On one of her walks she encounters the gamekeeper Parkin (Jean-Louis Coullo'ch), seeing a partially nude man for the first time in her life. The impact awakens her somnolent sexuality and she manages to visit Parkin daily, gradually allowing her lust to unfold. Parkin is 'below her class' but is a masculine, sensuous embodiment of everything Constance has never experienced. They slowly bond and both of them become passionately in love, finding lovemaking in Parkin's hut, in the woods, in the rain - wherever they encounter. Constance wants to have a baby and convinces Clifford that she can become impregnated and the resulting child would be 'Clifford's' by pact. Constance travels to London, the Riviera, and other ports, only to return home believing that Parkin has reclaimed his ex-wife. But there are many surprises that greet her and the manner in which the story resolves (in Ferran's hands) leaves us unsure of the future.

The film is captured amidst the beauties of the natural world - flowers, trees, springs, brooks - and these aspects of the natural world are an influential part of Constance's sexual awakening. Yes, there are scenes of complete nudity and love making but they are photographed so well by
Julian Hirsch that they become an integral part of the story. The musical score by Béatrice Thiriet finds the right quality of elegance and sensuality. If there is a problem with this nearly three-hour film it is in the editing by Yann Dedet and Mathilde Muyard that takes liberties with scene transitions that prove disruptive.

But it would be hard to imagine two actors who could match the subtlety and sexual tension that Marina Hands and Jean-Louis Coullo'ch to this film. It is breathtakingly beautiful to experience DH Lawrence's story in the hands of the French crew and cast. Grady Harp, December 07

Pascale Ferran's LADY CHATTERLEY is an exquisitely wrought film. The themes of the Lawrence novel frame the film, but Ferran seems to have put together her own very contemporary treatment despite the literary and time period setting. The photography is breathtaking and is integral to my characterization of the film as "exquisitely wrought." The first part of the film moves very, very slowly with almost no dialogue as the luxurious expanses of the country landscape are defined along with the formal and aristocratic settings of the Wragby estate. The obsession, both photographically and from a time duration standpoint, with the landscape serves a significant two-fold purpose---establishing Nature as a primary element in this world and reinforcing the beauty/sensuality of that Nature. That becomes a critical underpinning to the orchestration to the unfolding of the very sensual and sexual relationship of Constance and the Gamekeeper Parkin. If there was a weakness in the film, it would be the concluding section of the film which seemed more simply a patchwork of ideas and actions and not the carefully orchestrated ever increasingly complex visual and thematic development of the first half to two-thirds. However, the ending left everything up in the air as concerns the future of their relationship which I thought was a masterful stroke. There was no smug Hollywood resolution in either direction nor did Ferran give it a particularly French "affaire de passion" resolution. The ending seemed very realistic and "now" and in that sense probably departs from Lawrence in the most dramatic way. This is a must see film!

A very beautiful interpretation, with a slow, emotionally honest exposition. Makes one feel as though looking at Lawrence's novel quite afresh, without all its encrusted history of sweaty-palm controversies. It is situated very convincingly in its era (1920s), at a point of openiing up against the sexual restrictions of its class, society and period. It shows the slow discovery of the possibilities of reaching for sexual passion and physical satisfaction - especially for the woman (after all, the title of the movie is: "Lady Chatterley", without the "lover" of the book.). This is done without any prudish voyeuristic clichés, or romanticized imageries, yet, at the same time, fully engaging with all the power of sex and sensuality, and not avoiding looking at man's and woman's nudity. The acting is wonderfully restrained and subtle, mostly through looks, gestures, and the characters' postures and movements.

Though my favorite adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" is the 1992 version with Joely Richardson and Sean Bean playing the lead roles, this 2006 French adaptation is well-done too. I just felt that in adapting it in French, the finer nuances of D.H. Lawrence's original English was lost. The movie is also rather long, clocking in at almost three hours [the first hour was extremely slow-moving] and could have done with some editing.

Anyway, in this adaptation, the director Pascale Ferran has adopted an earlier, less scandalous version of Lawrence's work as her source, focusing instead on sex as a catalyst that brings about major changes in the two leads. Lady Constance Chatterley [Marina Hands who went on to star in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly] is an oppressed young wife whose WW I vet and crippled husband, Clifford [Hippolyte Girardot] is unable to fulfill his wife's physical or emotional needs. He moves them to his country estate, Wragby where Constance feels lost and bored. Things change when Constance comes upon the half exposed [waist up] gamekeeper Oliver Parkin [Jean-Louis Coulloc'h] and fascinated, she contrives situations where the pair meet and eventually begin an affair. The sex scenes are very sensual, focusing not so much on the pure gyrations of the act but also on the facial expressions on the two people involved. Both actors really get into their roles, and their vivid facial expressions, especially Marina Hands', convey not just pleasure, but also the dawning realization of the power of sex. There are about six sex scenes in this movie, and there is a sort of chronological development in the pair's affair that mirrors the progression of their feelings for each other - from the first almost clumsy and brief encounter to the development of closeness and eventually love.

Marina Hands plays her role with consummate skill, from an almost naive and relatively inexperienced young woman to one who experiences a thoroughly sensual awakening and a liberation of senses. Jean-Louis Coulloc'h as the gamekeeper Parkin is credible as the rough yet gentle gamekeeper who is aware of the discrepancies in class between him and the lady of the house, yet loves with his body and soul.

Beautifully filmed, "Lady Chatterley" mesmerizes with its in-depth characterizations and its sensual portrayal of a passionate love story that crosses the lines of class and rules of society.

Director Pascale Ferran's award-winning film of D. H. Lawrence's famous-- or infamous novel, depending on your point of view-- is extremely well done and for the most part a joy to watch. The plot is familiar: Lady Chatterley (the perfectly cast Marina Hands) is reduced to taking care of her husband, Sir Clifford (Hippolyte Girardot), a casualty from World War I, in a marriage that is less than perfect on every level. One day she glimpses the gamekeeper Parkin (Jean-Louis Coullo'ch), a masculine, humpy man not in her class, naked from the waist up bathing himself. The rest is, as they say, herstory. Lady Chatterley spends the rest of the over-two-hour film having sex with Parkin whenever possible. What begins as clothed passion eventually becomes naked, abandoned love.

All three main characters are well cast, complex and believable. Sir Clifford, for all his coldness and upper class snobbery, is a sympathetic figure as evidenced in the scene when he stalls out his motorized wheel car and has to depend on the help of both his wife and Parkin as well as when he confronts Constance with her own drawing of class distinctions.As difficult as love may be between classes, particulary in this time in British history, we are left in the end of this beautifully filmed movie believing that it just may be possible. Parkin and Constance engage in some of the most torrid sex scenes you are likely to see.

The film is a little too long and at times gets a little too much like "Elvira Madigan" with all those trysts in the meadows. And I kept wondering why Sir Clifford's nurse didn't know what Lady Chatterley was doing when she was so often not at home but always out in the fields with her man. Finally the director shows passage of time with captions on the screen, a tad distracting.

"Lady Chatterley" is still, however one beautiful film to watch and not to be missed.

I guess you could write all the live-long day about the number of times this D.H. Lawrence novel has been brought to the big screen, the small screen, or the direct-to-DVD screen, but I don't think LADY CHATTERLEY has been given such highbrow treatment before (though I admit I haven't seen the full BBC adaptation, which I hear is quite entertaining). I guess the entertainment industry's love affair with the classic novel enjoys the same lusty high and lows that the mylady does with the gamekeeper! For what it's worth, many others have made much ado about the film's pacing so I'll spare you my quaint concerns on that matter suffice it to say that I think director Pascale Ferran could've trimmed the 40 minute set-up just a wee bit to get to the juicy "first contact" and probably not sacrificed much story. Also, critics have been quick to praise "every frame of the film is bustling with life" (paraphrased), but that's certainly not the case with this DVD release as I found much of the picture quality poor to medium with some of the greenery of Clifford's (her invalid husband) estate to be lost to grain. And the use of colors and costumes (once sexually awakened, Constance Chatterley's fabric of choice seeming goes from flannel and burlap to elegant silky satins freshly colored in Crayola "Harlot Red") could be the source of endless discussion and fascination, but, in the end, any film exploration of the Chatterley affair inevitably always comes down to the matter of how the two lovers get it on.

And these two do get it on quite well. The DVD cover art boasts "the most frankly sensual movie in memory." I've read elsewhere that the coupling is intended to be as close to authentic as possible, and by authentic I can only assume that the critic politely meant to say that it's relatively short, subtle, and mostly not overtly HBO or Cinemax theatrical where the two last for hours only to end up in a huddled poised sweaty sculpturesque mess only fit for Victorian paintings. "Earthy" is a word that comes to mind for me. Their first coupling is awkward -- paced as though it was plucked from reality -- with mylady clearly not quite knowing what to do, what to think, or what to make of the experience while Parkin remains -- at all times -- largely servant-like. Afterwards, neither take a moment to bask in the awakening, per se; largely, they both desire to return to their lives, and it isn't until a few days later that they experience the real emotional awakening that comes from their attachment.

With each successive encounter, these two grow more and more adventurous and expressive until, finally, it's plain to see that they've committed to one another much more than their initial bonding, one that was clearly predicated on their employer/employee relationship. Constance -- at the talents of Marina Hands -- is deftly portrayed both in and out of the sexual experience, and her character becomes a bit more of a mouthpiece for defying the social conventions of the time -- speaking to her husband in favor of change; wanting to and talking about having a child to her husband who cannot give her what she wants; using her personal wealth to establish her lover at a time when men didn't live off the wealth of women -- but not much more of a mouthpiece than the character has had in previous screen incarnations.

So, in the end, we're given a film where the encounters do seem, feel, portray the physical relationship and the budding emotional one as arguably much more authentic than before, but that's about it. In the end, Constance has found love, and Parkin's accepted his place in the universe, and the film climaxes (a bad word, yes, but you knew it was coming ... ouch!) with perhaps the most curious moments that 50% of viewers would say cries out for a sequel ... but methinks D.H. Lawrence isn't around to take advantage of it.

I can't help but add that, come the conclusion, Constance is still governed by her issues. Her lust. Her desire. Her thirst for life and love. Her endless femininity. But, also, she's curiously weighted down just a bit by a free-spirited, globe-trotting sister who looks frighteningly like a young boy in awkward drag.

Such is life ...

when i first saw this film on sundance channel last week, i grew impatient with the slow pace at the beginning- i can only compare it to literal shakespeare, you have to get into the mindset to really enjoy it and understand it. once i did that, i enjoyed this film immensely. i love the costume design and the nature scenes and there was real passion and chemistry amongst all the actors involved. i loved the fact that both main characters were older and didn't have the american 'pretty plastic' movie star look about them. they were real. coullo'ch was fabulous with his earthy physique,big masculine hands(he knew how to use them)and expressive face and eyes. hands was wonderfully subtle in her transformation from uptight housewife to uninhibited earth girl. their love scenes are the most passionate i have ever seen. it is quite graphic but not perv or skanky.

so i had to order the extended version dvd.

this version is even better with more detail on the husband's injury and the psychological effect that 'the great war' had on him, i felt extreme sympathy for him, much more than in the theatrical release. also, the nurse has a realisation of what is happening in the extended version.

i have also ordered the book, john thomas and lady jane, the second version that dh lawrence wrote.

update**since i have watched this several times now, i can say that the first part of the film is fabulous, the second part becomes smarmy especially when they are running round the field buck naked. mellors became too sensitive and girlish in the end for my taste. don't get me wrong, i still love the film but only up to the part where they spend the night together in his cottage.

The reviewers who complained about the length of this adaptation of the famous D.H. Lawrence novel need to be reminded that shortening the film would have meant seeing less of the beautiful and adorable Marina Hands, and how exactly is that a good thing? As to the pace being too slow, that complaint stems from a failure to understand whose point of view we are seeing. Hint: the title. The pace is what it is to be consistent with the timeframe of a woman's natural emotional reactions to major life events, especially relative to the period of the film. The setting is very Eden-like and the protagonists are a variation on Adam and Eve minus the theological baggage, so isn't this a story one wishes would never end? If anything, I wish the film had been even longer!

As a francophile, I'm probably biased when I say that every romantic story works better in French -- the subtitles are adequate, by the way. Hearing English names pronounced with a French accent didn't bother me at all, on the contrary, I found it rather charming. I thought the resolution was appropriate. Okay, it wasn't a happy ending in the Hollywood sense, but then what are the odds Hollywood would have made a film like this? Zero. Which is too bad.

Bravo, Mlle. Herran!

Excelent adaptation on the classic "Lady Chatteley's Lover". A new take on the famous romance(infamous at the time of its launching), with a focus on a sensual awakening of the heroine compatible with her emotional maturing, as opposed to previous versions, which highlighted a "sexual" awakening by itself, without contextualizing it...The photography is beautiful and although it may seem slow in some passages, I think that was the director's intention, as to show that the internal emotional evolution process Lady Chatterley's is experimenting takes time to happen... Also to note that it all starts during the Fall and ends in a Summer, as stages of the "soul's" maturity, rippening. Very sensible too in picturing the highly stratified English social system.... The end is not identical to that of the namesake book, but more in sync, maybe, with contemporary times, which curiously, rends it "timeless", as it leaves the two soulmates more flexible to whatever the future will bring them individually but conscient and willing to preserve regardless of a format the deep bond they forged together! Worth watching...

A remarkable film that stays with you for a long time afterward. The acting is extraordinary; the chemistry between main characters astonishingly deep. The haunting depth of Marina Hands' portrayal of beauty and sadness in every frame reminds me of Polanski's Tess. Jean-Louis Coullo'ch, perfectly cast as Parkin, conveys a vulnerable yet mature sexuality that makes American leading men seem like boys. They carefully draw us into their world of moral and social boundaries, and without making any statements, simply present a story of the fragility of life and love.

The film's length and detail are absolutely necessary and never tedious. Ferran brings us to a table for fine dining, not fast food. In this age of instant gratification, she offers a glimpse into the measured sensuality of Lawrence's world.