Lady Chatterley (2007) Movie Review

Lady Chatterley (2007) Movie Credits:

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Lady Chatterley (2007) U.K. Distributor:

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Lady Chatterley (2007) U.S. Cinema Release Date:

22^nd Jun 2007

Lady Chatterley (2007) U.K. Cinema Release Date:

24^th Aug 2007

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Lady Chatterley (2007) Synopsis:

Constance Reid was 23 years old when she married Cambridge graduate, lieutenant, and mine owner Clifford Chatterley in 1917. After a short lived honeymoon, Clifford was drafted to fight on the Flanders battlefront, from which he returned injured and condemned to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

The film begins in the year 1921, after the young couple moves to Wragby, one of the Chatterley family properties. Constance looks back longingly to the years before her marriage, when she spent her time with artists and students of her own age, also enjoying long trips abroad. Now she feels lonely and isolated in a rural environment that bores her. And yet, it is her taciturn gamekeeper, a man whose life and background is so diametrically opposed to her own, who awakens in Lady Chatterley a desire she has never felt before.

At first, Parkin is mistrustful of his mistress. He cannot understand what a Lady would want from a simple man such as himself. But as Parkin's body re-awakens Constance's flesh and desire, her child-like ability to take pleasure in their relationship infuses hope and energy into his numbing solitude.

"Lady Chatterley" tells the story of a passion that is both innocent and subversive - one that transcends, without ever ignoring, class and social conventions. As Constance and Parkin nourish their mutual love, both enter into a radical realm where nature, sex and romance merge into one powerful experience.

Lady Chatterley (2007) Review:

Based on DH Lawrence's second version of this story (he wrote three), this film takes a much more intimate, sensual and natural approach to the familiar story. And it's beautifully filmed, with strikingly raw performances.

Constance Chatterley (Hands) is bored out of her mind in her massive manor house in the 1920s English countryside. Her husband Clifford (Girardot) was wounded in the war, and is confined to a wheelchair, leaving Constance feeling trapped as well. One day walking in the woods, she notices that their gamekeeper Parkin (Coulloc'h) is a picture of raw masculine health. And after tentatively speaking to each other, their mutual attraction takes over. The surprise for both of them is that their fling actually turns into a deep attraction; they can't live without each other.

Filmmaker Ferran tells this story with a disarmingly gentle style that looks almost painterly. She lets the scenes move at their own pace, capturing the connections between the characters and nature, allowing the relationship between Constance and Parkin to evolve slowly but surely. And for a film that feels so slow and steady, it's remarkably gripping. The initial lust in Constance's eyes gives way to urgent animal impulses, with each successive sex scene becoming increasingly intimate--starting fully clothed and eventually running naked in the rain.

Hands, Coulloc'h and Girardot are superb, cleverly bringing out the subtext that runs through all of the dialog and underplaying the telling glances to bring out their characters' inner lives. Large chunks of the film are free of dialog, so the story is told in the faces of the actors, which makes it thoroughly involving. This also brings out the complexities and contradictions within the characters--for example, the manly Parkin has a profoundly sensitive soul, yet living off a woman is unthinkable to him.

The relentless silence in the film sometimes makes us feel the lengthy running time. Ferran cut this film down from a nearly four-hour TV movie, but some scenes still feel overlong or unnecessary. And there's an oddly stilted, deadpan narration every now and then. Even so, the film is remarkably sensuous, moving and thoughtful. You can understand why it won so many Cesar awards.