Film Reviews

Lady Chatterley

• Rating:
• Director: Pascale Ferran.
• Starring: Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo'ch, Hippolyte Girardot, Helene Alexandridis.
• Details: France / Belgium / UK / 168mins (16).

This French adaptation is based on D.H. Lawrence's second take on the once controversial Lady Chatterley's Lover. Set in France after WWI, the story follows Lady Chatterley (Hands), the wife of nobleman Clifford (Girardot) who is confined to a wheelchair and rendered impotent after his heroics in the trenches. Bored with life, the pretty Chatterley takes to wandering the grounds and one excursion leads to the hut of gamekeeper Parkin (Coullo'ch). Despite his gruffness and poor social etiquette, Chatterley is drawn to him and soon they embark on a fiery sexual relationship. Actually 'soon' is being a bit generous, because Lady Chatterley is the slowest of slow burners and that although can be initially frustrating, it does pay off in the end. Like Chatterley herself, the film reveals itself slowly: the first sexual encounter comes late, is rough and ready and the lovers are fully dressed; slowly but surely they graduate to nakedness, then bedrooms, then they kiss on the lips for the first time and finally throw caution to the wind and embrace their love wholesale. As her sexual nature is drawn out, director Ferran quickens the pace and throws more and more obstacles in their path. There are a number of issues that rankle, however. The look of the film resembles a UTV drama, Coullo'ch's Parkin is more Hagrid than Sean Bean's Mellor with his 'yer's' and 'ay's' that don't sit well when you're reading subtitles. Ferran also splices in snippets of the book to be read by the viewer and then puzzlingly substitutes this for a voiceover halfway through and the film ends in mid-air - not as a cliffhanger, though - just mid-air. But if you're prepared to sit through the slow pacing, Lady Chatterley rewards patience.

Review by Gavin Burke