LADY CHATTERLEY
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Kino International
Grade: B+
Directed by: Pascale Ferran
Written By: Roger Bohbot, Pascale Ferran, from the second version of D.H. Lawrence's novel "Lady
Chatterley's Lover"
Cast: Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo'ch, Hippolyte Girardot, Helene Alexandridis, Helene Fillieres,
Bernard Verley
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 3/28/07
Opens: June 2007
"Lady Chatterley" is quite a short title for a 168-minute long movie, so I'd suggest a subtitle. "Lady
Chatterley: How World War I Could Have Been Prevented." How? If the politicians of France, England,
Russia, Germany, Italy and Austria could have seen this movie in 1914 (unfortunately the novel came
out in 1928) and taken a hint from the two principal characters, they would be too happy to think about
war. In fact, the big shots in those countries would have a life: they would see what they'd be missing if
they got killed prematurely by a land mine in the leg, a bullet in the butt, a bomb over headquarters, a
bayonet in the gut. We're talking vitamin S-E-X, taken daily, like the happy twosome in Pascale Ferran's
pic adapted by Roger Bohbot's from the second of three versions of D.H. Lawrence's erotic 1928 classic,
"Lady Chatterley's Lover." This version comes from a woman's point of view, so don't expect its heroine
to just lie there assume the missionary position while she agreeably smiles and says, "Hey, guy, it's OK,
if you're happy, I am." She's going to demand her share of the Big O as well. And she gets it, just as he
does, but not the multiple kind: bummer. Maybe in 1921 when the action takes place, they didn't invent
that yet.
Anyway, it takes quite a bit of time for the action to start, but the film, as we said above, is 168 minutes.
For the chronologically challenged, that means well over two and one-half hours, and we're a mature
audience, so we can wait patiently while we get some of photographer Julien Hirsch's closeups of
flowers and abundant vegetation in the countryside. Oh yes, that's not just vegetation. That's a symbol.
French? With characters whose names are Clifford (Hippolyte Girardot), Oliver (Jean-Louis Coulloc'h),
and Constance (Marina Hands)? This is a French version, but the action of the movie, like that of the
novel, takes place in England, not merry England because this is not the Britain of Charles II but the UK
of a repressive, Cromwellian-like time.
Sir Clifford, for example, is rich in money, but poor in body, having married Lady Constance Chatterley
before the war, now paralyzed from the waist down in the fighting. This handicap makes both him and
his lady frustrated, but he has the good sense to give Constance permission to find a lover of good
stock, but only so that a heir can be bred for the estate. Lady Chatterley has other plans. Wandering
about, listless and thinking that she's coming down with something her doctor is too old to cure, she
discovers her gamekeeper, Oliver Parkin (Jean-Louis Coulloc'h) washing himself by his lodge. She gets
as excited as does Madge Owen in seeing the back of William Holden in Joshua Logan's movie "Picnic."
Perhaps remembering William S. Gilbert's satiric line in "H.M.S. Pinafore," "Love levels all ranks," she
allows her passions free reign and in doing so, she liberates not only herself but the taciturn keeper of
pheasants and chickens as well.
Sexually, "Lady Chatterley" runs like "Sex for Dummies," proceeding from missionaries sex on a blanket,
with no foreplay, climax for the man only, to more imaginative stuff with joint Big O's, then on to full
frontal nudity and finally to joint singing in the rain.
Breathes there a man in the audience who would not shed a tear for Sir Clifford, paralyzed by fighting
the Hun for his country's independence, then about to be tossed aside by his lovely wife? Then again,
can you believe Oliver Parkin as a member of the lower orders? What's he doing wearing a tie, even
when he was spending his days as a recluse? The only sign of his low status in society is his
pronunciation of "you" as "yer." As for Marina Hands's title character, color me strange, but my focus in
this film featuring full front, side and back nudity was on her face–how she changes from Ms Malaise to
Lady Radiant. As I said, this daily vitamin could have prevented World War I if taken by the diplomats.
No First World War, no Versailles. No Versailles, no World War II, etc. Nice adaptation, even if it's the
sixth of the D.H. Lawrence classic.
Not Rated. 168 minutes (c) 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
Edited 6/19/07 by Harveycritic
Edited 6/19/07 by Harveycritic |
