Lady Chatterley

It’s no surprise that Lady Chatterley has won five awards at this year’s French Césars, including best actress, best cinematography, best screen adaptation and best film. This exquisite film is based upon the second of three versions of a novel written by D.H. Lawrence, the best known being Lady Chatterley’s Lover. This version, entitled John Thomas and Lady Jane depicts Parkin as more of a simple man than the equivalent character of Mellors in LCL. The book, as well as its film adaptation, focuses more intently upon the relationship of the lovers than the better-known version. In this version they simply experience their love rather than analysing it, constantly in the moment and transforming with each meeting.

Because the film has so little of what we would call conventional plot and is built around the couple’s sexual encounters, it is all the more remarkable just how engrossing it is. Stillness is the first noticeable thing, or rather, the absence of aggravating superfluous music. When Connie first walks out, leaving her formal, slightly oppressive home and heads into the fields of daffodils near Parkin’s hut, we are aware of every nuance of sound that envelops her, from the rustling leaves to the swish of grasses and the calls of birds. In another scene, where the newly-employed nurse, Mrs Bolton, shaves Clifford, we can actually hear the sound the blade makes on the bristles. This is an absolute joy for a cinema-goer over-sated with extraneous and jarring soundtracks so popular today. In every scene the director takes time to let things unfold allowing the audience to feel what the characters are feeling.

The lovemaking scenes are even more extraordinary, in that they capture an intimacy that is almost shocking on today’s screen. Not shocking for any blatant flaunting of bodies or explicit sex, but for the film-maker’s ability to virtually get into Connie and Parkin’s minds and bodies; their every moan, breath and gesture captured in a rapture of intensity and transformation. By showing less, (with the exception of a couple of scenes) the director achieves more – a true eroticism and capturing of sexual desire seldom seen in most films today.

The two leads can only be described as giving tour de force performances – the emotion they are required to call forth, and the character arcs they both go through is nothing short of magnificent. Through the many long silences and in the love-making scenes so much must be conveyed through eyes and hands and they both achieve this in compelling fashion.

The breath-taking cinematography is another major highlight of this gorgeous film. As Connie’s awareness of her sensual self expands so does her delight in the natural world around her, which is shared by her lover. Some scenes were moving through their sheer beauty or in the way they captured so lovingly the characters’ pleasure in simple things like picking wildflowers or running naked in the rain.

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