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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Lady
Chatterley
Stars: Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo’ch, Hippolyte Girardot, Helene Fillieres and Helene Alexandridis Director: Pascale Ferran Scriptwriters: Pascale Ferran and Roger Bohbot Composer: Beatrice Thiriet Cinematography: Julien Hirsch Maia Films French with subtitles Rating: R Running Length: 168 Minutes The novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence, has been done several times, and here we have a slowly-paced, beautifully filmed adaptation. Don’t expect a clothes-ripping, heavy breathing film. Director Pascale Ferran combines a lush French countryside and finely wrought music for a story of a woman of class who discovers her sensuality. The script by Ferran and Roger Bohbot has wit and tells a story without going into abundant dialogue. The audience gets to know the characters, though it takes time. The film begins with Clifford, (Hippolyte Girardot) an aristocrat, (the couple are Lord and Lady Chatterley) who is back at his chateau after WWI. He was severely wounded in action, and is in a wheelchair. Though appearing pleasant, he is actually desolate at being crippled and unable to care for himself. His wife, Connie (Marina Hands) is his caretaker, but she is becoming withdrawn and melancholy. Servants quietly come and go. Enter Connie’s sister, who takes Connie to a doctor, and the prescription is for walks, fresh air, rest and to hire a daily nurse, Mrs. Bolton (Helene Alexandridis). Connie takes walks through the rambling estate every day and meets the game keeper, Parkin (Jean-Louis Coullo’ch). Here is a guy with shoulder muscles wide enough to play for the Oakland Raiders and Connie notices. Before long, she is a daily visitor to his work shack, first to observe and then to help with baby animals. The affair begins softly and gently. Connie’s appearance of good health is seen to be her daily walks, but the audience knows better. It is when Connie’s father invites her for a vacation that problems appear. Parkin is smitten and won’t let her go. Connie’s long walks from the manor house have an effect on Clifford, too, who has his own secret. Lady Chatterley gives us a view of the idle rich. This estate must encompass half of France. The game keeper raises pheasants and is able to produce whatever fresh game is required to eat. Servants wear uniforms and quietly give service. The time period is roughly the 1920’s when a servant class system was in place throughout Europe. One telling scene is the weekly polishing of the family silver, each piece could support a servant family for a months. Connie tells Parkin that she has her own money of 400-500 pounds per year, every year. He can’t comprehend this, as he thinks it is a minor miracle that he has saved nearly a hundred pounds so far. Marina Hands gives us a straight-forward woman, who can speak as eloquently to her husband as he does to her. There is something emotional missing in her life and she goes elsewhere for it, but the good life is attractive, too. Her nude scenes are a revelation both in honesty and courage, as with Jean-Louis Coullo’ch. Their naked running-in-the-rain scene will long be remembered. Hippolyte Girandot’s Clifford is sarcastic, but beneath, lies a frightened man who has to face a new life and doesn’t know how to do it. Helene Alexandridis’ “Mrs. Bolton,” becomes a friend to both Connie and Clifford, though the servant part remains. Can infidelity ruin a marriage? Is there a different in infidelities, such as sex for sex or sex for love? In Lady Chatterley we see the “new” marriage where one partner goes outside the marriage bed for fulfillment elsewhere. Is this acceptable when one marriage partner can’t perform? What about the third party in the infidelity. Can this person suppress emotional involvement, or not? Interesting questions and ones that appear after tragedies, especially war. This script gives satisfactory answers. Copyright 2007 Marie Asner
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