Tell anyone they're about to sit through a 3-hour period drama - the French adaptation of a British literary classic - and you could forgive them for worrying that life, perhaps, is too short for such things. But it's precisely because life's so short that one should rush to see this intelligent, invigorating film.
If you've never read the D.H. Lawrence novel fear not, the story is (deceptively) simple. Constance Chatterley (Marina Hands) is a young wife trapped in a loveless marriage to Clifford (Hippollyte Girardot), a veteran of the first World War, now wheelchair-bound. They live in relative isolation in the lavish Wragby Estate, in the English countryside. When Lady Chatterley meets the gamekeeper (Jean-Louis Coulloc'h), she embarks on an illicit affair which awakens her senses and broadens her perspectives.
The controversial D.H. Lawrence classic was printed privately in 1928, and only published in the UK in 1960. Even then it was met with vicious attack and banned under newly passed obscenity laws. Its availability became a key component of the sexual revolution in the US and beyond. There have since been many screen adaptations... while the explicit content has slowly ceased to shock or offend. A new approach was most definitely needed.
For this Lady Chatterley, French director Pascale Ferran chose to adapt a lesser-known version of the novel, John Thomas and Lady Jane. The book's gritty eroticism of dirt and sweat is replaced by a celebration of sexual joy, nature and fertility. While the sex is still very explicit, it's portrayed as the uniting force between man, woman and the natural world.
In Ferran's masterful film, the gorgeous countryside of Wragby Estate becomes a Garden of Eden. In the capable hands of ace cinematographer Julien Hirsch, it is an ever-changing paradise whose colours and textures shift with the passing of seasons. The power of nature - to shelter, feed, arouse, inspire and console the secret lovers - unfolds in gorgeous tableaux which seem almost painted onto the screen.
As the couple make love in a field or run naked in the rain, it almost feels as if we are watching a nature documentary, where the animals under scrutiny are humans. As with the best observational documentaries, the insights are subtle and rich. Lady Chatterley's erotic journey of (self-) discovery is not only one of sexuality.
As Constance learns about the pleasures of the flesh she begins to understand her place in the world, and that of others. She gains insights into her wealth, breeding, gender and power. The freer she feels in her body the more she begins to perceive her marriage as a trap, her husband as a failure.
This is conveyed with subtlety through Ferran's deliberate direction, both leisurely and precise. In one clever scene for example, her husband gives her a cynical lecture about his factory's profitable exploitation of the working class. Minutes later his wheelchair is bogged down in mud and he must beg his strong gamekeeper to push him out.
The film's main strength is its actors. Marina Hands - who won the César for her performance - is stunning. Her face is shot somewhat like the natural landscapes of the film: windswept, drenched in tears, frozen in fear, shining with compassion. Like Isabelle Hupppert she is able to convey a wide range of emotions with a slight shift in her gaze.
Opposite her is Jean-Louis Coulloc'h as the gamekeeper. His body is like that of a bull, fashioned by the elements. His face is like a boxer's, shaped by the blows of a hard life. Together they are utterly convincing.
It takes a while to get used to this very British story being told in French, but once that hurdle is passed there is nothing standing between the viewer and the rich pleasures of this simple love story. Life is indeed short - no one knows this better than Lawrence, who died aged 45 - but we should alway make time for a good love story.
Lady Chatterley is out in the UK and the US, it comes to Australian screens on September 6th.
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