A kinder, gentler version of the story most people know as Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
While endorsing Lawrence’s approval of transcendent lust, the film also has a great deal of time for flowers, running water, close-ups of hands and long shots of trees (as well, of course, as for the class struggle and lusty sex).
It’s no surprise that the French should have made what’s probably the best adaptation of Lady Chatterley so far – while England’s courts banned the novel for several decades as obscene, Paris published Lawrence’s “pornographic” tale of sex and four-letter words without blushing.
Here, director Pascale Ferran delivers a passionate, moving take on the story as her ladyship abandons wheelchair-bound husband Clifford (Hippolyte Girardot) to frolic with Coulloc’h’s tender woodsman.
The sex is frank without being sensational and it’s hard to imagine a British adaptation that could stage a scene in which Hands dances naked in the rain with such ease.
Bits and Bobs:
Dir: Pascale Ferran France 168 mins Cert 18
Cast: Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coulloc’h, Hippolyte Girardot
Venue: Ventnor Winter Gardens
Curtains up: at 7.30pm
Tickets: £4.50 (£3.50 conc)
