Lady Chatterley
(2007)
In the most idyllic sequence of this good-looking but overlong French adaptation of an early version of the notorious D. H. Lawrence novel (got all that?), Connie and her gamekeeper go romping joyfully in the rain wearing nothing but their boots. After an invigorating chase across the Anglo-French countryside, they tumble into the mud to make love; later, in front of a fire, they decorate each other's privates with flowers. You don't have to have reread Paradise Lost recently to be on the lookout for a snake. But hey, no snake! Where's the snake?As is always the case with anything to do with Lawrence, this left me feeling both ignorant and stupid. But it was easy on the eyes.
1 comment:
I think this movie is a pitch-perfect adaption of Lawrence, but it's still Lawrence. He saw women of all classes and men of the lower class as closer to the earch and less corrupted by civilization, and hence able to engage in guiltless, fabulous sex. It's hard to imagine anyone else portrying an upper-class woman deliberately choosing an affiar with a groundskeeper, and feeling neither guilt nor antagonism to her cheated hubby, and neither she nor the groundskeeper feeling any sense that they are using or being used by the other. So you're right: there ought to be a snake, but Lawrence only saw snakes among us civilized middle-class guys.
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