I have a fascination with books that were banned. Times and social mores change, and it’s interesting to see what was once considered “obscene” or “pornographic” in light of today’s norms. I mean, in a time when starlets become famous with home-made porn tapes and regularly flash their “goods” to the paparazzi, the idea that Lady Chatterley’s behavior could be considered shocking or improper is pretty laughable. I mean, at least she kept her indiscretions hidden away in the woods.

Constance Chatterley is a bored, lonely, aristocratic wife whose husband has become paralyzed, and therefore impotent. She starts hanging around their gamekeeper, Parkin, who works out of a small hut on the grounds of her estate. The little hut soon becomes a veritable love shack for the two of them.

If the subtitles don’t clue you in that this is a European movie, the full-frontal nudity will. Sure, there are some scenes that seem a little gratuitous, but this is a story about a passionate love affair, about two people who end up spending a lot of their time…well, naked. And yet somehow this seems normal. In a lot of ways the story is also about two people living closer to nature, in a state of love and innocence.

What was far more interesting for me was the ever-present question of class warfare. Parkin is not a domestic servant, but is still in her husband’s employ. Mention is made of the workers striking in her husband’s coal mine. And strangely, her husband accepts the idea that she wants to get pregnant, asking only that the father be English and “of decent stock.” The open ending only makes you wonder if the two lovers from two different worlds will ever be able to live as equals.

Lady Chatterley (2006)
DVD Date of Release: December 2007
Based on Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Posted Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:00:44 and filed under DVD of the Week, Movies, DVD, Adaptation Reviews. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.