Lady Chatterley (film)
| Lady Chatterley | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Pascale Ferran |
| Produced by | Gilles Sandoz |
| Written by |
Roger Bohbot Pascale Ferran |
| Starring |
Marina Hands Jean-Louis Coulloc'h Hippolyte Girardot Hélène Alexandridis |
| Music by | Béatrice Thiriet |
| Cinematography | Julien Hirsch |
| Distributed by | Ad Vitam Distribution (France) |
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Release date
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Running time
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168 minutes 220 minutes (extended European edition) |
| Country | Belgium France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $2.3 million |
| Box office | $4.7 million |
Lady Chatterley is a 2006 French drama film by Pascale Ferran. The film is an adaptation of the novel John Thomas and Lady Jane, an earlier version of Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D. H. Lawrence. It was released in France on 1 November 2006, followed by limited release in the U.S. on 22 June 2007 and in the UK on 24 August 2007.
The film won the 2007 César Award for Best Film and stars Jean-Louis Coulloc'h and Marina Hands.
In a brief autumnal cold opening scene, Lady Constance Chatterley (Marina Hands) farewells a burly visitor of professional appearance who drives himself away from the manor house in a 1932 Peugeot. We then see the conclusion of a formal Christmas dinner, ironically accompanied by the ghostly music of the Danse macabre. The host, baronet Sir Clifford Chatterley, relates how he was wounded in World War I and returned paralyzed from the waist down. Though he is both sexually impotent and emotionally distant, Lady Constance tries to be a good wife to him, though their marriage is now dreary and unhappy.
One day the maid is ill and Constance helps with chores, including going to the gamekeeper, Parkin, to request a brace of pheasants for the kitchen. She is aroused by the sight of Parkin bathing himself, backs down the trail and composes herself before completing the errand. This moment must have been a thing for her, because the formerly-brave Constance falls into a depression, and she can barely move or leave the house. A trip to the doctor finds nothing wrong but reminds here that her mother died soon after such a sag in the vitality. He sends her home with a prescription for "pick me up" and urges her to take charge of her life and work to regain strength, before it is her life.
Her staff suggests walks at least, since the first spring flowers are blooming near the Gameskeeper's hut. She follows up on the suggestion, and at the hut finds and picks a nice collection of the daffodils, but tires and so asks Parkins if she rest in his sunny doorway for a bit and falls asleep in the chair there. She feels so rejuvenated she feels she should visit the hut more often, and tells her husband she needs the spare key for it, so she can let herself in when Parkins is not there. "Why not?" he replies, "the hut is part of the estate here and you own it" , but he does not have the spare. So she asks Parkin for a key and though he initially appears reluctant to give her one, he does. Constance begins going there every day to work side by side with Parkin, who breeds the fowl as well as hunting them and cares for them all along.
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