Lady ChatterleyEnglish literature is sexier in French film July 11,
2007 11:30:23 AM
LADY CHATTERLEY: Genuinely, stunningly erotic.
|
Pascale Ferran’s bucolic, sumptuous adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s John Thomas and Lady Jane (a second draft of what would become Lady Chatterley’s Lover) proves that English literature is sexier in French. Marina Hands (César winner for Best Actress) is Constance Chatterley, dutiful wife to Lord Clifford (Hippolyte Girardot), who’s been left crippled and embittered by war injuries. Ordered by her doctor to get some fresh air, Constance visits the forest environs of estate gamekeeper Oliver Parkin (Jean-Louis Coulloc’h, a rustic ringer for Brando). Charmed by the flora and fauna she’d taken for granted, Constance is drawn to gruff, gentle Oliver, and a passionate affair ensues. Playing down Lawrence’s issues of class and sexual high-handedness, Ferran focuses on metaphors of seasonal change and sensual awakenings in nature, paying homage to Lawrence by way of Thomas Hardy, with subdued colors, organic montages, and tasteful close-ups. Hands and Coulloc’h are marvelous together, their nearly wordless love scenes genuinely, stunningly erotic.
|
|
|
- Why is it that one out of 125 Gloucester residents is a junkie?
- Never mind its tough-girl alt-porn feminism: SuicideGirls has already moved on to a new generation
- Some Things at Trinity
- Since George W. Bush took office, the United States has sunk to unprecedented lows in sports and pop-culture domination
- What is driving the widespread movement pressuring Hillary to drop out, even though she is very much still in the race?
- This week in social activism
- How did BU's research facility go from slam dunk to almost sunk?
- What is driving the widespread movement pressuring Hillary to drop out, even though she is very much still in the race?
- Trying to find some meaning in ace biz-boy columnist Steve Bailey’s move to London
- Style and substance, hold the meat
- 2nd Story’s Orpheus Descending
- Opera House captures Boston Ballet’s heart
|
-
Exploring the modern female life
-
Irresistibly good
-
Contemporary nomads in Mongolia
-
Utterly otherworldly
-
Prisoners in cane fields
-
Wry desperation in Buenos Aires
-
Vaseline and sock monkeys
-
Exploring saintlike passion
-
Daniel Radcliffe's non-wizard cinematic vehicle
|
- A copycat cop movie
- Vegetation and gore
- As expected, smart supporting characters
- Audrey Tautou goes slumming in Hors de prix
- Ubiquitous Abigail Breslin in a mildly diverting adventure
- A plucky play that takes its eyes off the ball
- Exploring the modern female life
- An astonishingly unpredictable ending
- A plot centered around one man's penis
- Poetic Americana
|
|
|
|