Lady Chatterley

I've never read any of the versions of D.H. Lawrence's novel on this, I'm a huge fan of his poetry but I've never got much beyond that. I've not really been interested in any of the film and tv versions of this before (I saw a bit of the Sean Bean one ages ago) but it all seemed a bit cheap to me. This film is based on the second version of this story Lawrence wrote and I wanted to see it because of the huge amount of praise it received in its native France.

The direction and screenwriting are superb. How the evolution of Connie (the eponymous character, played by the luminous Marina Hands) from repressed wife to adulteress is charted is beautifully done. We see her very plainly dressed, desexualised and clearly not a happy woman with her paralysed husband. Then whilst running an errand she sees their gamekeeper with his shirt off washing himself. She then notices her own body for the first time and the distance with her husband is shown.

From then we go from autumn to winter and she is still desexualised, but after an illness spring comes. The daffodils are out early and her senses are heightened (shown through shots of her hand, be it in the breeze or against the moss on a tree), she's running after squirrels. She starts expressing herself emotionally through the piano, she is becoming more at one with nature (drinking from the river with her hands when previously she used a cup), then when she sees a birds nest she smiles, seeing him regularly she is visually more comfortable, as the weather is better her clothes represent not only that but her mood also. And then it culminates.

It's a very visual film and deliberately paced. This is a film that breathes, it doesn't cut from one action to the result of it like Scorsese in Goodfellas or Wong in In the Mood For Love, it ponders on every moment of the character's development. The acting from the two leads is first rate but especially Hands. She's been praised immensely by my two favourite American critics who both write for the New York Times, Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott so I had expectations going in aside from the Cesar love, but it's exactly my kind of performance. So natural, every glance of her eyes so expressive but unmannered, you believe this is happening to this woman.

The end though really gives it an emotional wallop and that's where the film comes into its own, we know the characters and their struggles and they decide what they're going to do. I found it profoundly moving and when the film had said everything it wanted to - it just ends, it reminded me of the Dardenns Brothers in that respect. Really well made, it does get a little silly at times (running naked around the fields, covering bodies with flower buds, etc.) but it's made with enough heart and skill for me to recommend this excellent, mature film to most people.