It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The other versions were the 1981 film with Nicholas Clay and the 1993 Ken Russell-directed mini-series. The mini-series was very good, the music was inconsistent and the ending was too open-and-shut and tacky but it looked gorgeous, was very well-written with great acting and it was surprisingly restrained for a director notorious for divulging into excess. The Nicholas Clay film was not so good, in fact aside from the beautiful visuals and score as well as a decent performance from Clay it was very dull and underwritten with a lead who shows little acting talent. This by a mile is the best version of the three. As an adaptation, it is a good one and apart from some cutting things out, the odd name change it is quite close to the book, the essence in fact beautifully realised. And unlike the Clay film, not in a way that takes the sexual nature of the narrative to trashed-up extremes. The sex scenes and nudity are very steamy but also sensual and incredibly passionate, not resorting to gratuity. The film's writing doesn't feel underwritten or banal, the characterisations are believable and consistent at least and the dialogue flows well. The storytelling here maintains the steaminess and passion of the book without overdoing it, most of all even with the cuts it is also coherent. It also contrasts the natural word and aristocratic stuffiness beautifully, and while the ending is rather ambiguous(more so than the book) it is incredibly moving too. Lady Chatterley looks stunning too with evocative period detail and some of the most colourful yet moody scenery of any French film I've seen. Some of the shots are lengthy but not to self-indulgent levels, but each frame flows effortlessly into the next. The score is charming and sympathetic to the mood(s) of the story. Pascale Ferran directs remarkably and the acting is without an obvious problem. Marina Hands has natural beauty and has heartfelt acting skills to match while Jean-Louis Coulloc'h makes for an authoritative yet sensitive lover, the chemistry between the two tender and passionate. And Sir Clifford thankfully is a complex character rather than a caricature. Overall, a wonderful film, one of the finer French films personally seen, and easily the best version of an interesting but understandably controversial(a must read for anybody who is studying the subject of love in literature in English). 10/10 Bethany Cox

I may have heard about this film, I knew it was a costume drama or something, I didn't realise it was French or based on a less known erotic tale by D.H. Lawrence, but I was going to watch whatever. Basically in a large estate near Sheffield, Sir Clifford Chatterley (Hippolyte Girardot) who has become paralysed from the waist down after returning from the Great War. His caring young wife Lady Constance 'Connie' Chatterley (Marina Hands) is lifeless and with no self strength, and she finds a quiet hut retreat when her physician prescribes the open air. This hut is where the estate's games keeper Parkin (Jean-Louis Coullo'ch) lives and works, and what starts as an awakening with nature, pheasant chick and daffodils growing, soon gets more intense. Connie and Parkin soon begin an affair and become passionate lovers, she now feels radiant and he has opened up himself as well, the only thing stopping becoming much more is class and age difference. One of the most memorable scenes sees the lovers running naked through the woods while it is raining, making love in the mud, washing off and placing green flowers on their bodies. In the end Connie takes a trip to France with her father Sir Malcolm (Bernard Verleyand) sister, and the affair comes to a subtle end and she stays with her crippled husband. Also starring Hélène Alexandridis as Mrs. Bolton, Hélène Fillières as Hilda, Sava Lolov as Tommy Dukes, Jean-Baptiste Montagut as Harry Winterslow and Christelle Hes as Kate. Hands is really pretty with and without clothes as the free spirited Lady needing to find herself, and Coullo'ch gets his moments as her lover wanting this resolution, it is a simple enough story, the nudity does not stop you lapping up the love story, slightly long, but overall a most watchable period romantic drama. Very good!

I went to this solely because of one review by a trusted critic elsewhere and I am very glad that my trust was not misplaced. This 3-hour French adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel boasts no stars I'm familiar with, is directed by someone I've never heard of, and is based on a novel I've never read -- so I went into it pretty blind. The majority of people seeing this will almost certainly be more familiar with the story than I was, so I won't go on at length; suffice it to say that the aristrocratic Lady's romance with a grounds-keeper on her crippled husband's lands (I believe he was a stonemason in the novel) starts out somewhat plodding, wrapped up in a 19th-century gauze of courtliness and tentative, unexpressed feelings, but the intensity builds with a smoothness and a sure command of film language that is completely impressive. The principal leads, Marina Hands and Jean-Louis Coullo'ch, are exemplary, the photography and camera movements natural, capturing the beauty and sensuality of both the couple and landscape without seeming over-decorous or sentimental. The extraordinary use of music is perhaps what I'll remember most; the majority of the film does not have background music, but on a few brief occasions a yearning early 20th-century post-Romantic score (reminiscent to me of Delius or Bax) soars outward; the judgment of director Ferran in her use of these rare bars of melody (by Béatrice Thiriet) to express the wordless emotions of her heroine might seem almost Spielbergian if you're just reading about them, but they show a restraint and perfect timing that far exceeds the sentimental uses that most Hollywood directors would put them to. The final moments, the discovery of the erotic, naturalistic and romantic voices all finally fused into one -- are as rapturous as any ending I've seen this year. Theatrical viewing at The Roxy (our one art-house cinema) in Burlington, late 2007.

Lady Chatterley wasn't what I've been expecting: I went to this film with very modest hopes, and I found myself enjoying it immensely. The film, albeit slow at the beginning, keeps growing on you, thanks to the performances of Jean-Louis Coullo'ch and Marina Hands. Let me tell something about Jean-Louis: he blew me away. A rustic, magnetic Marlon Brando look-a-like, he gives such a nuanced, complex performance that he almost steals every scene he's in and his character comes across as a true force of nature. Forget big stars chewing scenery, this guy is an Actor with a capital "A" and brings one of these true-to-life performances that you don't really see on screens for a while regarding movies. Once in a while, a true Daredevil comes along and ignites the screens with fire, in a performance for ages, and Jean-Louis is one of these guys like Albert Dupontel: you've never seen the guy before, but after the picture is over, you have true respect for the actor and will also never forget the name of the guy. Nowadays, films tend to be a product, a project made to earn producers big money, and Lady Chatterley is the opposite of the Hollywood crap. The film's major setback is running time. There are moments that the film comes to a sudden halt, just to pick up later, but that's fine. Marina Hands was a revelation, and as the film progresses you really testify the depth and moving changes her character goes through, as a lovely woman who really gets to develop a beautiful affection for the troubled and wounded keeper, opening him to a new, big and bright world. There are two outstanding moments that left me speechless SPOILERS AHEAD the crane shot of the leafs and trees, at first wet and gray, slowly turning into a bright and full of life sky, as a great, thrilling piece of music starts to play, then a panoramic shot of the fields and a flying bird, and all of a sudden it's one of these larger-than-life magic movie moments that will live forever. The other moment was the ending, Jean-Louis's lines about discovering a new world with her and how he will do everything to be with her forever, and then the camera shows Marina's face, crying with emotion and happiness, men, that part really stayed with me and choke me up. Lady Chatterley is a must-see!