Lady Chatterley

Much like the furore surrounding the original novel that it is based on, Pascale Ferran’s back-to-basics version of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’ Lover has become something of a cause célèbre in the French filmmaking world. Even though highly regarded as a film director, Pascale Ferran, like many filmmakers working to personal visions that lie outside the increasingly mainstream, populist cinema funded largely by French television channels, faced an enormous struggle to find financing for her work and hadn’t made a film in 10 years, leaving a trail of unfinished projects behind her. Her own personal struggle against the accepted conditions by which films are produced was vindicated when the film went on to win five awards at the French Césars in 2007, an occasion that Ferran took as a platform to address the faults within the French filmmaking industry.


The perseverance and determination by which Lady Chatterley was made and succeeded may perhaps turn out to be more important then than the film itself, which although certainly brilliantly made, isn’t really anything more than a very faithful adaptation of Lawrence’s novel (strictly speaking an adaptation of Lawrence’s second version of the story – John Thomas and Lady Jane), but one which is stripped right back from all the controversy surrounding it that gives other filmmakers a licence to exploit it for casual nudity and softcore sex scenes. Ferran, as her own subtitle for the film suggests (Lady Chatterley and the Man of the Woods), reverts back to the original novel’s association with sex and nature.

There are two versions of Ferran’s film, a TV version made for Arte, which consists of two 1 hour and 40 minute parts that develop the secondary characters of Sir Clifford and his nursemaid Mrs Bolton, bringing it closer to the actual structure of the novel. In the theatrical version presented here on DVD – at over two and a half hours long, not greatly reduced - the focus is on the central relationship between Lady Constance and the gamekeeper Parkin, and that relationship, as it is depicted by Ferran, is less an occasion for romance or lust than a deep natural communion with themselves as individuals and with each other, and through that with nature itself. Ferran’s French version of the story is devoid of mannerism, suggestion, stylisation or the more glossy, glamorous period detail more often associated with BBC and British period drama, as well as their preoccupation with sexual content. Instead Lady Chatterley is brought back to its barest essentials, showing life in its simplest form, as pure emotion, inextricably connected with nature.


It’s this “getting back to nature” that is certainly the overriding theme in Lawrence’s book and its given prominence in Ferran’s adaptation. Nature and the changing of the seasons are evident throughout the film, and they gradually assert their power over Constance - the freedom of her visits to the woods and couplings with the gamekeeper set in marked contrast to the decaying manor where her husband, Sir Clifford, is wheelchair-bound, paralysed and invalided during the Great War. The distinction made is also evidently a class one, showing the remove of the upper classes from the reality of the world, a distance from their own deeper human natures that makes them – as Sir Clifford’s inability to use his legs makes clear – impotent and less than whole.

Subtlety may not be one of Lawrence’s strong points, but his lack of subtlety is, and the distinction is an important one to make forcefully, for it’s the strength of this imagery and its break from tradition that would make the novel notorious for much more than its sex scenes, and be the main cause of outrage that would lead to its banning and eventual court trail. The timing and post-WWI setting are essential for this modernistic viewpoint, marking a decisive turning point and a need to break from Victorian attitudes and social conditioning and step into the 20th Century, reformed and remade whole again. Constance’s awakening, from the shock first viewing of the Parkin’s naked torso as he bathes through to the gradual transformation she undergoes in each encounter with gamekeeper, marks this shaking off of those inhibitions. And they are not just sexual inhibitions. Constance, listless, weak and deferential to her husband’s needs at the start of the film, becomes freed physically, emotionally and intellectually.


It’s to Pascale Ferran’s credit, and that of her actors, all of whom put in exceptional performances, that this comes through clearly without ever having recourse to overstatement. The sexual encounters are of course of vital importance in Constance’s gradual transformation, but they are not given undue prominence and are not motivated by either prurience or for any impact that might be derived from the class transgression – neither of which are likely to have the same impact in this day and age. While remaining utterly faithful to those themes in Lawrence’s novel and to the period however, it’s the call towards a purer way of living more in communion with nature and of the benefits that can be accrued towards an organic wholeness and inner truth that holds prominence in Ferran’s adaptation, and justifies this thoroughly modern French revisiting of an English classic.

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DVD
Lady Chatterley is released in the UK by Artificial Eye as a 2-disc set. The film is presented on a dual-layer disc, in PAL format, and is encoded for Region 2. The extra features are on a single-layer second disc.

Video
I have no information that the film was shot in anything but 35mm, but the film has the roughness in look and feel of 16mm stock, looking slightly less than perfectly sharp and not being particularly true in colouration, which appears to have a yellowish tinge. I don’t know if the film was graded specifically to achieve this look, but it seems to be correct and gives the film a more earthy feel, which is quite appropriate. It’s also possible that there was duplication involved in the preparation of theatrical and TV versions of the film – but I don’t know if this would have any impact. Transferred at the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, there are no real flaws with the transfer itself, which is progressive and stable, exhibiting no digital artefacts or print damage of any kind.


Audio
The film comes with a choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, either of which is quite effective. Considerable attention was placed on mixing in the sounds of nature in the film and this should come across with greater subtlety and separation in the surround mix, but I personally didn’t find it notably different from the stereo mix.

Subtitles
English subtitles are provided in a clear white font and are optional for the film and for all the extra features.

Extras
The extra features – all on the second disc of the set - are well put together, but consisting mainly of the director, actors and crew explaining how they achieved the various technical aspects of the production, they don’t add significantly to the film’s purpose or achievement. The titles of the features are also somewhat misleading.

Actors and Director in Conversation (31:37) is actually a series of separately conducted interviews intercut together. This works quite well however in avoiding duplication of comments. That said, the comments mainly consist of the practicalities of scripting, casting, rehearsal, preparations and shooting of scenes. There is some discussion on the amount of commitment required on the part of the actors, and inevitably the approach to filming the difficult love scenes.

Deleted Scenes with Cast and Crew Commentary (49:12), doesn’t feature any deleted scenes, and none of the cast, but rather, the film’s Editor, Composer, Director, Cinematographer, Camera Technician, Co-Writer, and Sound Editor all select scenes from the film that best demonstrate their contribution and what it achieved in the context of the film. Certainly better than a full-length commentary, this does in some way show how well the film achieved its aims – but it’s again very much a technical perspective and unnecessary to highlight and explain. The film achieves its aim without you having to be consciously aware of what was designed behind the scenes.

In addition, the extras contain a perfect little Trailer (1:22) in anamorphic widescreen, and Director and Cast Filmographies for Pascale Ferran, Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo'ch and Hippolyte Girardot.


Overall
Pascale Ferran’s award-winning version of Lady Chatterley although extremely well-made and performed, is made somewhat redundant by how closely it adheres to the original source novel and its intentions. When those intentions have repeatedly been distorted over the years however by the controversy surrounding the novel’s court case and subsequent film and TV adaptations that have taken liberties with its sexual content, there is clearly a need for a restorative look at the work, and this superior French adaptation does that very well indeed. Artificial Eye’s 2-disc DVD gives plenty of space for a fine transfer of a long film and some original extra features that give full credit to the technical team’s contribution.