I haven't read the novel on which this is based in fifty years, so I won't draw any comparisons. Whether this movie is faithful to the novel isn't really important, anyway. It's its own work of art, and so has a right to be judged as such.
Looking at it as such, I found it a well-filmed and -acted tale of two people who put their desires above everything else, to the point of being very selfish: Lord and Lady Chatterley. Lord Chatterley buys into all the social class distinctions of his day, and so dismisses his servants and others beneath him as not worth his consideration.
But Lady Chatterley, while she is not dismissive of others because of their *inferior* social standing, puts her own physical pleasures above the safety and well-being of the gamekeeper, Mellor, eventually causing him to lose his livelihood. It's all well and good for repressed people to discover the pleasures of the flesh, of course, and I'm happy she did so. But her indifference to the well-being of the man who helped her make those discoveries really bothered me. Since the director, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, is a woman, I imagine that we are supposed to sympathize with Lady Chatterley's sensual awakening, but I found it difficult.
So I spent the picture feeling sorry for the gamekeeper. He at one point dismisses his estranged wife's current boyfriend as being weak because she bosses him around, but it's hard to see that he is much stronger.
There's lots of beautifully filmed sex in this movie. (How some of the previous viewers could describe it as bland escapes me. How the two actors could have done all the things we see them do without actually having intercourse also escapes me.) The romantic leads are both pretty to look at. (It's also nice to see a male romantic lead who looks *just* like a normal guy with his shirt off, and not an escapee from serious body-building.) You can pretty much guess where the plot will go, so there isn't much tension here.
If you want to spend two hours not watching the wallpaper peel, you could do worse than watch this. Once was definitely enough for me, though.
Looking at it as such, I found it a well-filmed and -acted tale of two people who put their desires above everything else, to the point of being very selfish: Lord and Lady Chatterley. Lord Chatterley buys into all the social class distinctions of his day, and so dismisses his servants and others beneath him as not worth his consideration.
But Lady Chatterley, while she is not dismissive of others because of their *inferior* social standing, puts her own physical pleasures above the safety and well-being of the gamekeeper, Mellor, eventually causing him to lose his livelihood. It's all well and good for repressed people to discover the pleasures of the flesh, of course, and I'm happy she did so. But her indifference to the well-being of the man who helped her make those discoveries really bothered me. Since the director, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, is a woman, I imagine that we are supposed to sympathize with Lady Chatterley's sensual awakening, but I found it difficult.
So I spent the picture feeling sorry for the gamekeeper. He at one point dismisses his estranged wife's current boyfriend as being weak because she bosses him around, but it's hard to see that he is much stronger.
There's lots of beautifully filmed sex in this movie. (How some of the previous viewers could describe it as bland escapes me. How the two actors could have done all the things we see them do without actually having intercourse also escapes me.) The romantic leads are both pretty to look at. (It's also nice to see a male romantic lead who looks *just* like a normal guy with his shirt off, and not an escapee from serious body-building.) You can pretty much guess where the plot will go, so there isn't much tension here.
If you want to spend two hours not watching the wallpaper peel, you could do worse than watch this. Once was definitely enough for me, though.