Lady Chatterley - film

Another venture into foreign-language film. This time a trip across London to South Kensington’s French Institute to see Lady Chatterley. Weighing in at about 2h 48m in length, this was not a film for the itchy of feet.

A. actually fell asleep during the opening 30 or 40 minutes of this epic film - not a good sign! And I gave her a gentle nudge to wake her from her slumber. I am not sure I should have bothered. The film’s pace was far too slow, and the whole storyline could be easily covered in a 50 minute ITV special. No need for the extra two hours of bird song and countryside shoots.

However, the film was not without some merit. It was very artistic and it was shot in such a way that it looked almost like the film was made 50 years’ ago. I think in some ways the whole medium of film was not explore and was massively under-utilised. The use of cinema tricks and music barely played a role, and time seemed to drag. The sex scenes were not really raunchy enough and lacked chemistry; had the film-maker made a few small compromises on the gratuitous genital shots the film could have been a 15.

I would only give the film 3 out of 10. But you can add 2 to that (5 from 10) if you are a big fan of romance, French films, and DH Lawrence. I have not read the book and did not know the story before seeing the film. Having watched the film, I am not inspired to read the book.