Oh my stars and garters, Lady Chatterley’s lover (now on Netflix) has been re-adapted for the moving-image medium, and it could be the hottest version ever – perhaps on par with the filthy 1981 version that was so common on pay-cable in the early 1980s in the early Skinemax hours was broadcast. Emma Corrin, who won a Golden Globe as Princess Diana The crowntackles the title role, which involves going up against Jack O’Connell (godless) quite a lot, and also cavorted with him in the buff. DH Lawrence’s novel was notoriously banned in the US for a while because of its many lewd words and explicit sexual content that detracts from its themes, which deal with taboos and class struggles; We hope that the latest movie version will be more than just an excuse to see attractive actors without clothes.
The essentials: Connie (Corrin) seems a little more liberated than the stereotypical English woman of the 1920s. It’s her wedding anniversary and she is open with her sister Hilda (Faye Marsay) about her past relationships with men. Not about relationshipShipsbut Relationships. Please note the difference. Her husband Clifford Chatterley (Matthew Duckett) has been furloughed from World War I to marry her and he’s nervous in their new bed together. He’s wearing his striped button-down pajamas. His mustache is just like that. His hair is neat. (He’s an idiot!) His mind is elsewhere. He worries about being killed if sent back into battle. You’d think he’d appreciate the distraction, but he doesn’t. Connie understands. But she seems really… insatiable.
It doesn’t get any better for either of them. Clifford returns from the war in a wheelchair. They stop in front of his family home, where he is the lord and Connie is the new lady. It’s a tall order just helping Clifford in his pants. That night in bed, it’s a no-go, and it never will. The poor guy. There is some love, however, and it’s not bad for a while. They hire staff to tend the grounds – there’s this humble fellow who’ll just be the “gamekeeper,” MORE ABOUT HIM LATER – and Connie acts as typist and editor while Clifford dictates his novel. Born into the snooty class, Clifford is under pressure to father an heir so the child can give orders to his subordinates and shuffle around piles of dusty old money. I gotta keep this shit up, it’s top priority. But you know. It would take a miracle. And none of that goes well with Connie. She wants to mother children for their own sake, and have an idle life and the whole second floor of a mansion all to herself, because Clifford can’t go up the steps, well it’s a lonely life.
So Connie is forced to take long walks around the vast grounds, while Clifford sinks deeper into bitterness and his prevailing sense of entitlement, which manifests itself in his abandoning his writing activities and investing in coal mining, which allows him to exploit the living shit from work Class. First you feel for the guy and then you don’t. I crawl. As for those long walks? One leads them to a cozy cottage where our game warden Oliver Mellors (O’Connell) spends his post-war days quietly. Key to his setup is the outdoor shower, which allows Connie to catch a glimpse or two – the first casual, the second very conscious. can you blame her Once that awkward moment is over, they become friendly, but there’s clearly some electricity between their genitals, the kind that requires a plug to be inserted into an outlet, if you get my meaning. Oliver raises pheasants and she asks to treat one. “What if it pecks me?” She says, and he replies, “Pick it back.” I’m melting over here MELT.
And so it begins, “it” is a deliciously racy secret Scrumpathon. To make matters worse, Clifford suggests Connie find a secret lover so she can give him an heir to pass as his own – in particular, his dysfunction could easily be explained by gossip among the servants suggesting he doesn’t is completely broken. and lord knows the rumor mill grinds on here incessantly, like two things that grind very much. Of course he would rather have one of the servants Not be on Connie’s gentleman’s side since he’s such a haughty git – which just makes the scene where Clifford’s motorized three-wheel chair can’t go up an incline and Oliver has to get his hand under the seat and fix things before giving it one big hearty nudge, all the funnier. What a metaphor!
Which movies will it remind you of?: lust, caution, atonement, Portrait of a lady on fire – basically any film in which people in historical garb, in fits of urgent lust, tear off said historical garb.
Notable performance: It’s hard to walk away from that chatterley without believing that Corrin is an emerging talent. Sure, it’s a bold feat in terms of sheer physical exposure, but its emotional seriousness elevates this film above the basic elements of erotic melodrama.
Memorable dialogue: Connie and Oliver meet in the woods:
Oliver: You want a… coarser treatment with me?
Conny, raising an eyebrow: Mm hm.
gender and skin: Jeeves, GET ME MINE WITHOUT A COUCH. Topless, bottomless, on top of each other, sometimes with realistic sound effects to balance out all the gauzy lighting that makes all that skin look so loving speckled.
Our opinion: Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre lets us have our cake and eat it too, which is an unfortunate turn of events, but I can’t help it. Lady Chatterley’s lover is both strong in its eroticism and emotionally engaging. You can’t have one without the other – the film pays attention to the inner and outer life of its protagonist and awakens our rooted interest in the merging of one with the other. Remember, you cannot tend the garden of the mind without eating the fruit of the body, or a tortured metaphor like this.
Crucially, the film focuses closely on Corrin’s charismatic and empathetic characterization of a liberal soul in a restrictive context; Connie’s happiness is on the line and we remain invested in it at all times. Not that the script goes too deep – its depiction of the up-down dynamic is underdeveloped, subject to some set pieces and leaving the Clifford character psychologically one-dimensional. In this context, the sensual chemistry between O’Connell and Corrin is nothing short of refreshing, their steamy encounters rendered with an eye-opening candor we don’t often see in the increasingly timid age of modern cinema. Anyone looking for some seriously sexy romance these days will surely feel Lady Chatterley’s pain and may find some relief in the latest iteration of her story.
Our appeal: Lady Chatterley’s lover is a sharp balance between steamy, playful and melodramatic. Stream it to see British decorum crumble under the weight of the two-backed beast – and to see Corrin’s star continue to rise.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more about his work below johnserbaatlarge.com.