Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Lady Chatterley's Lover Blu-ray Movie Review

Downton oh, boy!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 4, 2015

D.H. Lawrence had been dead around thirty years when what is arguably his most famous (infamous?) novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, became a latter day cause célèbre when the first unexpurgated version of the novel raised a ruckus in “veddy, veddy” proper England, resulting in Penguin Books being sued under a then relatively new obscenity act. The novel’s explicit sexuality was of course a bone of contention, but its language also upset the daintier perceptions of the British, what with Lawrence’s frequent use of not just the so- called “f bomb” but also the more easily disparaged “c word”. When the British jury returned a “not guilty” verdict (meaning Penguin had not published “obscene material”), it opened the floodgates in the publishing industry in England, with a slew of permissive works appearing in the wake of the decision. Perhaps surprisingly, then, the first major screen adaptation of the novel had actually been done five years prior to the obscenity trial, in 1955, though it’s perhaps not so surprising that it was a French production. That version was initially banned in the United States, but was ultimately screened (again, due to court interference) just a short time before the novel was making headline news in the obscenity trial in England. Again somewhat surprisingly given the increasingly permissive tenor in various media, especially film, there was not another big screen stab at Lawrence’s tale of Constance Chatterley and her burly gamekeeper Oliver Mellors until 1981, when this international co-production was released to tepid reviews and even more lackluster boxoffice. The film is notable for reuniting the star and director of one of France’s more notorious soft core enterprises, Emmanuelle. That might have seemed to create an inherently salacious interest in an already notoriously hypersexualized story, but rather unexpectedly this Lady Chatterley’s Lover is at least relatively restrained. Yes, there’s a lot of nudity, and a handful of sometimes weirdly amusing sex scenes (some with dialogue in between the huffing and puffing), but in a completely weird way, director Just Jaeckin’s take on the material presages some of the same ideas and general ambience that has made Downton Abbey: Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4 such a sensation (though of course one would never expect the vaunted Crawley family to ever emit an “f bomb”).

Could Downton Abbey scribe Julian Fellowes have perhaps been thinking of D.H. Lawrence when he crafted the early Downton Abbey arc of Mary and Matthew attempting to come to terms with Matthew’s supposedly debilitating World War I injury, a calamity which left the dashing squire “only half a man” (and the wrong half, so to speak). That dialectic between the mind and body is of course one of the central ideas running rampant through Lawrence’s work, and like Fellowes’ formulation in Downton Abbey, it’s sparked by a World War I injury to tony upper crust Sir Clifford Chatterley (Shane Briant), a man who had only fairly recently wed Constance (Silvia Kristel) before leaving for battle. When he returns home paralyzed from the waist down, Constance’s life soon revolves around caring for her husband, though it’s obvious that Constance needs a little care (of the physical variety), which Clifford is no longer able to provide.

Fellowes may have also taken a cue from Lawrence with regard to one of the other major romances which lit up Downton Abbey in its early going, that between younger daughter Sibyl and chauffeur Tom. In Lady Chatterley’s Lover the social class disconnect is between the upper crust Constance and working stiff (no pun intended) Oliver (Nicholas Clay), who becomes her lover. While British censors were all up in arms over the sexual content and language of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, one has to wonder if the actual morality on display, where Clifford expressly gives his wife permission to engage in carnal activities since he can’t provide relief in that regard, may have entered into their thinking somehow. There’s no traditional “scandal” in the affair here since the husband has given his go ahead, even if he turns a blind eye (at least for a little while) once the actual affair has begun.

It’s more than obvious that Jaeckin was making a perhaps desperate stab at respectability with Lady Chatterley’s Lover, bringing a gauzy, soft focus and reasonably well appointed physical production to the screen, but not ultimately able to get beyond his proclivity toward staging sometimes comical sex scenes. There’s little heat in the interchanges between Constance and Oliver, especially when their fervid lovemaking is interrupted by fairly risible dialogue delivered in a somewhat wooden manner (several sources indicate Kristel, a Dutch actress, was dubbed, which might have something to do with it).

The perhaps ironic thing about this version is that while it is certainly no masterpiece by any stretch, it’s probably better than it has any right to be, with a kind of creepy subtext handled quite well vis a vis the character of Ivy Bolton (Ann Mitchell), the older doctor who cares for Clifford. Clay, evidently well down the preferred list during casting, has a kind of sweetly vulnerable mien tucked inside his hulking frame, something that makes his characterization of Oliver interesting if never very moving. Kristel is certainly attractive and moves well, but perhaps due to the aforementioned dubbing issue, her performance often seems more like a pantomime than a fully formed characterization.

Lady Chatterley's Lover Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lady Chatterley's Lover is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The elements utilized for this transfer have fairly regular issues with minus density, scratches and dirt, but things are never less than watchable. It's obvious that director Jaeckin and his cinematographer Robert Fraisse wanted to exploit a soft, gauzy ambience that at the same time hinted at a certain Gothic sensibility. Therefore, there are lots of elements like establishing shots of the Chatterley estate bathed in brooding mist. This choice to use soft focus and filters tends to mitigate detail and fine detail at times, even in extreme close-ups (see screenshot 10). Colors have faded just slightly, but still retain a decent amount of saturation and look generally accurate (flesh tones can be a bit ruddy at times). There are some passing issues with minimal shadow detail in some of the darkest sequences, but nothing that tips over into outright crush. Grain is quite heavy quite a bit of the time, especially in some of the exterior sequences. As with virtually all Olive releases, there are no signs of digital tweaking of the image harvest and similarly no signs of restorative scrubbing, cleaning and mending. Aside from some slightly clumpy looking grain on a couple of occasions, there are no compression issues of any note.

Lady Chatterley's Lover Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lady Chatterley's Lover lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track has commendable fullness, offering good support for the overblown score which seems to be echoing Michel Legrand's fantastic work for Joseph Losey's The Go Between. Dialogue is cleanly presented and truth be told I personally saw few instances where it was patently obvious that Kristel had been dubbed. Fidelity is very good and there are no issues of any kind to report.

Lady Chatterley's Lover Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on this Blu-ray disc.

Lady Chatterley's Lover Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even with the soft core track record of Kristel and Jaeckin, there's very little titillation on hand in this Lady Chatterley's Lover, and instead much of the film plays like a second rate costume drama with quasi-porn tendencies. There's lots of pretty scenery, but Jaeckin never paces the film very well and there's a debilitating lack of chemistry between Kristel and Clay. For fans of the film, this Blu-ray offers acceptable if not outstanding video and good audio.