Lady Chatterley

Lady Chatterley is one of few recent films that steps gracefully away from exorbitantly expensive computer-generated images of, say, giant robots or battling armies.

Instead of using big-budget special effects, French director Pascale Ferran does something antiquated and perhaps forgotten by the American audience-she uses old-fashioned cinematography and relies on the talents of her actors to tell the story.

Morina Hands stars as Lady Constance Chatterley, the wife of an affluent nobleman, Clifford Chatterley (Hippolyte Girardot) in post World War I England. Together, the two portray perfectly the standard stuffy marriage between two members of the English upper class. Girardot conveys the sort of distance and arrogance one might expect from a rich industrialist, while Hands brings to life the stifled and quiet misery of Lady Chatterley.

Things change when Constance embarks on a journey of self-discovery by opening both her mind-and her body-to her husband's gamekeeper, Parkin (Jean-Louis Coullo'ch). As her first hesitant trysts with Parkin develop into a torrid love affair, the audience witnesses a prim aristocrat, estranged from a sense of wonder and vitality, reawaken and rediscover what it means to be a woman.

This deliberate and sensuous movie is not for the impatient. Its value comes from absorbing every shot, mild or vibrant, from people engaging in menial domestic tasks to passionate love scenes amidst the lush countryside of Chatterley's estate.

Those looking for the fast-paced action and over-the-top explosions of Hollywood blockbusters may find Lady Chatterley to be a three-hour snooze-fest punctuated by titillating scenes of nudity. For the rest of us, the film serves as an astonishingly realistic glimpse of a woman's life in a society far removed from our own.