Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022)
(This “I Just Watched” thread seems to reside within an overall TCM-related section of the Board, but I find it’s a good place for all “I just watched” comments. So I take the fact that it’s under the TCM rubric the same way we take the “BBC” heading, i.e. going beyond BBC. I watched
Lady Chatterley’s Lover on Netflix)
D.H. Lawrence is one of my favorite authors. His first novel,
The White Peacock, (1912) is my favorite novel. I like his books in chronological order:
The White Peacock, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, and
Women in Love. I haven't read his novels that take place outside of England, because I think he's at his best in his original milieu, particularly with his incredible descriptions of the countryside and his observations of how nature interacts with human affairs, and as a reflection of humanity. Nature is generally benevolent in Lawrence’s work; in Thomas Hardy’s novels, nature is sometimes more of a threat. Hardy was writing earlier than Lawrence and in a different part of England. Lawrence, with his somewhat “pagan” sensibilities, was more concerned with creeping industrialistion and its effects on the Notts/Derby countryside.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, written in 1928, is Lawrence’s penultimate novel. It is famous for its frank depiction and discussion of sex and the ensuing obscenity trials, which impacted its publication. It has been adapted for the screen about 14 times. But as Lawrence’s novels go, although it is beautifully written, it seems a bit dated, because adultery, even with frank descriptions of sex and passion, is no longer unusual in mainstream novels; and the once equally shocking romance between different classes, is accepted now. (Lawrence may have read, and been influenced by, the manuscript for E.M. Forster’s
Maurice, written in 1913 but not published until 1971, after Forster’s death.)
The plot of
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is well known and is, to some degree, fairly accurately depicted in the 2022 movie. Constance Reid, from an upper middle class and rather artsy family, marries the aristocrat Clifford Chatterley. He goes off to World War I, returning crippled and impotent. Connie becomes his carer, in their grand house in the country, where Clifford is also a land and mine owner. Clifford, desperate for an heir, encourages Connie to have a liaison with another man, a suggestion which repels Connie. But as she becomes bored and tired, and as Clifford becomes more insensitive and demanding, Connie, wandering around the estate, encounters Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper. A friendship develops into steamy sex in a hut, followed by sex out in the field. (Lawrence is after all a “pagan.”) At one point, Connie and Mellors actually prance/dance around stark naked in the rain, in a a montage which, though beautiful to look at, is a bit much. (Btw, Connie is reading Virginia Woolf's
To the Lighthouse, written around the same time as
Lady Chatterley's Lover, but not mentioned in the latter novel.)
It’s a decently made film, with good performances by Emma Corrin (Lady Chatterley) and Jack O’Donnell (Mellors), although Emma is not quite as good as Jack, who balances the working-class characteristics of Mellors with his yearnings for culture (he seems to have a good library in his hut). It does get fairly formulaic: she goes out for a stroll, meets Mellors, they have sex, etc., again and again. Finally, through a means which is too quickly depicted, everyone finds out about the affair. Clifford, who had suggested that Connie have a baby, cannot accept the child of a working-class man whom he regards as a servant. Besides, he won’t be able to pass it off as his own, because of the gossip. Clifford fires Mellors. Late in the film, Connie goes to Venice with her sister and father. Those scenes are merely awkward shots of a moody Connie wandering around Venice. Finally, with the assistance of Mrs. Bolton (an excellent Joely Richardson), Connie receives a letter from Mellors, rushes back to England and up to Scotland, where Mellors works on a farm. And so happily ever after.
At the end of
Maurice, Maurice goes to the boathouse where Alec is waiting. At the end of the 2022
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Connie goes to a remote hut on a farm in Scotland, where Oliver is waiting. And so love seems to conquer all, in the novels of my two favorite authors.
Lawrence’s novel seems to end as happily as the 2022 film, though Connie doesn't actually go to Scotland. She receives the letter, and the assumption is that they will get together.
One of the earlier versions of D.H. Lawrence’s novel is called
John Thomas and Lady Jane, the title referring to British slang for male and female genitalia. The last line of
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (the novel) is also the last line of Mellors’ letter to Connie:
"But a great deal of us is together, and we can but abide by it, and steer our courses to meet soon. John Thomas says good-night to Lady Jane, a little droopingly, but with a hopeful heart.”
