After years and years of watching nothing but Hollywood (and the occasional Bollywood), it is good to watch a movie that actually uses mise en scene, silence and variations of shots to tell a story. Lady Chatterley was a deeply sensuous movie, not just because of the sex (of which there was not as much as you would think), but because it involved a lot of sensory narrative. Whether just watching the plethora of flora and fauna close ups that were shown for their own sake, or studying the wide shots of fields and meadows, the cinematography made the experience about smell, touch and taste as much as sight and sound.
I am sure the story is familiar to most - a young wife of an impotent and crippled husband finds physical release in her gamekeeper, whose rough and uncouth demeanour provide her with the ultimate physical fantasy.
Yes, don't act you like you all don't fantasise about raw, animal passion.
Director Ferran made use of all the tools available at his hand. Even the costuming (for which they won a Caesar) was impeccably used to characterise Lady Chatterley, from innocent to tramp and back to innocent again. Lush greenery suggested verdant passion, while the dead leaves of winter painted a visual of her loneliness. And of course the comparison of her husband's soft flaccid body as she bathed him was in direct opposition to Parkin's hard, roughworked torso as she watched him wash himself.
It did have its draggy moments. I thought the social class angle could have been developed further as well. But overall, it was good to watch a film that was made by film students for film students.
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