Wednesday, May 9, 2012

L'amant de lady Chatterley (1955)

I watched this last night on TV5 and liked it very much. I have seen the 2006 version with Marina Hands, but that new version contains a big portion of nudity that I lost the meaning of the story.

This 1955 black-and-white version, directed by Marc Allégret, more focuses on the story--> of course in the 50's they couldn't portray nudity as free as nowadays. According to Wikipedia, even this version was banned from the United States. Danielle Darrieux plays Constance/Lady Chatterley. Her husband, a rich landowner named Clifford, returns from war as an invalid man. He wants a son who can inherit his land in the future and tells his wife to find a lover so she can be pregnant. At first, Constance disagree, but after she meets their gamekeeper, Mellors, she gradually falls in love with him. Mellors returns her feeling. When Constance's sister and husband know who her lover is, they are upset. It's okay to have a lover, but why with the gamekeeper? She should have picked someone from her own class. They believe Constance has lowered her down by doing so. Sir Clifford sacks the gamekeeper, but wants to keep Constance's baby. At this point, Constance has loved Mellors so much that she decides to leave Clifford, go with Mellors, and take the unborn baby.

The movie is filled with dialogues which run smoothly. Erno Crisa, who plays Mellors, is very handsome; makes it believable that Constance can love him even though he is only a gamekeeper.

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