Lady Chatterly's Lover 2022
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(And former Lovers of 1993 and 2015)
It's a tale of Lords, Ladies and Lovers, but I'll be focusing on the lovers. Well face it Mellors is the lynchpin to the whole story, even more so the film. When a lady finds she has the wrong husband getting the right lover is absolutely essential.
Lover 1. Sean Bean is well cast as Mellors in the 1993 TV Series dr. Ken Russell. A native of Yorkshire with an accent that runs through him like coal runs through the country. Solitary, surly, he swaggers and sneers but turns out Mellors is a hard man with a heart. Sean Bean has the face for it, all chiselled angles and piercing blue eyes that could skin you like a rabbit. Undeniably attractive (Personally I like a good strong jaw) in a rugged, rough around the edges sort of way. He is clearly excellent lover material
Lover 2. Richard Madden in the 2015 film dr. Jed Mercurio. He fits the look, (in the book Mellors has facial hair) is sullen, brooding, boorish if not plain rude but lacks warmth or an accent that stays in one place. I struggle with this film because I feel it's miscast. Madden would have been better as the rancid, selfish toff, Clifford and James Norton would, (I believe) have made a very fine Mellors. Then there's the oh so sweet, sugar plum Holiday Grainger who jars as Connie and in fact she and Madden are so off key they have me feeling sorry for the horrible husband!
Lover 3. Jack O'Connell 2022 Netflix film dr. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. Now we're in business. Derby born and bred with a course uncultivated accent Jack the lad is now Jack the man. The way he speaks is not insolent but certainly insouciant. He has an easy way about him, uncomplicated, unhurried, unswerving. There is a sense that this war weary man wants nothing more than a quiet life. He presents a good chin, a fine set of shoulders and a nice arse. Mellors looks like a man you can depend on. When Emma Corrin, as Lady Chatterly, all skin and bone so starved of human affection, finds herself in his arms we see they are both equally in need of human connection.
Every generation has its own take on this novel. This most recent re telling is now my favourite. The muted colour palette of cool watercolour shades softens the outside world in contrast to the interior of Wragby which is a dark, heavy place. Emma Corrin is achingly beautiful and painfully thin, her clothes are period chic with a bohemian twist and hang perfectly on her. Its dreamy yet real, pared down and less cluttered, less reverent to the original work and thank god! The awful cringing sex talk of Lawrence has been ditched (one hopes forever) no toe curling references to John Thomas or Lady Jane here. The film belongs to Connie and Mellors it is vastly different to other productions and I think it has more to do with the fact that the director is a woman (why isn't everyone talking about Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre?) and the intimacy co ordinator Ita O'Brien was used for the sex scenes.
For me, the previous films have an uncomfortable voyeuristic quality. Here the extreme close up camera work frames the subject at such close range the outer parts of the image are lost. It creates a very intimate picture, we are drawn in as they retreat from the edges of a sharp world. It's a very, very beautiful film.
Sean Bean and Joely Richardson 1993 Richard Madden and Holiday Grainger 2015
