Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981)

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

Director:

Just Jaeckin

Writers:

Marc Behm, Just Jaeckin

Stars:

Sylvia Kristel, Shane Briant, Nicholas Clay

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Sylvia Kristel	...	Lady Constance Chatterley
Shane Briant	...	Sir Clifford Chatterley
Nicholas Clay	...	Oliver Mellors
Ann Mitchell	...	Ivy Bolton
Elizabeth Spriggs	...	Lady Eva
Pascale Rivault	...	Hilda
Peter Bennett	...	Field
Anthony Head	...	Anton
Frank Moorey	...	The Priest
Bessie Love	...	Flora
John Tynan	...	Roberts
Michael Huston	...	Footman
Fran Hunter	...	Maid
Michael Ryan	...	Gigolo (as Ryan Michael)
Mark Colleano	...	Gigolo

Storyline

A film adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel. After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

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Plot Keywords:

dysfunctional marriage | adulterous wife | male frontal nudity | nudity | voyeur | 

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Taglines:

She was beautiful and sensual, trapped in a loveless marriage. He was her husband's servant. Born into worlds as far apart, they found a passionate world of their own.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Just Jaeckin once said of D.H. Lawrence's novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover: "The power of the book is the magic of its prose. When Christopher Wicking and I wrote the script, we decided to have narration in it so as not to lose the magic of Lawrence's writing. It's a timeless story - as modern as when Lawrence wrote it".

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Goofs

The film is supposed to be set during the early 1920's but when Lady Chatterley is sent away by her husband, a brief scene is shown of a steam locomotive travelling towards the camera. The Standard Class 4-6-0 is number 75043 - this number was not allocated until nationalisation of the four big railway companies and the formation of British Railways in 1947.

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Quotes

Sir Clifford Chatterley: If ever there's another man, who you absolutely want, to make love to you, take him.

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Connections

Version of Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015)

User Reviews

Tries to be erotic and respectable, but ends up as dull

I read one of D. H. Lawrence's novel in university as part of an English course I was taking, and I found it utterly boring and not making me want to seek out his other works. The only reason why I rented this Lawrence adaptation was that it was produced by famed schlockmeisters Menahem Golan and Yorman Globus, who made some really entertaining trashy movies. This was one of the few times they tried for "respectability", though they chose a story that could also be mined for exploitation material.

But the movie fails both at its serious attempts and with its attempts at exploitation. The script has too many faults that distance the audience. The setup of the situation at the beginning of the movie goes so fast that there's no time to set up characters and make us see what they are feeling. This flaw with the characters continues as the movie goes on, and I was not sure why many times characters did what they did. Oddly, there are also a number of scenes that serve no purpose - if they had eliminated those scenes, and used the extra few minutes to pump up the characters, I'm pretty sure the movie would be a lot better.

As for the erotic element of the movie, it's not there. Even for 1981, the idea of taking a lover must have seem old hat to audiences. The nudity and sex in the movie is not the least bit erotic despite full frontal nudity and explicit sex scenes. Some of this might be blamed on the below average production values - the movie has a murky look throughout, and there's not much effort to beef up the backgrounds with extras or anything that might have taken time and expense to make.

Even if you are a Golan/Globus fanatic like I am, odds are you'll find this as dreary as I did.

Details

Country:

UK Israel

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 May 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Filming Locations:

Wrotham Park, Barnet, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cine Artist Film GmbH, Cine-Source, London-Cannon Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1