Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015)

In 1913 Connie Reid marries wealthy Nottingham colliery owner Sir Clifford Chatterley but he returns from the Great War disabled and in a wheelchair. Connie is loyal but begins to feel ... See full summary »

Director:

Jed Mercurio

Writers:

D.H. Lawrence (novel), Jed Mercurio

Stars:

Holliday Grainger, Richard Madden, James Norton

2 wins.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Holliday Grainger	...	Lady Constance Chatterley
Richard Madden	...	Oliver Mellors
James Norton	...	Sir Clifford Chatterley
Jodie Comer	...	Ivy Bolton
Edward Holcroft	...	Duncan Forbes
Eve Ponsonby	...	Hilda Reid
Howard Ward	...	Betts
Elizabeth Rider	...	Mrs. Betts
Tony Pritchard	...	Field
Ian Peck	...	Harry Dale
Enzo Cilenti	...	Victor Linley
Sebastian Gray	...	Reverend Massey
Chris Morrison	...	Ted Bolton
Katy Kenyon	...	Bertha Coutts

Storyline

In 1913 Connie Reid marries wealthy Nottingham colliery owner Sir Clifford Chatterley but he returns from the Great War disabled and in a wheelchair. Connie is loyal but begins to feel alienated as he engages a nurse, Mrs Bolton, to bathe him and excludes her from pit business. Despite his desire for an heir his impotency results in a lack of sexual activity and Connie is drawn to handsome Oliver Mellors, the plain-spoken former miner her husband has engaged as his game-keeper and who represents the passion she craves. They embark upon a physical affair in Oliver's cottage but are discovered and betrayed by Mrs Bolton. Connie, now carrying Oliver's child, must choose between a pampered but joyless existence with her husband or an uncertain future with the man she has come to love.

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Plot Keywords:

1910s | colliery | cottage | wheelchair | motorised chair | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 September 2015 (UK)

Also Known As:

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Filming Locations:

Rhondda Heritage Park, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hartswood Films, Serena Cullen Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

As told in the wedding scene, Clifford's middle name is Herbert, the same as author David Herbert Lawrence, and Connie's middle name is Freida, the same as the wife of the author, Freida Weekly.

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Quotes

Oliver Mellors: You have the nicest behind of any a woman.

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Connections

Version of Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981)

User Reviews

Chaste Version of the Lawrence Classic Emphasizing Class Conflict

Compared to earlier versions of the Lawrence novel on film and television - for example, Ken Russell's 1993 television version or Sylvia Kristel's porno-fest (1981) directed by her then-husband Just Jaeckin, Jed Mercurio's telefilm is relatively chaste in terms of sexual content. We see Mellors (Richard Madden) and Connie (Holliday Grainger) making love, but it is tastefully filmed by the fire in Mellors' shack, using lighting strongly reminiscent of Russell's WOMEN IN LOVE (1969).

Director Mercurio seems far more interested in exploring the consequences of class-difference in a highly stratified society. Clifford Chatterley (James Norton) views his mine-workers and servants as sub-humans, whose sole function consists of serving the rich. In one sequence he sits in his motor-cycle and sidecar and lets Mellors push him out of a rut, even though this proves injurious to Mellors' health. He treats Ivy Bolton (Jodie Comer) with equal disdain - that is, until the climactic moment when Bolton confronts her master with the news of Lady Chatterley's affair.

The contrast between rich and poor could not be more stark. The film opens with a mining accident in which Ivy's husband Ted (Chris Morrison) is crushed to death by an underground fall of coal. Left with little or nothing to survive on, Ivy can only eke out an existence serving the rich. By contrast Clifford lives a life of comfortable gentility, indulging in frequent parties whose guests dance to Scott Joplin rag-times played by a servile band.

It is these class-differences that inspire Mellors' resentment. The reason for his feelings is clearly explained towards the end; suffice to say that he believes that the landed gentry have little or no conception of what it is to live on the bread-line, at the beck and call of the upper classes. We might be persuaded to see his affair with Lady Chatterley as a means for him to take revenge on all the social slights he has experienced throughout his life.

Yet Grainger's performance proves that this is clearly not the case. As Lady Chatterley she spends much of her time caring for her husband, even though it is a thankless task. Frustrated by her husband's impotence, she looks for love and compassion; and finds both in Mellors. She resembles a ship without a rudder; constrained by the conventions of a restrictive upper class, she longs to express herself both emotionally and sexually. Grainger proves extremely good at suggesting this frustration through small facial gestures puncturing her veneer of social respectability.

To be honest, this version of LADY CHATTERLEY does not make any attempt to explore sexual feelings in any great depth, as in Lawrence's source-text. Director Mercurio sees the story as a tussle between duty and emotion, which reaches a climax at the end when the three protagonists at last confront one another.

This is a thoroughly satisfying production of the Lawrence classic, marred only by some syrupy music (by Csrly Paradis) that sometimes directs our attention away from the characters' emotions.