Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Lady Chatterley's Lover (Blu-ray)
Collapse
-
- Published: 04-16-2015, 12:00 AM
- 0 comments
X
Collapse
-
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Released by: Olive Films
Released on: February 17th, 2015
Director: Just Jaeckin
Cast: Sylvia Kristel, Shane Briant, Nicholas Clay, Ann Mitchell, Elizabeth Spriggs, Pascale Rivault
Year: 1981
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Based on the previously banned novel by D.H. Lawrence of the same title, Lady Chatterley's Lover explores on the big screen the story of eroticism and lust that marks an important moment of the sexual revolution in the United States. Director Just Jaeckin is in familiar territory, in line with other works such as Emmanuelle and Histoire d'O; however, this film reads as a mysterious blip on the radar of Cannon Films, whose releases at the time consisted mostly of action films. Yet despite it's being seemingly doomed for failure and it's poor reception, this film deserves this Blu-ray release and shines through effortlessly.
The story begins with new bride, Lady Constance Chatterley (Sylvia Kristel, Emmanuelle herself) getting a taste of what life is to be as a wife. There is a grand party at the residence of her and her husband Sir Clifford Chatterley (Shane Briant), and she is at the epicenter of admiration as she is paraded about. The party is abruptly cut into by the news of England's entry into war with Germany, and Clifford leaves his young wife to join the mission. He is injured and left paralyzed, and after a short recovery in a war hospital he returns home to Constance.
The young wife is now faced with the reality of what being married to a man that is paralyzed from the waist down will be like. Instead of parties, Lady Chatterley pushes her husband from room to room in his wheelchair. Instead of romantic evenings, she helps him dress for bed before retiring to her own room. The physical distance bleeds way into emotional distance as well, and Constance feels her youth and vigor slipping away from her.
Clifford proposes to Constance that she could take a lover on the side, knowing he must do something to keep her occupied and happy. The lady of the house gives it little thought until she happens upon the groundskeeper, Oliver Mellors (Nicholas Clay), bathing in the woods. Awakened in her is a passion that she never knew before, and thus begins an illicit affair between the two, separated by class distinctions with seemingly un-crossable boundaries. However, this is not the affair that Clifford had in mind for his young bride, and the married couple is faced with more trouble than they bargained for.
The film plays out nicely, with Briant and Kristel giving nuanced, believable performances of the unlikely lovers. The story develops a bit slow at times, and the character of Clifford is impossible to grapple with. In fact, he may be the least sympathetic portrayal of a paraplegic possible. The sex scenes feel organic and are effective, not hokey, for the most part, but unfortunately fall victim to some awkward moments that are almost comical. The film is trying hard to be taken seriously, and it shows a certain restraint that one would not automatically think would come with such an explicit tale.
Video/Audio/Extras
This Blu-ray release is presented in an AVC encoded 1080p transfer, in 1.85:1. It translates remarkably well, with a nice heavy grain throughout and only minor issues with scratches and dirt. The colors are a bit muted throughout, but there is some nice detail to be seen in close-up shots. Shadowy scenes are a bit hard to distinguish at times, but nothing distractingly so. The stylistic choice of Jaeckin for a sort of hazy, soft filter on the film works for the ambience, but works against clarity from time to time.
Lady Chatterley's Lover features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, with little issues to find here. The dubbing is well done with only one or two noticeable slips, and dialogue clear. The score to the movie is a bit overwrought at moments, but presented and supported well by the mix.
There are no extras on this Blu-ray disc.
Bottom Line
While a bit more romantic both visually and in story choice than one might anticipate, Lady Chatterley's Lover delivers in a very unexpected way. Fans of the Emmanuelle films will be excited for the renewed pairing of Jaeckin and Kristel; however, the sex scenes here are less racy than the reputation of the book would imply. All in all, I definitely recommend checking out this depiction of an important novel of the 20th century.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4140)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -