Lady Chatterley's Lover
France Before the New Wave • 1h 39m
Directed by Marc Allégret • Drama • With Danielle Darrieux, Leo Genn, Erno Crisa, Jean Murat • 1955 • 100 minutes
This is the first film of D.H. Lawrence’s controversial novel, which premiered in 1955, five years before the uncensored novel even appeared in print in the UK. Danielle Darrieux (in the peak years of her stardom) is Constance Chatterley, faithful wife to her war-wounded paraplegic husband (British actor Leo Genn), whose fortune flows from a local coal mine. Everyone but she seems concerned about her loss of sexual fulfillment, and the possibility of her bearing an heir, until she crosses paths with the estate’s new gamekeeper (Erno Crisa), and they launch into an affair that ruptures the tight social fabric around them.
While this film wouldn't be considered risqué by today's audiences, it was seen as scandalous at the time. Initially banned upon its release, the Supreme Court eventually ruled this was a violation of free speech, letting LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER screen in theaters. Restored in 2K, this film deserves its place in cinema history.
Up Next in France Before the New Wave
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Martin Roumagnac
Directed by Georges Lacombe • Drama • With Marlene Dietrich, Jean Gabin • 1946 • 108 minutes
This tragic postwar romance is a tale of class anxiety and classic Romantic fatalism, run through with a typically French frankness about sex and gender. Jean Gabin is the titular character, an unpretent...
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Olivia
Directed by Jacqueline Audry • Drama • With Edwige Feuillere, Simone Simon • 1950 • 96 minutes
OLIVIA is a remarkable work by one of France’s first ground-breaking female filmmakers, which easily merits rediscovery today after being neglected for almost 70 years.
Plunging the viewer—and the ma...
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Jacqueline Audry Interview
Jacqueline Audry on how she got her start directing films.
