The two films today take on incendiary topics. One is a new film adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. And the second is the latest from Director James Gray, Armageddon Time.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Netflix UK) - Here, yet again, is a modern film adaptation of the controversial D.H. Lawrence novel that was banned for decades for obscenity. The history of this novel is an interesting tale in itself - Lawrence first wrote the novel in the 1920’s and it was published in France in 1928. It was only published in the UK in 1960, when Penguin won an obscenity trial. It’s been banned in the U.S.A, Australia, and Japan, among other countries. And yes, there’s a lot of graphic sex scenes depicted (and now gloriously placed in well-choreographed, ‘soft’ focus on the screen), but it’s also a searing examination of class discrimination, of personal desires, of hypocrisy in English society, and of how wilfulness on the part of a woman is seen as scandalous.
Emma Corrin, who played Princess Diana in The Crown, is Connie. And this steamy, melodramatic adaptation has Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre on board. Clifford Chatterley (Matthew Duckett), and Oliver (Jack O’Connell) are the lead male actors; Chatterley the prim, dorky, upper class Great War veteran who can’t perform in bed, and Oliver, the estate’s groundskeeper, who satisfies her Ladyship in the areas that her husband cannot. It’s safe to say that this is above all else, Emma Corrin’s film, as while the physical aspect of her performance will be commented on, she also displays the acting chops to make Connie a more complex character than many will give her credit for. If the frequency of the sex scenes offend, then switch to something else, there is a reason the book was banned for decades.
Armageddon Time (Video on Demand) - Directed and written by James Gray, this is most likely the most personal story that Gray has put to film. He first burst into the cinema scene with Little Odessa, but is probably better known for The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra. So one of the themes he explores in his films is that of conviction and identity, and the internal journey and struggle to reconcile one’s beliefs with how one has to act in the world or environment one lives in. And what Gray has always excelled in is in showcasing in his films the tension between the physical world and one’s internal world. In Armageddon Time, it can be safely presumed that Gray takes on his adolescence and the forging of one’s identity and beliefs and how family plays such an important role.
Jewish, and of a liberal, upper class family, our central character here is Paul Graff (excellently portrayed by Michael Banks Repeta). He attends a neighborhood public school in 1980’s New York precisely because it’s the kind of thing his parents (Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong) espouse, turning their back on privilege. But when Paul befriends an African-American classmate (played by Jaylin Webb), and gets into trouble with the school authorities, their innate conservstism come out and he’s relocated to another school. There, his new friends mock that he has a ‘black’ friend and even make remarks about how they never let someone like that into their homes. It’s the ‘lolo’ of Paul (a beautiful performance from Anthony Hopkins) who reminds Paul that the family moved to the U.S.A to escape prejudice and discrimination. Engrossing film with strong examination of values.