This latest film adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s once-banned novel stars up-and-coming Marina Hands as the well-bred titular Lady, who is married to a paralyzed older man (Hippolyte Girardot) and embarks on a life-altering affair with her large estate’s gamekeeper (Jean-Louis Coullo’ch). A gorgeous and lengthy saga, Lady Chatterley is a sexually charged film exploring the power of sex and its connection to love and spirituality. There are half a dozen explicit sex scenes (complete with full-frontal nudity), but they are never vulgar or gratuitous. Instead, they are intimate, realistic, sensual and, given the material, essential.

Shelf Talk: Having picked up five Cesar awards in its native France (as well as a pair of similarly prestigious Lumiere Awards) and numerous excellent reviews, Lady Chatterley arrived on these shores last summer to a surprisingly unspectacular theatrical run. Perhaps it was the film’s nearly three-hour running time that deterred arthouse audiences. But that should be remedied with its DVD release, as both Francophiles and lovers of the classic Lawrence work are sure to be interested in checking it out at home. It also would be wise to point out Lady Chatterley to anyone looking for contemporary European erotica and those familiar with other adaptations of the Chatterley tale (such as 1981’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover with Sylvia Kristel, which titillated plenty of people back in the early days of late-night cable TV).