Another version of “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” is coming to the US after the San Francisco Film Festival and winning 5 Césars (the French Oscar). For those who’ve never read D. H. Lawrence’s book or seen the other, usually tawdry, versions, Lord Chatterly is a wheelchair user after an injury in World War I. As is most wheelchair users in fiction, he doesn’t have sex with his wife or anyone else. Thus, Lady Chatterly is freed to have an affair with the estate’s gameskeeper.
Lawrence uses the Lord’s paralysis to represent the paralysis of the English ruling class preventing them from participating in the world or feeling kinship for everyday people. I’ll be interested to see if the portrayal of Lord Chatterly is updated to reflect our post-ADA world. Look for it in your local art house or on Netflix.