Drama starring Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet (in a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar-winning performance), based on the novel by Bernard Schlink. Set in post World War II Germany, the story revolves around a teenage boy Michael Berg (David Kross) who falls ill with scarlet fever and is helped home by Hanna (Winslet), a stranger twice his age. When Michael recovers, he tracks Hanna down in order to thank her for her kindness. Despite their age difference, the two embark on an intense and secret affair that is based largely on Michael reading aloud to Hanna, until Hanna suddenly and mysteriously disappears one day, leaving Michael confused and heartbroken. Several years later, when Michael (Fiennes) is a law student observing the Nazi war crime trials, he comes across Hanna again - this time as a defendant in the courtroom. As Hanna's past is revealed, Michael uncovers a secret that profoundly affects both their lives.

French director Pascale Ferran brings D.H. Lawrence's second and lesser-known version of LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER to the screen. Approaching three hours in length, the film explores its protagonist's emotional transformation.

Set in England in the 1920s, the film begins with our heroine, played by Marina Hands, saying goodbye to her husband, Clifford, who is heading off to war. Left behind on their grand country estate, Constance gets the first taste of the loneliness and isolation she will later become accustomed to when he returns home paralysed. Suddenly reduced to the role of nurse, the young woman cares for her invalid husband and listlessly putters about the large property, desperately dreaming of escape.

She finds this outlet in Parkin (Jean-Louis Coulloc'h), the deceptively brutish gamekeeper down the hill. Sceptical of Constance at first, Parkin begrudgingly produces an extra set of keys to his shed when asked, opening the door to an affair that will awaken something deeply repressed in both parties. Clifford inadvertently encourages his wife by dismissing her boredom and unhappiness as unimportant.

When the unspoken tension between Parkin and Constance eventually explodes into a fiery sexual encounter, the two embark on a journey of sexual awakening and personal discovery. LADY CHATTERLEY is beautifully filmed, providing an extremely detailed account of the heroine's visual surroundings. Scenery functions symbolically to show how Constance blooms in the aura of Parkin's love.

But as passionate and subversive as their affair is, the reality of their social positions is always present, with visual clues creating a sense of constant threat to the relationship. When Constance goes off on a carefree, extravagant holiday with her fashionable sister and others from her own class, homemade-style footage of her trip contrasts with the controlled way in which her home life is captured, and demonstrates just how far she is from that world. The film's ending is rather open-ended, suggesting several possible outcomes by calling into question how much the early-20th-century social structure will matter in the end.