Dedicated to the life of Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Brian Gilbert’s film traces the life of this literary genius from his first successes to his death. Played by an impeccable Stephen Fry, as accurate as he is impressive, and who stops at nothing to slip into the skin of this Dublin dandy, the film is rather well-executed, and is particularly keen to evoke his love affairs, which were considered unconventional in the 19th century…
It all began with Wilde’s first successes. After the publication of his work “Portrait of Dorian Gray”, the writer married, had 3 children, and surrounded himself with the cream of London and Dublin.
It was at this point that he was introduced to homosexuality, and began to see many men on a regular basis. Among them, he meets Alfred Douglas, a.k.a. Bosie, a younger man with a strong character and a disconcerting insolence. Wilde fell in love with him, and began a passionate and turbulent relationship.
But Bosie’s father disapproves of this relationship, which he deems unnatural. He then denounced Wilde to the law, accusing him of being a sodomite. This charge carries a sentence of over 2 years’ imprisonment and hard labor…
But against all odds, Wilde refuses to flee the country, and decides to confront his detractors…
Although the film is a truncated biography of Oscar Wilde’s life (indeed, it doesn’t begin until his first literary successes), we can only applaud Brian Gilbert’s attempt to reflect not on Wilde’s life, but on the state of mind of this avant-gardist, far too far ahead of his time.
Gifted with an admirable verve and talent for manipulating words, Wilde is portrayed as a free thinker, committed to the need to make his own experiments, and to enjoying life as much as he can. But hedonism had its limits in the 19th century: the Victorian era was paralyzed by a latent Puritanism, and the narrow-mindedness of this society could drive a once-respected man to ruin.
Betrayed by his own lover Alfred Douglas, brilliantly played by Jude Law, Wilde becomes the puppet and victim of a veritable farce: by attempting to come between the tumultuous relations of Alfred and his father, it is Wilde who pays the consequences, and who finds himself before a Puritan court, accused of homosexual relations.
Intellectually far more open than his audience, Wilde doesn’t perceive the reprehensibility of his actions, and defends himself against all odds, with a courage and temerity that compel admiration. But his verve and arguments failed to convince the court: Wilde was imprisoned, and Alfred Douglas abandoned him for the duration of his detention. For Wilde, this period of incarceration was to break him forever: the dandy couldn’t stand the precarious conditions of the penitentiary, and eventually left prison worn out and prematurely aged.
More than a biography, this film offers an interesting reflection on society’s consideration of so-called unseemly mores, on the discrimination practiced, and on the courage of men and women capable of standing up against injustice. Wilde was clearly one of them, and Brian Gilbert’s tribute to him is brilliant!
