Wilde

Anyone who enjoys the work of Oscar Wilde, which after well over a century lives on, will greatly enjoy the 1997 film “Wilde” despite its unhappy denouement. The film gives us the very embodiment of Wilde as played by beloved British actor Steven Fry, who seems, as they say, born to play this role. The story takes us from Wilde’s emergence as a leading literary figure of his time, the late 1800s, to his imprisonment and foreign exile in disgrace, and in the process treats us to Wilde’s charisma, his vanity, his capacity for love not only for his paramours but also for his children and those close to him by way of being family and friends, his complex personality, his imposing physical presence, and above all, his facility with the English language that made him one of the great raconteurs of his time.The Victorian era in which he experienced is highest highs and lowest lows is sumptuously invoked by elaborate set decoration and wonderful costuming. Wilde’s close friends are given their due for their unwavering loyalty, as is his wife, sensitively played by Jennifer Ehle — and most poignantly of all, by the man who aroused the love that ultimately destroyed Wild, the vain, shallow, and self-obsessed Lord Alfred Douglas, brilliantly played by Jude Law, whose striking physical beauty makes all the more grotesque his coldness toward others, triggered by his hatred of his domineering father, played in his usual scene-stealing manner by Tom Wilkinson.While in Reading Gaol, ruminating on the folly of his entanglement with Douglas, Wild wrote his most immortal words:“Yet each man kills the thing he loves,By each let this be heard,Some do it with a bitter look,Some with a flattering word,The coward does it with a kiss,The brave man with a sword!“Some kill their love when they are young,And some when they are old;Some strangle with the hands of Gold:The kindest use a knife, becauseThe dead so soon grow cold.“Some love too little, some too long,Some sell and others buy;Some do the deed with many tears,And some without a sigh:For each man kills the thing he loves,Yet each man does not die.”Oscar Wilde did of course die, and is buried with honor and in good company in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Though he is gone, his literary works live on, his plays in general celebrating the endearing paradoxes of human nature, and his poetry in particular having as its central theme the reassurance that however painful the disappointments of life, love never dies.

This movie is everything about why I love the courageous, crisp, brainy and brilliant British media. Stephen Fry is a gem who could recite the phone book and turn it into a soliloquy on the cruelty of human history. His voice is marvelous, and he rolls his consonants around in his mouth like Jordan almonds -- all without affectation, somehow. Wilde's many quips and epigrams drop out of his mouth without the slightest artificiality, natural and thoughtless as dew rolling off a leaf. Jude Law's Bosie is terrifyingly unstable, and his beauty serves only to throw his instability into high relief. You can't take your eyes off of him while he's on screen at the same time you want to turn away and skitter under the cabinets to stop watching.The rest of the supporting cast is magnificent (if only the American film industry permitted its great actresses to work past the age of 40, we might boast such luminaries as Vanessa Redgrave and Zoe Wanamaker someday as well as Helen Mirren and Judi Dench!), the directing is flawless, the costumes and set design stunning but never overstated. All of it is used only to support the story, and as beautiful as it all is, it never pulls you out of the story or distracts you, only providing a seamless and textured foundation for the action.I admit, I'm somewhat amused at the reviewers who imagine that this film shouldn't have concentrated so much on Wilde's sexuality. This is the story of him as much his work -- and his work at any rate was quite informed by his sexuality, nebulous at best during a time when anything but rigid adherence to a particularly joyless version of heterosexuality was a sin and a crime. Beautiful as this film is (and delicious as it is to see so many gorgeous young British men running around au naturel), it breaks your heart with the realization that happiness and fulfillment in life, as well as success and self-respect, can be so profoundly influenced by nothing more significant than the year in which one was born. In a hundred years, what will people be saying about the great women, gays and lesbians, and other minorities who lived in our time?

Definitely a must see for literary fans. Well done.

". . .I put only my talent into my works."Wilde is a truly moving and beautiful tribute to one of the forgotten geniuses of fin de siecle literature. In a deeply convincing performance, Stephen Fry shows both the glittering sheen of wit and the seldom-seen humanity beneath the Irish genius that was Oscar Wilde. Jude Law, doing his usual excellent job, portrays Bosie as both a petulant and spoiled brat and a young man starved for the affection he could never have as a child. The supporting cast are wonderful, particulary Michael Sheen as Robbie, Vanessa Redgrave as Speranza, and Tom Wilkinson as the Marquess of Queensbury. Ever since learning of him, I have held Mr. Wilde in deep respect, as an artist, a genius, and a person who would not become a hypocrite like those who so easily condemned him. The entire sequence from the trial scene to the release from prison was one of the most moving and cathartic moments I have ever witnessed on film. And in another vein, the movie does not shy away (like previous Wilde bios) from showing Wilde's intimate side. It gives a realistic and human side to a man I only previously beheld in black and white images from a distant century. Wilde is the finest film to come along in years. It is a viewing must for any conoisseur of cinema or literature.

La imagen y sonido están excelentes, todos actúan extraordinariamente y los diálogos tienen las frases de Oscar Wilde. Muy recomendable

This is - hands down - the most intelligent and thorough biopic of the great Oscar Wilde. A convincing three dimensional portrait of the man with no skirting around the sexual element. Very moving.

Una interpretación perfecta de uno de los grandes de su tiempo. Por desgracia, rechazado por la hipocresía de su país.Cuántos de nosotros habrían gustado ser tan escandalosos como el.....👌🌈

Il dvd è arrivato nei tempi stabiliti senza alcun problema. Il film è molto interessante e davvero ben fatto con un cast molto azzeccato. Un bel dvd da comprare per gli appassionati di Oscar Wilde.

同性愛スキャンダルで人生の絶頂から真っ逆さまに転がり落ちたオスカー・ワイルド。彼のファンならば、一度は「なぜだ」と思ったことと思います。なぜ、アルフレッド・ダグラスの言うなりになったのか、彼と別れていれば、もっともっと優れた作品を書いてくれただろうと残念に思ったのでは？その「なぜ」の答えが描かれています。輸入品でしたが、リージョン2で問題なく見られました。日本語字幕はありません。