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REEL TO REAL
by Chuc LaVenture
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Wilde

This is a biography of Oscar Wilde. I've been a huge Oscar Wilde fan since high school. The man had such wit and there was such wisdom in what he had to say. As a rebellious teen, I reveled in his skewering the norms of the society in which he lived. Of course, the real draw for me was the fact that he was not just a man of wit, wisdom and letters, but a homosexual as well.

The screenplay for this film was written by Julian Mitchell (Another Country) and was based on the biography of Wilde by Richard Ellmann. The film begins with Oscar's (Stephan Fry) tour of America but quickly moves to London. The film leaves out the early years of Oscar's life in Ireland, but you get some sense of what it must have been like through his encounters with is mother Speranza (Vanessa Redgrave), a woman of great intellect, a poet, a political activist, as well as a devoted fan of Oscar's. Her devotion is evident in a scene in which she discusses Oscar's first literary success, The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a rather stodgy friend of the family who informs Speranza that Oscar was pushing the envelope of social norms and that many considered him dangerous, and that his works should be censored. Speranza merely laughs and informs her guest that Oscar is an artist and that art should never be censored.

The film moves through the rest of Oscar's life rather seamlessly. We go to the opening of Lady Windermere's Fan, where Wilde is reintroduced to Lord Alfred Douglas (Jude Law), nicknamed Bosie, with whom he will fall helplessly in love. We follow Oscar and Bosie through the rather amoral life that Bosie lived and learn of the discord between his father and himself, as well as see the way in which Wilde neglected his wife and children. The discord between Bosie and his father was terribly painful for Oscar to see, and would eventually bring about the downfall of Wilde. When Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, learns that his son is running around London with its most famous playwright, he leaves a note for Oscar with a porter in which he calls Oscar a "poising somdomite (sic)". Bosie convinces Oscar to sue his father for libel, thus bringing about the now famous set of trials that brought about the end of Oscar Wilde's illustrious career.

The film will give those of you with some knowledge of Wilde a much broader view of the man. For those who know nothing of Oscar this is still an incredible love story. The film is beautifully shot in London, with the scenes in France and Italy having actually been shot in Spain and Granada. For those familiar with, and for those not, this is a wonderfully engaging film that shouldn't be missed.

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From October Films, High Art, beginning July 10 at Canal Place, is billed as a story of ambition, sacrifice, seduction and other career moves and stars Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell and features New Orleans native Patricia Clarkson. Pictured, Patricia Clarkson as Greta and her main squeeze, Lucy Berliner, played by Ally Sheedy.

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