Monday, May 4, 1998
Wild life of Wilde exposed on silver screen
FILM: Biography of playwright inspires director Brian Gilbert to
make movie exploring author’s scandalous downfall
By Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Staff
College-aged youths mixed up in the sexual life of a nationally
respected man. That man’s bed chamber affairs brought before the
courts in three trials that shake the country. And oddly, the White
House isn’t even involved.
"I think we look back and we see that (Oscar Wilde has) been
largely interpreted in terms of the scandal," projects Brian
Gilbert, director of "Wilde," currently playing in select theaters.
"The reading of his character, as well as his writings, has
resulted in the kind of trivialization which comes from the fact
that he was a gay criminal, a homosexual criminal in the greatest
scandal of the 19th century."
"Wilde" focuses on the life and downfall of the witty author and
playwright Oscar Wilde. Amidst a successful career in the theater,
he sued his lover’s father for libel, claiming that he had no proof
of Wilde being a sodomist. However, after going through two
successive trials of a similar nature, Wilde was found guilty of
practicing homosexual acts and sentenced to two years of hard
labor.
"If we can look at the injustice that was done to Wilde, a man
of such capacity and genius, how much easier it is to see that
injustice could be done to someone of lesser qualities," Gilbert
says of his reasons behind bringing the tale to the big screen. "I
think that that quality of Wilde being a modern man, somehow that
he speaks to us now, is very important, and it’s hard to quite
define it."
This voice from the grave caught ahold of Gilbert when he
finished Richard Ellmann’s biography of the writer. Since that day,
Gilbert spent two years developing the work, acquiring Julian
Mitchell as a team member to draft the screenplay. Though other
sources were referenced, Ellmann’s work remains the bones upon
which "Wilde" has risen.
"It was (Ellmann’s) last book and was hailed as the great
biography of our time on Oscar Wilde," Gilbert proclaims. "When I
put it down, I wanted to make a movie. I knew there’d been other
films, but this to me represented the real change in view that has
been going on for perhaps the 20 years. It was really a new
appreciation of Wilde and what Wilde meant."
Largely saturated in the current media, this changing perception
of Wilde can be found in many arenas. A theater production titled
"Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde" tours the United
States, while a play centering around Wilde’s wife just left Los
Angeles. An opera based on the repercussions of the trial
(including a boat full of gay men leaving England after the verdict
was announced) is currently in the works. Even English classes at
UCLA explore this modern view of the controversial character.
"Everyone, even his devotees, felt the need to apologize for
him, and to point out his self-destructiveness, his weakness, his
masochism, his longing for martyrdom – all those negative
self-divided aspects of the typical gay man who did such scandalous
things," Gilbert says of the effect of Wilde’s scandal years ago.
"And equally his writing, I think, was trivialized too, to the
extent that he was considered yes, extremely witty, but then he was
gay, and therefore that somehow those things are to be expected and
not to be taken very profoundly."
However, Ellmann’s biography, written in the late 1980s,
re-explores the texts of Wilde. Looking past the biases associated
with Wilde’s fall from Victorian society, Ellmann reads Wilde as
being at par with his contemporaries – Nietzche, Tolstoy,
Dostoyevski and Dickens. In this way, Wilde lives.
"Now, we recognize Wilde as having the greatest charm and the
greatest humor. That was the source of his strength," Gilbert
observes. "I think that’s why, as time goes by, we become more
aware of the gravity and the seriousness behind the wit, something
he would have disavowed. He wouldn’t like people to emphasize that,
but you couldn’t help it."
This sharp tongue shows in Wilde’s plays, such as "The
Importance of Being Earnest" and "An Ideal Husband." The latter
work just recently had a run in England. Wilde’s pieces are
reappearing in various theatrical forms around the world 100 years
after his death. Most high school and college students still read
Wilde’s classic novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray." A film version
of the work exists in the classics section of most video
stores.
"We see that there was nothing idle in him," Gilbert notes in an
attempt to understand Wilde’s popularity. "He was very provocative.
There was a philosophic debt to his humor and his wit, and of
course that is why, although he made his audiences laugh, at times,
the Victorians were gunning for him because he also offended them.
But while they were laughing, they couldn’t do anything about
it."
To bring the mulit-faceted character to life, British comic
sketch actor Stephen Fry was cast as the lead. His ability to
represent Wilde in a more mature and laid back way than previously
viewed seems to flow naturally in his performance. However, as most
Brits still connect Fry with his comedic roles, many find his
decision to play the dramatic role somewhat of a surprise.
"There’s something in Stephen that I thought would help enable
him to really get inside the character of Oscar Wilde, based on his
own life," Gilbert explains. "The fact that he understands humor
and wit, also. He’s very eloquent himself, so that the particular
nature of the beauty of the language of Oscar Wilde and that Wilde
fashioned was something that he could appreciate."
Desiring to play the phrase-turning author from the film’s
conception, Fry remained deeply committed to the role. Likewise,
the character touched Gilbert, as he expects it to touch audiences
in much the same way.
"I think he is very rare amongst artists," Gilbert gushes.
"Wilde, I find, is a spokesman to anyone who feels vulnerable and
outside and on the margins. So he appeals to that aspect in
ourselves, you know. All of us to some extent have felt divided and
we’ve had contradictions and have tried to reconcile them and he
speaks to that consciousness."
Seeing Wilde as a sort of beacon for standing social tragedy
with grace, Gilbert understands the literary figure for being a
societal symbol as well as a man. This view finds representation in
the film, which includes the oration of a children’s fairy tale as
a running side-narrative. The tale, written by Wilde, provides
further insight into the undefinable author.
"Wilde is very unusually prophetic about his own life in his
work," Gilbert explains. "One of the casual pleasures of reading
him is that you can’t help but sense connections to himself … The
plays are frequently about the ideal husband, and about the man
with the dark secret who requires compassion. There’s all this
yearning for forgiveness in Wilde, and self-revelation. You can’t
help but identify Wilde with the selfish giant (in the children’s
story) to some extent."
FILM: "Wilde" is currently in theaters.
Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Stephen Fry captures both the dramatic and comedic sides of
Oscar Wilde.
Zoe Wanamaker (left) and Vanessa Redgrave star in "Wilde."