While in 1970s London, a 'weirdly tall, beyond size zero' teenage Rupert is expelled from the Central School of Speech & Drama. In 1980s Paris, his great friend Lychee burns bright, and is gone. But we also meet glamorous, but doomed Aunt Peta, who introduces Rupert (aged three) to the joys of make-up. Titled, 'Tainted Glory', and the synopsis reads, "Travelling across Europe for the film, weaves in extraordinary tales from his past, remembering wild times, freak encounters and lost friends. Now he is writing a memoir on the experience. He named it for Wilde's book 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales', which his mother would read to him. Rupert Everett has already starred in two Oscar Wilde film adaptations, The Ideal Husband (1999) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002). He not only wrote and directed it, but also played the leading part of Oscar Wilde. Just in 2018, he released a movie titled, 'The Happy Prince' based on Wilde's life. He's no stranger to Wilde's work for he also acted in 'The Judas Kiss', a play based on Wilde and 'The Importance of Being Earnest', a movie based on Wilde's play. Everett is a well-known actor and bibliophiles are likely to be familiar with him for he has acted in many screen adaptation of popular literary works such as 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children', 'The Right-Hand Man', 'Stardust', 'The Comfort of Strangers' and 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' to name a few. The Happy Prince opens in Atlanta on October 26 at The Springs Cinema & Taphouse.Rupert Everett, the award-winning actor, is writing a memoir on how he set out to make a movie on Oscar Wilde's last few days. In 1960, Robert Morley starred in the film, ‘Oscar Wilde’. Only a year or two ago, this film might have been made, starring a straight actor (Scarlett Johansson, perhaps). There are four biographical movies about Oscar Wilde and all are currently available for viewing on streaming services. As the landscape of Queer media becomes wider and more mainstream, it is important to differentiate a careful portrait like The Happy Prince from the Oscar bait dribble like The Danish Girl. The film never becomes overly sentimental. Only an openly Queer person like Everett could have told this story with a delicate balance of wit and tenderness. Through meticulously crafted vignettes, weaving together the past and the present, Everett paints a picture of a life full of sorrow and unabashed pleasure. He has given his whole self to an adoring public-one that quickly turns on him because of his Queerness. "Yet each man kills the thing he loves,” Wilde wrote in one of his last poems, The Ballad of Reading Gaol.ĭespite the fact that he is unable to see his wife and two children, Wilde’s life continues on and comes to a quick end alongside his chosen family. Life Itself is a 2018 American drama film written, co-produced and directed by Dan Fogelman.It stars Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, Annette Bening, and Antonio Banderas, and follows multiple couples over numerous generations, and their connections to a single event. Even during his penniless exile, Wilde chased after men (or, young men) and clung to the few people who would still keep his company. This choice casts a dark shadow over a life that was marked by legendary excess, decadence, and boozy encounters.ĭejected and snubbed from his old life in high society, the aged playwright spends his last days in Northern France. Despite the rich array of literary successes to pull from and Oscar Wilde’s eventual imprisonment for “gross indecency” (or, gay stuff), Everett chose to center this story around Wilde’s deathbed-the last few years of his life, post-imprisonment. Unlike most biopics, The Happy Prince spends little time diving into the protagonist’s backstory. The story of Oscar Wilde, genius, poet, playwright and the First Modern Man. Swallowed in makeup and aging prosthetics, Everett delivers the performance of a lifetime as the unpredictably witty Wilde. The self-realisation of his homosexuality caused Wilde enormous torment as he juggled marriage, fatherhood and responsibility with his obsessive love for Lord Alfred Douglas. The film marks his directorial debut with an excellent screenplay that he wrote himself. The story of Oscar Wilde, genius, poet, playwright and the First Modern Man. Without interest from major studios and directors, Everett went to great lengths to paint a different picture of Queer playwright, Oscar Wilde. It took openly gay actor Rupert Everett over a decade to get The Happy Prince made.
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