The Libertine (2004)

An antidote to the sunny period pieces adopted from Jane Austen, which feature impeccably coiffed aristocracy engage in the witty banter of drawing room dramas and culminate in a most delightful denouement, THE LIBERTINE highlights the underbelly of the Britocracy of centuries past. Adapted from the play by Stephen Jeffreys, the plot follows the dastardly debauchery of the Earl of Rochester (a mischievous Johnny Depp). A hedonist who makes Oscar Wilde seem moralistic, the Earl spent his days and nights in beds, brothels, and bars, awakening from drunken blackouts only to stumble to the nearest whorehouse. Yet thi...
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s ravishing rake was also possessed of a predilection for poetry, and turned his escapades into acid-tongued witticisms that pepper this frisky film.

Directed by first-timer Laurence Dunmore, the historical film picks up in 1678, when the Earl returns to London at the behest of King Charles II (magnetically played by John Malkovich, who starred in the play when it was staged at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre). With his young wife in tow, our rake immediately immerses himself into a litany of transgressions. When he meets a prostitute and burgeoning actress named Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton), he obsessively takes her under his wing, crafting her into an acclaimed stage starlet and eventually bedding her. What follows is a spiral--upward, downward, and sideways--through the city's pleasure palaces, culminating in a quasi-tragic, quasi-relieving denouement. Melding the naughty energy of his PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN character with the brooding darkness of his wearied detective in FROM HELL, Depp gives a pitch-perfect performance that carries the film, eliciting strange sympathy for such a despicable devil. The score, by the award-winning composer Michael Nyman, adds even further moodiness and dramatic edge to the story.
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A man who lives for pleasure finds his hedonism betrays him in time in this film adaptation of the play by Stephen Jeffreys. The second Earl of Rochester, John Wilmot (Johnny Depp), was a notorious figure in 17th century Europe; well-respected as a poet and author, Wilmot also earned no small degree of gossip for his freewheeling sex life and appetite for decadence. Wilmot was close friends with Charles II (John Malkovich), the powerful and Machiavellian ruler of England, and enjoyed a passionate romance with Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton), an actress of note. But Wilmot's seemingly charmed life took a turn fo...
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r the worse when he wrote a satirical play lampooning his friend Charles II; the monarch failed to see the humor, and exiled the author from Britain. Wilmot found little solace in his relationship with Barry, especially after he contracted syphilis and began drinking heavily as the disease tore away at his body and his mind. The Libertine was produced in part by John Malkovich, who played the role of John Wilmot in a production of Stephen Jeffreys' original play.
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In het Engeland van eind zeventiende eeuw is dichter John Wilmot (Johnny Depp), de Tweede Graaf van Rochester, ongetwijfeld de meest controversiële man in het gevolg van koning Charles II. Wilmot is een onverbeterlijke rokkenjager die meer dan vrijzinnige toneelstukken schrijft. Hoewel hij getrouwd is met de mooie Elizabeth Malet, laat hij zijn oog vallen op de jonge actrice Elizabeth Barry. Hij neemt zich voor om haar bij te staan in haar prestaties op het toneel én tussen de lakens. Maar met een man als Wilmot is moeilijk te leven en als de drank zijn tol eist en alle vrouwen zich tegen hem keren is er slechts ...
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één vrouw die door dik en dun aan zijn zijde blijft staan: de echtgenote van wie John zelf eigenlijk niets meer wil weten.
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