There are some great biopics about Wilde. My favorite is one with Michael Gambon, who is deeply touching (I think it was a BBC version, but I had a videotape of it.). And there’s the large-scale one in which Stephen Fry plays Oscar (with aplomb and glamor if a lack of depth), which includes Jude Law’s indelible Bosie, Jennifer Ehle’s perfect Constance, and Vanessa Redgrave as his mother.
The extraordinary THE HAPPY PRINCE, which circles around that fairy tale for its theme, was Rupert Everett’s labor of love in which he captures so much of the paradox of the martyr/genius/predator/saint. One needs a bit of acquaintance with the biography to follow it, I think, because flashback and fever-dream are its sylistic paths, but it is very worth attention, and Everett fulfills every artistic promise he ever showed. Big bravo. |
