MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - MobileRead April 2014 Discussion: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (spoilers)

WT Sharpe · 04-22-2014, 11:08 AM

A word here on the film adaptations I saw. First up was Dorian Gray, a 2009 film starring Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray and Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton. I enjoyed this film, but felt it was a bit removed from the book. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as the book was written in a time and place where the author was not free to express the full depravity of his creation, but I couldn't help coming away from the film with the notion that perhaps too much had changed. For example, before he takes Lord Henry to see Sibyl Vane for the first time, the movie shows both characters being serviced in a house of ill repute. That hardly seems in keeping with a man who at the time professed himself to be under the spell of love. And, of course, the homosexual element was only hinted at in the book.

Next up was a film for which I had high expectations, having seen it somewhere described as the best and most faithful of all the film adaptations, the 1945 film, The Picture of Dorian Gray starring George Sanders as Lord Henry Wotton, Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray, and what got my attention as a 2nd generation Murder She Wrote fan, a young Angela Lansbury as Sibyl Vane. Well, I was happy with Lansbury as Sibyl, but not with the transformation of Sibyl Vane from a Shakespearean actor into what amounted to a singer at a local nightclub. There were other things that really bugged me about the film, not the least of which was the slight alteration for the better that the portrait underwent when Gray decided he was going to turn over a new leaf, suggesting there was hope for him after all; a notion never entertained in the words of any version of the book. But perhaps the most irritating aspect of the movie was the addition of Donna Reed as a love interest for Dorian and someone who almost saves him from himself. Her character was even present as a small child at the painting of the portrait, and actually signed the portrait under Basil's signature.

One interesting aspect of the 1945 film was the portrait itself. While the rest of the film was in black and white, several of the scenes where the portrait filled the screen were in Technicolor. Gimmicky, yes, but it wasn't as distracting as the 2009 film that used special effects to have the portrait attempt to leave the canvas to some after Dorian.

04-22-2014, 11:08 AM	#10
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,073 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	A word here on the film adaptations I saw. First up was Dorian Gray, a 2009 film starring Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray and Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton. I enjoyed this film, but felt it was a bit removed from the book. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as the book was written in a time and place where the author was not free to express the full depravity of his creation, but I couldn't help coming away from the film with the notion that perhaps too much had changed. For example, before he takes Lord Henry to see Sibyl Vane for the first time, the movie shows both characters being serviced in a house of ill repute. That hardly seems in keeping with a man who at the time professed himself to be under the spell of love. And, of course, the homosexual element was only hinted at in the book. Next up was a film for which I had high expectations, having seen it somewhere described as the best and most faithful of all the film adaptations, the 1945 film, The Picture of Dorian Gray starring George Sanders as Lord Henry Wotton, Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray, and what got my attention as a 2nd generation Murder She Wrote fan, a young Angela Lansbury as Sibyl Vane. Well, I was happy with Lansbury as Sibyl, but not with the transformation of Sibyl Vane from a Shakespearean actor into what amounted to a singer at a local nightclub. There were other things that really bugged me about the film, not the least of which was the slight alteration for the better that the portrait underwent when Gray decided he was going to turn over a new leaf, suggesting there was hope for him after all; a notion never entertained in the words of any version of the book. But perhaps the most irritating aspect of the movie was the addition of Donna Reed as a love interest for Dorian and someone who almost saves him from himself. Her character was even present as a small child at the painting of the portrait, and actually signed the portrait under Basil's signature. One interesting aspect of the 1945 film was the portrait itself. While the rest of the film was in black and white, several of the scenes where the portrait filled the screen were in Technicolor. Gimmicky, yes, but it wasn't as distracting as the 2009 film that used special effects to have the portrait attempt to leave the canvas to some after Dorian.