The Canterville Ghost; Indecent Acts; Wilde

"My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go." With these famous last words, Oscar Wilde expired in Paris on November 30, 1900, a broken, penniless man (the wallpaper, having won, presumably stayed). Born Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde in Dublin on October 16, 1854, Oscar Wilde would eventually become a leading light in Britain's aesthetic movement, championing Walter Pater's doctrine of "art for art's sake." In Brian Gilbert's Wilde, we first meet Wilde (very impressively played by noted British novelist Stephen Fry) in an uncharacteristic and deliciously disorienting moment: surrounded by bare-chested miners in Leadville, Colorado while on his 1882 American tour. Wed to Constance Lloyd (Jennifer Ehle) in 1884, Wilde fathered two sons and produced the notorious novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) before finding his true callings: 1) writing for the theatre, where he amassed a string of hits between 1892-1895, and partying with young men--especially the foppish Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas (played by Jude Law). Eventually, Bosie's father, the Marquis of Queensbury would publicly denounce Wilde as a "sondomite" (sic) and Wilde would unwisely press charges for libel. At the close of the 1895 case, Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labor. Although the casting and acting in Wilde (with the notable exception of a miscast Vanessa Redgrave) are uniformly excellent, the script witty, and the direction solid, the film does not...quite...work. Oddly, viewers will come away with a better understanding of the boy toy Bosie than Oscar Wilde. Optional. Aud: P.Filmed 100 years after the infamous Wilde trial, Indecent Acts examines the anti-homosexual legal statutes which resulted in Wilde's imprisonment, and contrasts the repressive dictates of Victorian society with the cases of two contemporary gay males: a former clergyman and an ousted military man. While tracing the evolution of the facts in the Wilde case, particularly the laws regarding definitions of "gross indecencies," Indecent Acts remains on interesting, not to mention, substantial ground. When it veers off to the tabloid-like confessionals of the contemporary gay interviewees, however, the connection seems tenuous, at best--the filmed-in-shadow men bear little resemblance to the bold, flamboyant Wilde and the juxtaposition of a private writer and a public clergyman or member of the armed services seems more than a little strained. Still, the commentary by scholars makes for an engaging historical look at the Wilde case. A pricey and very optional purchase. Aud: C. P.Wilde himself surely would have relished the irony in the cinematic attention lavished on The Canterville Ghost, a short story originally published in 1891. An amusing, though decidedly light effort, literary-wise, "Ghost" is the most filmed, by far, of all Wilde's works, having made it to the big and little screen a total of--by my count--five times. In the latest, a made-for-British TV production, Ian Richardson does a decent job of rattling the chains as the late Sir Simon de Canterville, a cantankerous ghost who tries very hard to oust the American Otis family from his ancestral home, without success. Harassed by the devilish Otis twins, leaving Mr. Otis neither shaken nor stirred, and--heaven forbid!--considered a social draw by Mrs. Otis, poor ghostly Simon does eventually win the sympathy and help of Virginia Otis (Sarah-Jane Potts), whose attention is also divided by the attentions of suitor Lord Cheshire (James D'Arcy). In a Hollywood-pitch-word, this is Pride and Prejudice meets Ghostbusters. Affordable and mildly entertaining. Aud: J, H, P. (R. Pitman)