FILM REVIEW – THE
LIBERTINE
A brilliant look at the life and death of the
reprehensible John Wilmot, Lord Rochester, played brilliantly by Johnny Depp.
Rochester made the later Marquis De Sade look like a well-behaved altar boy.
Understandably, the film is one for adults only. The story is set in the later
half of the reign of King Charles the 2cd, described in captions at the beginning
of the film as the point where the ‘binge drinking’; marathon that was the
Restoration was giving way to a mammoth national hangover. John Malkovitch
gives a touching never smiling performance as the now not so Merry Monarch, as
a man with a terrible burden, haunted by the death of his father, and faced
with a Parliament bent on excluding his brother James, a Roman Catholic, from
succession. Charles refers to this political conflict as ‘My civil war’.
Charles hopes to enlist Rochester,
already a noted poet, in his support, to write propaganda, and defend him with
eloquence before the Parliament. Unfortunately, Rochester is something of an
anarchist with nothing but contempt for God or Kingship. The epic masterpiece
drama Quintessence of Debauchery that he stages for Charles has to be seen in
the film to be believed. It is a work of extreme pornographic nature that
lampoons and lambastes Charles mercilessly. That Charles is there, with French
ambassadors to watch the premier makes it all the more amusing. Suffice to say
the King has the production stopped very quickly.
Rochester goes into hiding until he
King’s wrath dies down, posing as a medical quack, but steadily succumbs to the
full ravages of syphilis, which are very vividly portrayed in the later
portions of the film.
Rochester begins the story by
defiantly telling the audience straight to camera that we won’t like him. He
ends by asking, having now seen his life story whether we like him or not. The
answer is actually yes, I do. His anarchic
defiant bohemian selfishness actually gives him an air of noble tragedy. He is
a cynic, and a political mischief-maker. There’s much about him that is
gloriously reprehensible. His treatment of his long-suffering wife is
appalling. She watches aghast as he takes on mistress and harlot after mistress
and harlot. In the creation of a family portrait, Rochester, on a whim,
suddenly excludes his wife from the picture, and replaces her with a street
entertainer’s monkey. The portrait is real and shown at http://www.druidic.isles.net/rocpoet.htm
He gets his best friend involved in a silly, pointless fracas with a town
sheriff, in which his friend gets stabbed through with a sword, as Rochester flees
for his own life. It was an act of cowardice for which he was vilified for the
rest of his days.
However, Rochester did ultimately speak up for
his King in Parliament, to defend the right of James to the succession. It is a
speech given by Depp with remarkable eloquence. He points out that Charles 2cd
gave the regicides who killed his father a fair trial and a right to speak,
while the new parliament would have the
next King silenced without a chance to take his place or his crown. It is a
speech that helped to save the Restoration monarchy from lasting for only a
single king. Charles thanks Rochester for his one unselfish act, but Rochester
insists that he acted from self-interest still. Somehow it does not convince. In fact, he performs one other kindness,
taking a poor quality actress under his wing, Pygmalion (My Fair Lady) style to
turn her into one of the great stage presences of her age. In fact his relationship with Elizabeth
Barry is also factually accurate. The performance of her in transformation by
Samantha Morton is probably the one most deserving of an Oscar here, though
Depp should also be nominated if there is any justice in Hollywood.
The script, based on his own stage
play by Stephen Jeffreys is magnificent, with some terrific one-liners and
asides. When the militia are looking for Rochester, their Commanding officer
tells them ‘If he’s very drunk, you’ll have no problems. If he’s just a bit
drunk, be careful,’ Asked what will happen if Rochester is sober, the C/O
replies, ‘Then you’ve got the wrong man’.
There is some great and unexpected
casting, i.e. Johnny Vegas, in a terrific serious role. The lighting and
cinephotography and period detail are stunning. It has a gauzy dreamy quality
to the hazy ghostly lighting. It is reminiscent of the early work of Peter
Greenaway. This is a great film, a study of what the Civil War paved the way
for, through the eyes of a tragic, misunderstood anti-hero, who dared to be an
extreme self-loathing individual, and paid the price in death by the age of 33.
http://www.druidic.isles.net/roc-bio.htm gives a ecent brief biography of Rochester.
Arthur Chappell
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