The Libertine

page 15

! There May Be SPOILERS in the movie reviews !

By Sheri Linden
Reuters

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Having created an indelible rogue's gallery of lovable freaks and nonconformists, Johnny Depp ventures deep into the realm of the monstrous in the demanding film "The Libertine."

He delivers a haunting portrait of the 17th-century poet, provocateur and debauchee John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, who achieved literary acclaim only after his lingering death at 33, ravaged by syphilis and alcohol. One of the achievements of director Laurence Dunmore's insistently gritty first feature is that his protagonist, a repellent creature of rapacious sensual appetites, grows more recognizable the more physically grotesque he becomes. A dark cousin to such screen rapscallions as Raoul Duke, Jack Sparrow and, yes, Willy Wonka, Depp's dissolute earl possesses a staggering allure, sorrow and intelligence beneath the blood-chilling sneer.

Originally scheduled for September release in the midst of Miramax's crowded housecleaning slate, the unrated Weinstein Co. release world-premiered Friday at AFI Fest. (Not an MPAA signatory, the new shingle declined the organization's NC-17.) It bows November 25 in Los Angeles and New York, where it should perform lustily. Wide release in January will be more of a challenge, even with Depp starring.

Like its protagonist, the self-proclaimed cynic of a golden age, "Libertine" makes no concessions to expectation. Shot as if through layers of grime, it takes an admirably different approach to costume fare than high-sheen features like "Shakespeare in Love," which put the Weinsteins' Miramax on the Oscar map.

There's a stark power to Alexander Melman's grainy, candlelit cinematography (Dunmore himself operated the mostly handheld camera) that is in keeping with the unapologetic subject matter. But the drained-of-red palette and fetid green light, artifices in their own right, are at times more tiring than expressive. Audiences used to being spoon-fed dazzling period regalia might feel mired in the sludge. For those who can stick with it, the rewards are considerable.

"You will not like me," Rochester promises from the shadows in his to-the-camera prologue. Stephen Jeffreys' screenplay, based on his play, doesn't explain or excuse the behavior of a man devoted to pleasure and yet numb to it. A favorite in the king's court, though no worshipper of the throne, Rochester accepts a commission to write a major work of literature for Charles II (John Malkovich, who shepherded the project over its nine-year development after playing the title role in the U.S. premiere of the play). Rather than get to work, Rochester pursues his commitment to drink and sex, between escapades trading pornographic ripostes with writers George Etherege (Tom Hollander) and Charles Sackville (Johnny Vegas).

Rochester is shaken from licentious routine when he sees struggling actress Lizzie Barry (Samantha Morton) booed offstage. She's one of the first generation of female actors -- following the trail blazed by women like Claire Danes' character in "Stage Beauty" -- and Rochester determines to make her the leading light of the London theater. He succeeds. Known for his brutal honesty, he demands truth from Lizzie's performances, and the fiercely independent actress, overcoming her wariness, flourishes under his tutelage. She also becomes his lover, igniting a passion that Rochester recognizes too late.

Although capable of listening respectfully to the advice of a favorite whore (Kelly Reilly), the earl shows his pious mother (Francesca Annis) only disdain. Matters are more complex with his wife, Elizabeth (Rosamund Pike), who has her eyes wide open to his philandering. Pike is extraordinarily affecting as the woman who began her relationship with Rochester as his teenage kidnap victim and ended it as his devoted caretaker. Morton, though underused, conveys Lizzie's ardor and formidable ambition.

Almost unrecognizable in fake nose and massive wig, Malkovich has a contained intensity as the free-thinking sovereign who embraces the wonders of scientific and intellectual progress and who, beneath the official ire, seems to enjoy the raunchy irreverence of Rochester's literary output.

Bawdiness notwithstanding, there's a touch of the conventional in the dialogue's self-consciously literary profusion of language. And however flavorful all the supporting turns, the piece is clearly a showcase for its star, who delves into sinister depths that his previous screen work touched upon only in moments.

Contributions by production designer Ben Van Os, costume designer Dien Van Straalen and especially hair and make-up designer Peter Owen ("The Lord of the Rings") are key to the sense of Restoration-era England in the throes of a hangover from post-Puritan excess. The film is dedicated to casting director Mary Selway, Marlon Brando and Hunter S. Thompson.

Posted Sunday, Nov. 13, 2005
John Malkovich plays King Charles II in The Libertine, out Nov. 25.

This is a very dirty movie. Was that its appeal? I liked the take on the period, that whatever's wrong in your life you can blame on the king.

Ever thought of doing TV? I've been talking to Hugh Laurie about doing something on House. We're friends. It's just so hard to find the time. I just finished Beowulf.

Why are so many Beowulf projects under way? Scary monsters are like Hula Hoops. They come in and out of fashion.

I see you have some designs in your sketch pad. How's your clothing line coming? Yes, that's a little light sweater design for fall-winter 2006. I've got a new line based on a movie I just finished about the artist Klimt.

Are you wearing any of your fashions? No. Today was a big disaster. I spilled coffee on my sweater.

Theater actor, clothing designer ... has it occurred to you that you and P. Diddy share job titles? Bizarre, isn't it? I hear he doesn't want to do anything but draw clothes.

Whose head would you like to inhabit? No one's, really. Because I'd want it to be someone really smart, and that's a heap of trouble. If you're too smart it can limit you because you spend so much time thinking that you don't do anything.

Like Johnny Depp's character in The Libertine? Exactly. The Earl of Rochester could think quite profoundly. He was born a diamond and turned himself into coal. The film is about people's responsibility to their gifts.

Why don't you vote? I retired in 1972. Politics is not really my thing. One side says, "The tree is sick, and all it needs is proper water and food and it will get healthy." The other side says, "The tree is sick. Cut it down." If it's not my tree I have a tendency to butt out.

"Why I stepped aside for Depp"

AMERICAN actor John Malkovich has no regrets about handing over the plum role of randy Restoration rake the Earl of Rochester to another actor. In fact, he suggested that Johnny Depp should star in the new film, The Libertine.

After appearing as Rochester in a stage production of the Stephen Jeffreys play at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, Malkovich thought it would make a good movie.

That was getting on for ten years ago. It's taken that long to get the film on screen, including a last-minute threat to financing because of changes in British tax laws.

"I always had in my mind that we would hire or at least attempt to get Johnny Depp to play the part I'd played on stage," recalls Malkovich.

"I've no regrets whatsoever that I didn't get the chance to play him on screen. The first thing is that he died at 33, I was 44 when I played him. It's a young man's story, a young man's film.

"Of course, one can get away with that on stage but the cinema's not like that. As soon as we began to think of it as a film I thought of Johnny. I never thought of anyone else."

As well as being one of the producers of The Libertine, Malkovich appears as King Charles II, the monarch with a love of the arts who didn't know how to handle the volatile, mischief-making Rochester. The actor felt the story was about one's responsibility to one's talent, something that the supremely gifted Rochester didn't take seriously. "It's a story of artists that I often heard repeated in the Thatcher years in England. Rochester spends tons of time complaining what a c-word Charles II is and it's up to Rochester to do something, and he never did.

"He was a very gifted essayist, he could have been a very gifted dramatist, he had talent in a million ways but never really did anything with it."

After Depp saw the play in Chicago, Malkovich took him out for dinner and proposed he should play Rochester on screen. A screenplay was written and finance raised but the schedules of Depp and Nicole Kidman, who was also interested in the movie, meant they weren't available at the same time.

Meanwhile, Malkovich had recruited a director, Laurence Dunmore, he'd met making a commercial for Eurostar to helm The Libertine. At one point he himself had been mooted to direct the film.

It took another couple of years before Depp was available and then the money had to be raised from a different group of people. Disaster struck two weeks before the cameras were set to roll when the British Government changed tax laws affecting movie production to plug what was seen as a loophole.

"It happened very suddenly and affected a huge part of our budget. We were already in rehearsals," says Malkovich. "I called some people in the Government, not really to enlist their aid but to try and find out if there was going to be any kind of grey period for films already in production or very far into pre-production. Everyone seemed to say there wouldn't be."

He was filming another film, Colour Me Kubrick, on the Isle of Man at the time and a deal was struck with film authorities on the island to save The Libertine.

"My feeling is it's never easy to find financing for the kind of films we produce. It's almost always nightmarish and everything that can possibly go wrong generally does go wrong," he says.

"You just have to keep your eye on the prize and do your best to have the resources you need to make the film your director wants to make. It wasn't a pleasant time."

Once in front of the cameras, Malkovich concentrated on playing his role without offering advice to anyone, certainly not Depp. "I have great admiration for Johnny's skills as a performer," he says.

"I would never dare to proffer any suggestion whatsoever, not only to Johnny but to any actor, because I'm acting in it. That's the director's job. I have more than enough work trying to acquit myself in the role. I don't need to worry about Johnny or anyone else, they'll take care of themselves."

Besides, the stage play was quite different in tone and design to the dark, dingy and squalid portrait of 17th century London life that Dunmore paints on screen.

Malkovich sees no value in spotting differences between his portrayal of Rochester and Depp's. "In point of fact, I never saw myself do the role - I did it on stage, not on TV or for the cinema. Suffice it to say I'm not known to be among my most ardent fans," he says.

"I wouldn't make that comparison because the two performances were wildly different. I always love to watch Johnny work. So I never even thought about that really."

What he will admit is a love of stand-up comedian Johnny Vegas, who appears in the film as historical rake and wit Charles Sackville. "He rapidly became one of my lifelong heroes. I found it impossible watching him to take my eyes off him. I really liked watching him. He's very funny and very moving," he says.

Johnny Depp, John Malkovich, Samantha Morton, Rosamund Pike, Richard Coyle
Directed by Laurence Dunmore
2005    Drama
Rated NC-17

The newly formed Weinstein Company is giving this wild thing a limited release in the hopes of getting Oscar attention for Johnny Depp. No argument here. You have to admire an actor who finds time between the family franchises of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Pirates of the Caribbean to sandwich in the role of the dazzlingly debauched John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester. It's hard to tell what shocked seventeenth-century England the most about the earl. His depraved poetry? His skill as a cocksman with both ladies and gentlemen? His play about Charles II (John Malkovich) that portrays the king as a giant dildo? This one-of-a-kind spellbinder from first-time director Laurence Dunmore is not afraid to shock. Depp is a raunchy wonder, especially in a time-capsule-worthy opening monologue. Any Wonkaphiles who can't endure watching the earl's nose fall off from syphilis are just wussies.

PETER TRAVERS

The Libertine: "My Lord! This movie is all about sex! Sex, sex, sex. It's just this sort of lewd, suggestive, repulsive material that's destroying the youth of America today. Children look up to Johnny Depp, you know. The man is a pirate. We cannot have him galavanting around, promoting sex outside of marriage and engaging in God only knows what sort of disgusting acts with any young woman (or man, probably - look at his hair) who happens by! This is an outrage."

LOS ANGELES -
Johnny Depp was honored at AFI Fest 2005 with a career tribute and the premiere of his new film, "The Libertine."

The 42-year-old actor recently criticized press treatment of ex-girlfriend Kate Moss and reports of the supermodel's alleged drug use.

"What I know about Kate Moss is that she's a good kid, you know. And she's somebody's mother," he told AP Television News at Friday night's premiere.

"But they (the press) took and dragged her through such a horrific time for something you can call a mistake. ... We're all human, we're all very flawed in our own way, and to capitalize on that and sell it as a product is pretty vicious, because her kid is going to grow up to that someday."

Earlier in the evening, Depp was honored for his body of film work, which includes Oscar-nominated roles in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "Finding Neverland," as well as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Chocolat" and "Edward Scissorhands."

During the presentation, Depp made jokes — mostly self-effacing ones — and let the audience know that he wasn't entirely comfortable seeing his old roles on the screen.

He later told the AP, "What was bordering on torture was just having to watch those clips — not the clips themselves, but me — seeing me. I'm not very used to that, you know. I like walking away from a film with the experience. I love it. But I don't like having to watch what I went through."

Johnny Depp seems none too keen to get out of period dress. Having delighted fans by reprising his roguish turn in Pirates Of The Caribbean, the heart-throb's latest film sees him back in breeches playing another bad boy.

In The Libertine he portrays the curly-locked Earl of Rochester, a debauched 17th-century poet, who squanders his talent after succumbing to alcoholism and disease. For the flick's world premiere the 42-year-old actor had gone for a slightly less flamboyant look, arriving in a dapper brown suit.

Also sharing the limelight was the film's love interest Samantha Morton, in a daring plunge-backed purple dress, and John Malkovich, who as Charles II is the target of Rochester's scurrilous humour.

The film was screened as part of a special tribute to two-time Oscar nominee Johnny by the American Film Institute. At the gala AFI director Chris Gaines singled out the star for his versatility, saying: "He can straddle the line between being someone who has a filmography of risky, edgy roles, yet who is always interesting in his more mainstream roles…He straddles those two worlds seemingly effortlessly."

The Libertine goes on general release in the UK on November 18 and in the USA on January 13, 2006

THE LIBERTINE (18)
Mark Adams
THE STARS: Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich, Johnny Vegas.

THE STORY: Poet-aristocrat John Wilmot gains the favour of King Charles II (Malkovich), but is more interested in drink and debauchery than writing. He romances actress Elizabeth Barry (Morton) before succumbing to syphilis.

WHAT'S GOOD? Depp relishes playing such a wrecked character and the rich, dank atmosphere makes a nice contrast to the usual costume dramas.

WHAT'S BAD? Malkovich and Morton can irritate - he plays the King via big wig, fake nose and odd accent.

HOW LONG IS IT? A debauched 114mins

FINAL VERDICT: Johnny Depp impresses again.

Johnny Depp seems none too keen to get out of period dress. Having delighted fans by reprising his roguish turn in Pirates Of The Caribbean, the heart-throb's latest film sees him back in breeches playing another bad boy.

In The Libertine he portrays the curly-locked Earl of Rochester, a debauched 17th-century poet, who squanders his talent after succumbing to alcoholism and disease. For the flick's world premiere the 42-year-old actor had gone for a slightly less flamboyant look, arriving in a dapper brown suit.

Also sharing the limelight was the film's love interest Samantha Morton, in a daring plunge-backed purple dress, and John Malkovich, who as Charles II is the target of Rochester's scurrilous humour.

The film was screened as part of a special tribute to two-time Oscar nominee Johnny by the American Film Institute. At the gala AFI director Chris Gaines singled out the star for his versatility, saying: "He can straddle the line between being someone who has a filmography of risky, edgy roles, yet who is always interesting in his more mainstream roles…He straddles those two worlds seemingly effortlessly."

The Libertine goes on general release in the UK on November 18 and in the USA on January 13, 2006.

The Libertine

(U.K.)

An Entertainment Film Distributors (in U.K.)/The Weinstein Co. (in U.S.) release of an Odyssey Entertainment presentation, in association with the Isle of Man, of a Mr. Mudd production. (International sales: Odyssey, London.) Produced by Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, Russell Smith. Executive producers, Chase Bailey, Steve Christian, Marc Samuelson, Peter Samuelson, Ralph Kamp, Louise Goodsill. Directed by Laurence Dunmore. Screenplay, Stephen Jeffreys, based on his play.

Earl of Rochester - Johnny Depp
Elizabeth Barry - Samantha Morton
King Charles II - John Malkovich
Elizabeth Malet - Rosamund Pike
Sir George Etherege - Tom Hollander
Charles Sackville - Johnny Vegas
Jane - Kelly Reilly
Harris - Jack Davenport
Alcock - Richard Coyle
Countess - Francesca Annis
Downs - Rupert Friend
Molly Luscombe - Claire Higgins

By LESLIE FELPERIN

From the outset, "The Libertine" throws down the gauntlet, with Johnny Depp's Earl of Rochester promising the audience, "You will not like me." After almost two hours watching the 17th-century poetaster ruin himself with booze, brawling, shagging and epic-scale petulance, no one can say they weren't warned. Starting out seductive but ending up tiresome, debuting director Laurence Dunmore's pic is an honorable misfire, with pockmarks from its troubled gestation and recutting following work-in-progress screenings at 2004's Toronto fest. Depp's fans could generate some initial B.O., but mixed word-of-mouth may send it into quick decline.

Episodic script by Stephen Jeffreys, adapting his own legiter which opened in 1994 at London's Royal Court Theatre, only partly rises to the challenge of filleting a story out of the sordid and often strange adventures of the second Earl of Rochester, aka John Wilmot. Real-life figure, who died in 1680 at age 33 from a surfeit of drink and syphilis, was notorious for his debauchery.

Wilmot was also bisexual -- a preference only hinted at in the film. In its rush to establish Wilmot's street cred as a bourgeois-baiting outlaw, pic also dodges the fact that, earlier in his career, he was feted a hero for his courage at sea against the Dutch.

Film opens with some obligatory captions giving background, and a to-camera introduction by Wilmot (Depp) himself which, with carefree abandon, mixes 17th-century diction with contempo slang. (Wilmot warns the ladies that "he's up for it, all the time.") Plot then plunges into the biography, starting ca. 1678.

Wilmot is summoned back to London from countryside exile in Oxfordshire by King Charles II (John Malkovich, who played Wilmot on stage in the late '90s). Seems the king misses his favorite court wit and has hopes Wilmot will pen something to celebrate his liberal reign, which has seen theaters reopen after the Puritan shutdown.

Once in London, Wilmot falls back in with the swinging fast set, including waspish, wannabe playwright Sir George Etherege (Tom Hollander) and professional man of jest and leisure Charles Sackville (Johnny Vegas). The trio and their hangers-on resume their hard-drinking and whoring ways.

Inescapably echoing "Stage Beauty," even though "Libertine" was written first, pic's midsection sees Wilmot becoming obsessed with a makeover on his new protege, actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton). He turns her into the toast of the town by teaching her (anachronistically) to act with real, Method feeling instead of the declamatory style of the time.

Barry soon becomes Wilmot's mistress as well -- the third lover, if not love, in his life, along with prostitute Jane (Kelly Reilly) and his wife, Elizabeth Malet (Rosamund Pike).

With so many relationships and supporting turns to cram in, as well as hefty doses of politicking as the king parries with Parliament, pic starts to become a succession of tableaus, alternating scenes of debauchery and dramatics. Worse, it becomes difficult to feel much sympathy for the increasingly manipulative Wilmot, who at the, uh, climax not so much bites but more devours whole the hand that feeds him. He stages an elaborate legit lampoon of the king, complete with giant dildos, characters called "Clitoris," and much mockery of his majesty's potency.

Script tends to assert rather than demonstrate that Wilmot was a significant poet. (Contempo scholars don't rate his funny but filthy output that high, apart from his graceful, more serious "A Satyr Against Reason and Mankind.") As a result, this puts the onus on Depp to keep viewers on his character's side.

Depp's solution is to camp it up royally, playing the part with a satanic twinkle in his eye and a swagger in his step, like some Restoration rock star. Performance is almost a Mick Jagger-ish companion piece to his Keith Richards-like one in "Pirates of the Caribbean." As usual, Depp gets the accent note-perfect and has star wattage to burn, but the character remains a cipher right up to the sordid, drawn-out ending.

Supporting ensemble does good-to-excellent work, with Malkovich atypically underplaying from under his prosthetic nose and poodle wig. Other standouts include Morton and Pike, as two of the women in Wilmot's life, and consistently eye-catching character actor Hollander (the vicar in "Pride & Prejudice").

British helmer Dunmore, who started off in advertising, has a shrewd, confident touch with the big, ensemble set pieces. But he can't quite make the whole cohere and lets key lines of dialogue get lost in the tumult of the sound mix.

Pic famously became a fiasco when changes to U.K. tax laws led to production coin evaporating just prior to shooting. This may explain its studio-bound look and Alexander Melman's crepuscular lensing, perhaps crafted to disguise a smaller budget.

Whatever the case, film is so murky and grainy, the action seems to be unfolding in a sooty London fog of major proportions, which further heightens the tale's seedy atmosphere. Craft contributions from costume designer Dien van Straalen and hair/make-up man Peter Owen also favor distressed textures. Sets and locations are so thick with period mud that auds may feel like a shower on the way out.
 
 

Camera (color, widescreen), Alexander Melman; editor, Jill Bilcock; music, Michael Nyman; production designer, Ben Van Os; supervising art director, Fleur Whitlock; art director, Patrick Rolfe; set decorator, Robert Wischhusen-Hayes; costume designer, Dien van Straalen; sound (Dolby Digital), John Hayes, Roger Savage; visual effects supervisor, Tim Webber; special effects co-ordinator, Ed Smith; hair and make-up designer, Peter Owen; stunt co-ordinator, Gareth Milne; assistant director, Max Keene; casting, Mary Selway, Lucy Bevan. Reviewed at Soho House screening room, London, Oct. 21, 2005. (In AFI Film Festival, Los Angeles.) Running time: 114 MIN.

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