The Libertine

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! There May Be SPOILERS in the movie reviews !

This November, Johnny Depp and some of the National Trust's most stunning properties return to the big screen in 'The Libertine'.

Hot on the heels of the success of 'Pride & Prejudice', which showcased Basildon Park, our latest ‘starring role’ captures the opulence and danger of a very different historical age.

The film depicts the tearaway life and times of 17th-century ‘historical bad boy’ poet John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester.

The ‘Merry Gang’

Rochester was a leading member of the ‘Merry Gang’ at the court of Charles II.

The gang took fornication, drinking, gambling and general depravity to heights that have rarely been reached at any other time, and no woman was safe when they were around.

Invariably pardoned, gang members were not above robbery with violence, and some went so far as to commit murder.

'A man of genius'

Johnny Depp is transferring Rochester’s unbridled lust for life on to the screen with the help of actor and producer John Malkovich, who has played the part on stage.

A waspish satirist and poet, Rochester was one of only two courtiers who could drag Charles II out of his depressions.

Yet Rochester’s cutting way with words saw him banned from court on a regular basis – something he took in pretty good part, passing the time in further relentless wenching, drinking and the penning of no-holds-barred pornography.

Mad, bad and dangerous to know

When he began to deteriorate, Rochester was widely thought to be both mad and drinking himself to death. His symptoms – blindness, early arthritis, muscle damage, hallucinations – were probably due to syphilis.

He was mad, bad and dangerous to know – several people involved in his brawls got killed, and he was a suspect when his rival, the poet John Dryden, was nearly bludgeoned to death.

He once duped Charles II into turning up at a brothel in disguise, and left him, with no money and no identification, at the mercy of the madam.

He defamed Charles’s mistresses, and – in print – teased the King for impotence. Yet Voltaire dubbed Rochester ‘a man of genius’.

'The Libertine' / © Entertainment film Distributors
© Entertainment film Distributors

An early demise

Rochester took the ‘die early with a good-looking corpse’ route. He expired from booze, syphilis and general self-abuse at the age of 33. Clearly hedging his bets, he converted to Christianity shortly before his death.

Rochester believed in the new-fangled, Hobbesian idea that only the present existed. It was perfectly all right – in fact, imperative – to get the most out of every moment. Brilliant, charming and bisexual – with a wit that won many hearts – if the reports from staff on set are right, Rochester certainly did just that.

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The 'stars'

A 17th-century England fit for the most depraved of libertines was recreated at Montacute in Somerset and Charlecote in Warwickshire.

Charlecote Park in Warwickshire

The West Front of Charlecote
© NTPL / Matthew Antrobus

Charlecote, used for the soon-to-be-famous ‘Johnny in the bath’ scene, was once home to Catherine Lucy. A gambler, she had a clandestine marriage with Charles II’s bastard son George Fitzroy.

A London street was built over the staff car park, complete with shops, alleyways and ‘smelly’ 17th-century Londoners.

Charlecote’s original Brewhouse was used to film an extravagant and ambitious Jacuzzi sequence; however Depp fans will be disappointed to hear that this scene has ended up on the cutting room floor!

Montacute House in Somerset

The Clifton-Maybank Fronticepiece on the West Front of Montacute House
© NTPL / Rupert Truman

Montacute was once valued at £5,882, ‘for scrap’. The beautiful H-plan house was probably designed by William Arnold, the architect of Wadham College, Oxford.

As Wadham happens to have been Rochester’s college that may have affected the producer’s choice of location for 'The Libertine', where it became Adderbury, Rochester’s country seat.

The Crimson Bedroom, in particular the original 16th-century bed, was used both for a love scene and for Rochester’s death. The landscaped park is the backdrop of a scene where Rochester saves a boy from drowning.

National Trust staff were on hand throughout as Sharon Masters, Acting House Steward at Montacute House and film liaison officer for 'The Libertine', recalls:

'One hundred and twenty crew turned up on the first day, so a number of staff remained on set to help things run smoothly and light the hundreds of candles positioned around the house. Some National Trust gardeners at Montacute actually made it into the film. I was fortunate enough to be one of only a small number of people on set for the love scenes, an experience I will never forget!'

Visiting Charlecote and Montacute House

Although Charlecote and Montacute houses are now closed until spring 2006, the gardens remain open. Special events are also taking place over Christmas and the winter.

The Libertine
Date: Friday, December 16
 

Starring: Johnny Depp, John Malkovich, Samantha Moreton, Tom Hollander, Johnny Vegas, Rosamund Pike. - The life of the seventeenth-century writer, John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester (Depp) has all the ingredients for a traditional rip roaring yarn. Repugnant as he was magnetic, as rude as he was penetrating and as cynical as he was witty, Rochester lived out the maxim that has governed our concept of tragedy since Ancient Greece – pride (and in Rochester’s case infidelity, alcoholism and insubordination) comes before a fall.

However, although Laurence Dunmore’s film astutely captures the poetic justice of Rochester’s life, showing his fall from attractive seducer to a deformed, deflated cripple, utterly dependent upon his wife and family, it will certainly not be to everyone’s taste.

For those fully versed in the history of the Restoration period there will be much delight in the recognition of familiar scenes, characters and motifs.

Particularly deft is the way that Stephen Jeffery’s script reverses the traditional supplication of the authorial preface by having a glowering Depp introduce the film with the challenge, "You will not like me." However, for those who don’t know or don’t particularly care about the seventeenth century, the film may be far less captivating. Many viewers will be put off by The Libertine’s excessive obscenities and the bleakness of its cinematography which while striving to create an atmosphere of moral murkiness could simply be seen as depressingly grimy and discoloured.

That said, the film is at times laugh-out-loud funny and Rochester’s various relationships with his wife (Pike), the king (Malkovich), the fledgling actress Elizabeth Barry (Morton) and his profligate London associates (Hollander, Vegas) cannot fail to be intriguing. As the star of the show Depp punishes all those viewers who are initially charmed by his abominable exuberance by forcing their eyes to remain fixed on his increasingly grotesque and distorted face.

Ultimately, The Libertine is an assured and challenging directorial debut with a provoking eponymous premise – what happens when the hero of your film is a self-proclaimed, obnoxious reprobate? Its only stumbling block is that a large number of viewers do not wish to be nettled or repulsed as they are entertained. While half the audience may relish its challenge, the other may merely regard The Libertine as having taken one liberty too far.

The Official Libertine Site



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