The Libertine (2005 film)

Last updated

The Libertine
The Libertine film.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Laurence Dunmore
Screenplay by Stephen Jeffreys
Based onThe Libertine (play)
by Stephen Jeffreys
Produced by John Malkovich
Lianne Halfon
Russell Smith
Starring Johnny Depp
Samantha Morton
John Malkovich
CinematographyAlexander Melman
Edited by Jill Bilcock
Music by Michael Nyman
Production
companies
Distributed by Entertainment Film Distributors (United Kingdom) [1]
Roadshow Films (Australia) [1]
Release dates
  • 11 November 2005 (2005-11-11)(AFI Fest)
  • 18 November 2005 (2005-11-18)(United Kingdom)
Running time
114 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
Australia[ citation needed ]
LanguageEnglish
Box office$10.9 million [1]

The Libertine is a 2005period drama film, the first film directed by Laurence Dunmore. It was adapted by Stephen Jeffreys from his play of the same name, and stars Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton as John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester and Elizabeth Barry, with John Malkovich, Rosamund Pike, Rupert Friend, and Kelly Reilly in supporting roles. Set in 1675 England, the film chronicles the life of the decadent but brilliant Earl of Rochester, who is asked by King Charles II to write a play celebrating his reign, while simultaneously training Elizabeth Barry to improve her acting.

Contents

The film was shot on location on the Isle of Man and Wales. [2] The setting for Rochester's home of Adderbury house was filmed on location at Montacute House, Montacute, Somerset and Charlecote Park, Warwickshire.

Plot

In 1675, John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, delivers a prologue of themes of his fondness for drink, his sexual proclivities, and his disdain for his audience.

King Charles II retracts his banishment of the earl as he has need of him in the House of Lords. Back in London, Rochester finds his "Merry Gang" friends, George Etherege and Charles Sackville, in a bawdy house. Rochester encounters on the street the thief Alcock. Impressed by his dishonesty, Rochester hires him as his gentleman. The Merry Gang introduce Rochester to its newest member, 18-year-old Billy Downs. Rochester warns Downs, "Young man, you will die of this company."

The Merry Gang attend a play where the actress Elizabeth Barry is booed off the stage, then refuses to participate in a curtain call and is fired. Rochester is taken with Barry, secures her re-employment with the theatre company, and undertakes to coach her in acting. Barry's acting improves dramatically and she delivers a brilliant performance in her next production. The King approaches Barry to spy on Rochester as to the progress of the intended tribute to the French Ambassador.

Charles, in need of money from France, asks Rochester to write a play in honour of the French Ambassador's visit. The king requests it be a "monument" to his reign. Rochester writes Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery , a scathing satire of the king's reign, which he claims is "a monument to Charles" — just what the king had asked for. The play involves vulgar language, simulated sex acts, and Rochester portraying the king being serviced. At the premiere, the king, clearly offended, interrupts the play and confronts Rochester on the stage, whereupon Rochester flees London.

Later, Downs is mortally wounded in a sword fight outside the home of a Constable; Rochester backs away from his dying friend, whispering, "I told you."

Hiding from the king in the English countryside and sick with symptoms of syphilis, Rochester peddles phoney gynaecological "treatments" for women, including the selling of "potions" made from Alcock's urine. Rochester's face has become disfigured by syphilitic gummata, which he hides beneath a mask. Charles eventually tracks down Rochester, but decides that the worst punishment possible is to simply "let you be you." Rochester returns to his estate and wife, Elizabeth, admitting to having been constantly for five years under the influence of "the drink." Elizabeth declares her love for him.

Charles' choice of heir, his Roman Catholic brother James, Duke of York, leads to a showdown in Parliament over the Exclusion Bill that would deny James the throne. Rochester uses make-up and a silver nose tip to hide the symptoms of syphilis as he enters the House of Lords hobbling on two canes. His denunciation in the Lords of the bill ingratiates the appreciation of the king when it is defeated. When Rochester reveals his desire to have wanted Barry as his wife she reveals she never had the desire to be the wife of anyone, she had a daughter by him that he was unaware of, and this daughter is called Elizabeth.

Rochester returns to his estate where he is bedridden in the care of Elizabeth and his mother. A priest is summoned to "bring God to him" as his mother did not want Rochester to die as an atheist, and Alcock. Before he dies, Rochester asks the priest to recite from Book of Isaiah, chapter 53; he also asks his wife to retell the story of how he had abducted her when she was 18 years old and they fell in love. Rochester's death is followed by a scene of Elizabeth Barry playing the role of his wife in The Man of Mode , the play about him written by his friend Etherege.

The epilogue depicts Rochester slipping into the darkness of a fading candlelight, asking "Do you like me now?"

Cast

Music

The score to the film was composed by Michael Nyman, and released as The Libertine: Music for the Film by Laurence Dunmore in November 2005. The music represents Nyman's last score for a major motion picture to date, and his last soundtrack release.

Release

An unfinished version of the film was shown at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival as a "work-in-progress". [3] It was substantially recut before premiering in a completed version at the AFI Fest on 11 November 2005. [4] It was released in the United Kingdom on 18 November 2005. [5]

Reception

Critical response

The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 33% of 122 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it got a rating average of 4.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Despite Johnny Depp's zealous performance, muddled direction and murky cinematography hinder The Libertine." [6] Metacritic calculated an average score of 44 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [7] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 stars out of 4 praising Johnny Depp's performance, stating "Libertines are not built for third acts. No self-respecting libertine lives that long. Johnny Depp finds sadness in the earl's descent, and a desire to be loved even as he makes himself unlovable. What a brave actor Depp is, to take on a role like this. Still, at the screenplay stage, 'The Libertine' might have seemed a safer bet than Pirates of the Caribbean , a movie [which] studio executives reportedly thought was unreleasable."

Box office

The film has grossed $4,835,065 in North America and $6,016,999 in other territories, for a total of $10,852,064 worldwide. [1]

Awards and honours

The Libertine was nominated in eight categories in the British Independent Film Awards for 2005:

The other nominations were:

Home media

The Libertine is available on DVD as of 2004.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosamund Pike</span> British actress (born 1979)

Rosamund Mary Ellen Pike is an English actress. Pike studied at Wadham College, Oxford and began her acting career by appearing in stage productions including Romeo and Juliet at the National Youth Theatre. She had her breakthrough for her film debut as Bond girl Miranda Frost in Die Another Day (2002), and had supporting roles in the period dramas The Libertine (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), An Education (2009) and Made in Dagenham (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Barry</span> English actress (1658–1713)

Elizabeth Barry was an English actress of the Restoration period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester</span> English poet and courtier (1647–1680)

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court, who reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Rochester embodied this new era, and he became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as for his poetry, although the two were often interlinked. He died as a result of a sexually transmitted infection at the age of 33.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rake (stock character)</span> Man habituated to immoral conduct

In a historical context, a rake was a man who was habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanizing. Often, a rake was also prodigal, wasting his fortune on gambling, wine, women, and song, and incurring lavish debts in the process. Cad is a closely related term. Comparable terms are "libertine" and "debauché".

Sir George Etherege was an English dramatist. He wrote the plays The Comical Revenge or, Love in a Tub in 1664, She Would If She Could in 1668, and The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter in 1676.

<i>The Ginger Man</i> 1955 novel by J. P. Donleavy

The Ginger Man is a novel, first published in Paris in 1955, by J. P. Donleavy. The story is set in Dublin, Ireland, in post-war 1947. Upon its publication, it was banned both in Ireland and the United States of America by reason of obscenity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset</span> English poet and courtier

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex, KG was an English poet and courtier.

Vivian de Sola Pinto was a British poet, literary critic and historian. He was a leading scholarly authority on D. H. Lawrence, and appeared for the defence in the 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover trial.

Sodom is an obscene Restoration closet drama, published in 1684. The work has been attributed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, though its authorship is disputed. Determining the date of composition and attribution are complicated owing mostly to misattribution of evidence for and against Rochester's authorship in Restoration and later texts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Rochester</span>

Earl of Rochester was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1652 in favour of the Royalist soldier Henry Wilmot, 2nd Viscount Wilmot. He had already been created Baron Wilmot, of Adderbury in the County of Oxford, in 1643, also in the Peerage of England. He was the son of Charles Wilmot, who had been elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as Viscount Wilmot, of Athlone, in 1622. Lord Rochester died in 1658 and was succeeded by his son John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. He was a poet, a friend of King Charles II, and the writer of satirical and bawdy poetry. He married the heiress Elizabeth Malet. He was succeeded on his death in 1680 by his only son, the third Earl. He, in turn, died at a young age the following year, when the titles became extinct.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester</span>

Lieutenant-General Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, known as The Lord Wilmot between 1643 and 1644 and as The Viscount Wilmot between 1644 and 1652, was an English Cavalier who fought for the Royalist cause during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

The Libertine may refer to:

The 8th British Independent Film Awards, given on 30 November 2005 at the Hammersmith Palais, London, honoured the best British independent films of 2005.

Laurence Dunmore is a graphic designer and film director whose first major collaboration was the British production of The Libertine in 2005. He is a member of Ridley Scott Associates and has directed advertisements for AT&T, BMW, ING and Turkish Airlines.

Events from the year 1707 in Great Britain, created on 1 May this year as a consequence of the 1706 Treaty of Union and its ratification by the 1707 Acts of Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Wilmot, Countess of Rochester</span> English heiress

Elizabeth Wilmot, Countess of Rochester was an English heiress and the wife of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, the "libertine". She was the daughter of John Malet, of Enmore Manor, and Unton Hawley, daughter of Francis Hawley, 1st Baron Hawley.

John Stephen Gerrard Jeffreys was a British playwright and playwriting teacher. He wrote original plays, films and play adaptations and also worked as translator. Jeffreys is best known for his play The Libertine about the Earl of Rochester, which was performed at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago with John Malkovich as Rochester, and later adapted into a film starring Malkovich and Johnny Depp.

<i>The Libertine</i> (album) 2005 soundtrack album by Michael Nyman

The Libertine: Music for the Film by Laurence Dunmore is the album release of Michael Nyman's score for the 2004 film The Libertine directed by Laurence Dunmore. It is the third release on Nyman's own label, MN Records, and the first to receive distribution in the United States, by Inner Knot Records. It is his 50th album release overall. When Naxos Records began distributing MN Records in the United States in 2008, it was included and began appearing in large quantities in stores. This is Nyman's last score for a major motion picture to date, and his last soundtrack release, other than compilation soundtracks.

The Libertine is a play by Thomas Shadwell published in 1676. The play is an adaptation of the original plot of El burlador de Sevilla, written by Tirso de Molina, which follows the story of a horrid womanizer who plays with his life and others as he commits sins and "shapeshifts" into a devil-like man. Like most of the adaptations, The Libertine is a story of a mischievous man condemned to pay for the actions of his sins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merry Gang</span> English libertine aristocrats (fl. 1660–1679)

The Merry Gang was a group of aristocrats associated with the court of Charles II of England during the Stuart Restoration of 1660. The gang was centred on John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, who stated their aim was to restore the idea of masculinity that had prevailed at the time of Henry II. They were also patrons of the arts, supporting the poet John Dryden and the dramatist Nathaniel Lee.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "The Libertine (2005)". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  2. "The Libertine (2004) Filming & Production". IMDb. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  3. Chagolian, Steve (15 November 2005). "The Libertine". Variety . Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  4. "Actor Johhny Depp and cast of "The Libertine" attend Los Angeles premiere and tribute". Reuters . 17 November 2005.
  5. Quinn, Anthony (18 November 2005). "Fire and brimstone" . The Independent . p. 85. Retrieved 18 December 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  6. "The Libertine (2005)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved 6 October 2021. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  7. "The Libertine Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  8. "The Libertine". British Independent Film Awards. Archived from the original on 18 November 2009. Retrieved 6 July 2010.