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The spirit of Ealing revived in The Importance Of Being Earnest
WILDE IN THE COUNTRY
WILDE IN THE COUNTRY
M ore than a century after his death, the
wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde remains as relevant as ever – as director Oliver Parker discovered while preparing his
acclaimed 1999 production of Wilde’s comedy An Ideal Husband, co-starring Cate Blanchett, Rupert Everett and Julianne Moore.
“I was incredibly encouraged by the way Wilde’s work has such a con- temporary feel,” he explained. “The humour really hasn’t dimmed in any way – a century on and his wit still has the same spark.”
A conversation between Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein, Oliver Parker and Fragile Films’ Barnaby Thompson at the film’s American premiere brought up the possibility of tackling The Importance Of Being Earnest, Wilde’s final and perhaps most famous play. As Thompson said, “It seemed to be the next logical step, following the success of An Ideal Husband.”
Last brought to the screen in 1952 by director Anthony Asquith in a rather stagy adaptation, Parker set about creating a whole new visual style of his own. “I liked the idea of giving it another airing with a more modern, cinematic approach,” explains Parker.
“It seemed a good opportunity to draw it out into something with more scale and dimension. When adapting the script it was important to me that we remained true to Wilde’s writing whilst presenting it as naturally as possible.”
The most vital aspect of produc- tion would be the screenplay, which Parker wrote himself. Sticking closely
to the well-known three-act version of the play, Parker also dipped into the little-staged four-act version that Wilde originally wrote and later revised.
Although he was keen to take the play out of the drawing room, that is not to say he has taken any further lib- erties with Wilde’s play. “I would say the script is 96 per cent Wilde,” said Thompson. “Olly’s primary focus was opening it out, making it cinematic and making it visual.”
If An Ideal Husband defined the expression “starry cast”, Parker’s new film proves positively intergalactic. Leading the way are Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, re-united for the first time since 1984’s Another Country, as true blue gentlemen chums Algy Moncrieff and Jack Worthing.
Also on hand are Anna Massey (Miss Prism) and Tom Wilkinson (Canon Chasuble) as well as Reese Witherspoon and Frances O’Connor as Gwendolen and Cecily, whose affec- tions Jack and Algy vie for.
Finally, recreating her role as the formidable Lady “A handbag?” Bracknell from a 1982 National Theatre production of the play, is Dame Judi Dench.
Dame Judi was the last to join the shoot and Parker agreed that she per- formed spectacularly well under the circumstances. “It must have been very difficult for her,” he says, “Coming in during the last two or three weeks of the shoot, you have to hit the ground running: Lady Bracknell doesn’t just enter a scene and stroll through.”
The Importance Of Being Earnest is very much concerned with the gap between reality and fantasy, and Parker’s chief innovation is to give the audience a glimpse of his characters’ inner lives.
For example, Chasuble, who wor- ships Miss Prism from afar, imagines her as a sultry artist’s model, posing suggestively with a bunch of grapes. More explicitly, the somewhat bored Cecily thinks of herself as a damsel in distress and daydreams about a dash- ing knight in shining armour who charges to her rescue.
Recalled DP Tony Pierce-Roberts BSC: “The whole idea for the latter scene was suggested by a pre-
Raphaelite painting and the costume designer Maurizio Millenotti had come up with this fantastic suit of armour for Rupert.
“We started with the idea of per- haps treating the fantasy in a different way from the rest of film, playing with overexposure and diffusion. When we saw it, it just didn’t work. In the end we thought it best to leave it as straight cut and so treat it like the rest of the film in a more realistic
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