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Flights of Fanciful Fandom: Dorian Gray
May. 28th, 2023 03:12 pmI have very mixed feeling about the movie with Ben Bass.
Loving the book as much as I do, I was excited to see this adapted into a movie. There’s a great deal of material which can be expanded upon, fleshed out.
I loved the version with Peter Firth, Jeremy Brett, and Sir John Gielgud. First of all, what a remarkable cast. Judi Bowker as Sybil Vane threatened to eclipse Dorian with her fairytale princess beauty (I remember being quite smitten with her in Clash of the Titans as a little girl, thinking here’s someone as beautiful as Princess Ozma or Polychrome in John R. Neill’s drawings for the Oz books.) The story was very faithful to Wilde’s literature with fine actors playing with his fine prose, a great combination.
Sensuality and modern edginess gave the latter movie a vibrance lacking in the earlier version. Some of the subtlety was lost in an attempt to push the thriller element, giving it the feeling of a Hammer horror movie rather than a complex classic.
Note to self, pushing anything in a story cheapens a work of art. Never force the plot or the characters. Just smooth the road so they can flow.
The cast of the movie elevated the film, in spite of the push. Having performers as fine as Colin Firth, Fiona Shaw, and Emilia Fox gave it a touch more polish. Ben Bass did a magnificent job, bringing depth and levels to what could be canonically considered a shallow icon of beauty, a fallen idol.
Both in the book and the Peter Firth version, I often wondered if the portrait hadn’t sucked Dorian Gray’s soul out, leaving him incapable of truly responding to Sybil Vane’s feelings. In this version, Dorian Gray keeps his soul, but it is puppeteered by Harry Wottan’s destructive passion. He acts out the dreams Harry can only speak of and watch while Dorian writhes, acts, and feels, drowning in sensuality, in corruption, but reaching for love. Reaching for Harry as well, but Harry, like Dorian’s own grandfather, keeps turning away.
Enter Emily Wottan, the part of the movie I absolutely hated the first time I saw it. A part I now consider carefully upon seeing it again.
First off Rebecca Hall did an excellent job of playing her. She is fleshing out an element Dorian only referenced in the story. I understand why she was included, but I fear she ended up becoming a bit shallow for all her beginning potential with Dorian, a damsel in distress for the males to fight over, dampening the homoeroticsm between them.
The Picture of Dorian Gray has been a classic many of us have clung to, latching onto its homoerotic potential in a world which offered us crumbs. It was the closest Oscar Wilde came to expressing his own homoerotic passion in a long piece of prose. Considering his trial, considering how martyred he was for that passion, dampening the homoeroticism stings.
A solution came to me, a solution which breaks canon as much as Emily did, yet the canon is already being altered in this form.
Why not make Emily Wottan Emmett Wottan?
This changes the dynamic a bit since Dorian was Harry’s protègè as well as the sacrifice he offered to the devil to act out his desires. Emmett would become Harry’s second chance, his immortality, but so would Dorian. The two would be rivals for Harry’s affection as much as Harry might worry about Dorian corrupting his son.
Emmett could be the voice of modern LGBTQIA+ rights, struggling to be heard in a world which doesn’t acknowledge them. He’s the one who sees what Dorian meant to his father, yet he’s attracted to Dorian himself. He doesn’t want Dorian to be ashamed of being attracted to him or what’s in his heart. Dorian, however, knows only to well the corruption Harry nurtured in him. Harry knows only too well his creation may return to destroy his offspring, take advantage of Emmett’s innocence with the lessons Dorian has learned, the lessons Harry himself taught Dorian. His legacy may well destroy his legacy.
It’s an interesting idea, taking me on an interesting flight of fanciful fandom. Why, it may even become a fanfic. :)
Loving the book as much as I do, I was excited to see this adapted into a movie. There’s a great deal of material which can be expanded upon, fleshed out.
I loved the version with Peter Firth, Jeremy Brett, and Sir John Gielgud. First of all, what a remarkable cast. Judi Bowker as Sybil Vane threatened to eclipse Dorian with her fairytale princess beauty (I remember being quite smitten with her in Clash of the Titans as a little girl, thinking here’s someone as beautiful as Princess Ozma or Polychrome in John R. Neill’s drawings for the Oz books.) The story was very faithful to Wilde’s literature with fine actors playing with his fine prose, a great combination.
Sensuality and modern edginess gave the latter movie a vibrance lacking in the earlier version. Some of the subtlety was lost in an attempt to push the thriller element, giving it the feeling of a Hammer horror movie rather than a complex classic.
Note to self, pushing anything in a story cheapens a work of art. Never force the plot or the characters. Just smooth the road so they can flow.
The cast of the movie elevated the film, in spite of the push. Having performers as fine as Colin Firth, Fiona Shaw, and Emilia Fox gave it a touch more polish. Ben Bass did a magnificent job, bringing depth and levels to what could be canonically considered a shallow icon of beauty, a fallen idol.
Both in the book and the Peter Firth version, I often wondered if the portrait hadn’t sucked Dorian Gray’s soul out, leaving him incapable of truly responding to Sybil Vane’s feelings. In this version, Dorian Gray keeps his soul, but it is puppeteered by Harry Wottan’s destructive passion. He acts out the dreams Harry can only speak of and watch while Dorian writhes, acts, and feels, drowning in sensuality, in corruption, but reaching for love. Reaching for Harry as well, but Harry, like Dorian’s own grandfather, keeps turning away.
Enter Emily Wottan, the part of the movie I absolutely hated the first time I saw it. A part I now consider carefully upon seeing it again.
First off Rebecca Hall did an excellent job of playing her. She is fleshing out an element Dorian only referenced in the story. I understand why she was included, but I fear she ended up becoming a bit shallow for all her beginning potential with Dorian, a damsel in distress for the males to fight over, dampening the homoeroticsm between them.
The Picture of Dorian Gray has been a classic many of us have clung to, latching onto its homoerotic potential in a world which offered us crumbs. It was the closest Oscar Wilde came to expressing his own homoerotic passion in a long piece of prose. Considering his trial, considering how martyred he was for that passion, dampening the homoeroticism stings.
A solution came to me, a solution which breaks canon as much as Emily did, yet the canon is already being altered in this form.
Why not make Emily Wottan Emmett Wottan?
This changes the dynamic a bit since Dorian was Harry’s protègè as well as the sacrifice he offered to the devil to act out his desires. Emmett would become Harry’s second chance, his immortality, but so would Dorian. The two would be rivals for Harry’s affection as much as Harry might worry about Dorian corrupting his son.
Emmett could be the voice of modern LGBTQIA+ rights, struggling to be heard in a world which doesn’t acknowledge them. He’s the one who sees what Dorian meant to his father, yet he’s attracted to Dorian himself. He doesn’t want Dorian to be ashamed of being attracted to him or what’s in his heart. Dorian, however, knows only to well the corruption Harry nurtured in him. Harry knows only too well his creation may return to destroy his offspring, take advantage of Emmett’s innocence with the lessons Dorian has learned, the lessons Harry himself taught Dorian. His legacy may well destroy his legacy.
It’s an interesting idea, taking me on an interesting flight of fanciful fandom. Why, it may even become a fanfic. :)
