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The Libertine [2005]


RRP: £19.99
Our Price: £2.08 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

The beautifully sculpted face of Johnny Depp fits right in with this masterpiece of design. The Libertine--filmed in a grainy, color-muted chiaroscuro--captures the lush costumes, extravagant decor, and remarkable filth of Restoration England. John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester (Depp), warns the audience at the very beginning of the film that they will not like him. From there, he treats his wife cruelly, drinks to relentless excess, abuses his friendships, and generally wallows in dissipation, much to the dismay of King Charles II (John Malkovich, Dangerous Liaisons), who hopes that Rochester will write a play glorifying his reign.

But Rochester finds his true inspiration (and the movie comes to life) when he sees a young actress named Lizzie Barry (Samantha Morton, Minority Report, Morvern Callar). Rochester sets out to make her the greatest actress of their time--and she, with some reluctance, submits to his teaching. The weakness of The Libertine is not that Rochester is unlikable; it's that he doesn't want to do anything. Barry galvanizes the movie because she burns with ambition, but Rochester's only apparent aim in life is an agonizingly slow self-destruction.

Still, The Libertine has lurid Saturnalian visions, Morton is superb, Malkovich gives a typically insidious turn, and Depp, as always, finds moments of sad poetry in the bitterest of speeches. --Bret Fetzer


Impressive piece of bawdy tragedy
Review date: 2008-08-24 Rating: 8 out of 10

This is a very entertaining film with great acting. The story is slightly OTT but has some great moments in it, especially between Johnny Depp (a great performance from him) and either John Malkovitch or Samantha Morton, who are also outstanding.

This story draws you in & in places repels, but it's very entertaining and pretty dark. Recommended.

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Reviews


A Drink Too Far
Review date: 2008-08-10 Rating: 6 out of 10

This film has much to recommend it: the performances are uniformly good, especially those of Depp and Morton; the script is wry and intelligent; the depiction of 17th century England is uncompromising; and the music by Michael Nyman is as rhythmically haunting as ever. Why then does this movie not quite work?

Perhaps because The Libertine fails to engage on an emotional level. The movie is concerned primarily with an intellectual, rather than a personal, analysis of morality, and thus leaves the viewer feeling cold and unmoved. It is difficult to sympathise with any of the characters, even those who clearly deserve our sympathy.

If the rating system allowed I would give four stars for the performances and the production design. But overall, due to the film's somewhat sterile heart, I can only give it three.

fans of ye foul debauched....look no further!
Review date: 2008-08-02 Rating: 10 out of 10

Great film with flamboyance, camp dress design and witty repartee aplenty with Depp once again proving that he is the most versitile and talented actor of his generation.
If you like debauched and rakish behaviour (but don't have the courage to carry these foul attributes out) then watch this film and enjoy the fun from the sofa with a bottle of wine, brandy, ale......

Fine acting weighed down by directorial baggage
Review date: 2008-07-17 Rating: 6 out of 10

At the beginning of this lusty Restoration romp (aren't all Restoration plays lusty romps?), John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, bearing more than a passing resemblance to a sultry, bewigged Johnny Depp, launches into a prologue in which he declares that we will not like him. Women will loathe his debauchery and men will be envious - a sure sign that this anti-hero will leave us all gagging for more!

Rochester ultimately pays for his philandering with his nose, half his face literally eaten away by the ravages of syphillis - though you might argue that this price is bestowed upon him for the sin of shocking the nation and his patron, the King, to his and its moral core through the production of A Satyr on Charles II. Worse still, the implication that his religious sin of being atheistic is ultimately to blame. A crude weapon in the scriptwriter's armoury, to be sure.

Alas, while I found Depp's character feisty and cynical, the same can not really be said for the film as a whole. The romp becomes weighed down with its own portentiousness, dull where it should sparkle, and rambling where its plotline should fizz. And forgive me if I missed the point, but the greenish tinge and grainy footage achieved precisely....what? Laurence Dunmore has sabotaged his own film by trying to be too clever. A simpler and more light-hearted approach would have been so much more effective.

Struggling against the directorial baggage, Depp does a fine job. Credit also to Morton, who is first rate as the feeble actor honed to perfection by Rochester, who falls in love with her but is finally rejected. Pike is as ravishing as ever, though Malkovitch looks decidedly uncomfortable, as indeed does Johnny Vegas, perhaps less surprisingly so. Anyone recognise Jack Davenport and Richard Coyle, both of Coupling fame?

So four stars for the cast, not many for the director, screenwriter or cinematographer. An opportunity missed, more's the pity.

Overwhelming performance by johnny depp
Review date: 2008-05-31 Rating: 10 out of 10

The Libertine?, the best film i have ever seen. Johnny's outstanding performance had me in tears. The opening prolouge says for me the standard of the film, "You will not like me", the first lines had me hooked.

A deep passionate story of the Earl of Rochester, we follow him through a patch in his life where he goes from bad to worse, a man caught up in a life of drink and sex, not bothered about the outcome, but falling in love.

Amazing acting, being a huge fan of johnny depp i can assure you that you will love this film quite possibly the best performance i have seen him do.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
John Malkovich
Johnny Vegas
Shane MacGowan
Samantha Morton
Johnny Depp

Creators:
Johnny Depp (Primary Contributor)
John Malkovich (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Entertainment in Video
Manufacturer: Entertainment in Video
EAN: 5017239192890
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL,
Release date: 2006-05-08
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 114 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: English (Original Language)

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