Picture of Dorian Grey (2009)
‘Young and powerful Dorian found himself slipping deeper and
deeper into a world of sin, sex and celebrity, seemingly without any
consequences. But a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to
all. How long can he hide the secret behind his eternal youth?’
Dorian Gray is a 2009 British fantasy drama and the themes
that run throughout this film was love, hate, identity crisis, youth, beauty,
sin, etc. This film was based on the novel of Oscar Wilde written in 1890. This version was directed by Oliver Parker,
written by Toby Finlay and cinematography by Roger Pratt. Production companies
of this film were UK Film Council and distributed by Momentum Pictures. The location
of the film was set in the UK and competed in the Official Fantastic
competition in the Sites Film Festival. The box office of this was $22,410, 097
given the fact that the film already had a massive audience from the novel.
The use of performance showed by the protagonist (Dorian) portrays
his naivety and innocence as he wasn’t aware of the lustful world out there.
Lord Henry Wotton is the antagonist who influences Dorian into his bad
behaviour making him become more sinful with his dignity. Lord Henry paints a
picture of Dorian Gray, and the audience learn that Lord Henry actually falls
in love with the beauty of his picture and makes Dorian feel that his beauty is
all that matters in this society. The contradiction of homosexuality and the
time zone of Victorian times was a complete contrast as being gay wasn’t acceptable
in society. Furthermore, the use of the
protagonist Sybil made Dorian realise that he was led astray by Lord Henry by
going to a brothel- she killed herself. Historically, women who had sex before
marriage was seen as impure and drown themselves in the river- so she did and
Dorian hit reality realising that she was also pregnant with his child. Performance
also showed that Lord Henry had control over Dorian highly as he made him
believe that the death of Sybil was an ‘experience to be learnt from, to make a
man stronger’.
Mis en scene was highlighted by the picture of Dorian Gray. When
Sybil died, Dorian looked at his painting and saw a maggot poke out of the
painting of his eye, suggesting that his eyes are not seeing the harsh reality
of misery he put Sybil through. Furthermore, the use of maggot coming out of
the paintings eye could indicate that he needs to realise he’s under the
influence f Lord Henry and that he needs to ‘open his eyes’.
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