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Movies - The Libertine


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I went in expecting a movie every bit as delightfully nasty as Quills. While I certainly got what I was expecting in the regard, the protagonist of The Libertine, one John Wilmont, Earl of Rochester, is nowhere near as entrancing as Geoffrey Rush's opulent Marquis de Sade. There is obviously some inspiration on the part of the filmakers - but I have some very serious problems with the technical aspects of the film (it should be noted this is director Laurence Dunmore's directorial debut).

For starters, the editing feels like this was a first draft assembly cut. Scenes are inserted randomly throughout without any perspective or explanation - almost every transition from scene to scene is a junk cut - this does not look or feel like a finished film - or one that was given any thought while in the editing room. I can't wait to hear a commentary with the directors explanation because I know it was done on purpose - but it's amateur, stupid, distracting, and annoying.

Second is the cinematography. Still shots are framed wonderfully - but when the camera moves everything falls apart. I'm no professional by a longshot, but when I move the camera I keep my #$@(%ing subjects IN FOCUS. I swear to god I thought I was watching a really bad shaky cam download of the movie I thought I was going to see. There's one scene towards the end that is particularly frustrating. John (Johnny Depp) shows up at the house of lords to defend the king and gives a magnificent speach. Depp walks around the center of the room addressing the people standing around the walls. Every few steps, he stops talking so the person holding the camera can run backwards, letting everything get out of focus, then fumbling to refocus once he has finished running - so that Depp can continue with his speach. What was written as a powerful speach becomes a disjointed and impossible to follow with the constant distractions (this happens 7 or 8 times during the speach).

The proper way to get this shot would have been to anchor a dolly in the center of the room with a rope, allowing the dolly can rotate around that center point. Depp could then continue to give his speach while the camera moved smoothly with him around the room. The scene would have been more powerful and the camera wouldn't have drawn attention to itself.

It really is a shame. Depp and Malkovich are fantastic in this. The costumes are fantastic - the sets amazing - the acting brilliant - the script genious (based on the critically acclaimed play by Stephen Jeffreys). Everything is there for a truely magnificent movie except for the actual filmaking. For now, Quills remains the undisputed champion of victorian era debauchery and wonton carnal excess. Laurence Dunmore deserves a hard, steel-toed kick in the ass for being the rotten apple in the barrel and ruining an otherwise masterpiece of dramatic achievement.

6.8/10

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