The Importance of Being Ernest

I love love love Oscar Wilde's dialogue. So of course I tivoed this version of Ernest when I saw it was playing on TCM.



I am trying to watch it now for the second time. You really have to pay attention to get the benefit of the dialogue.

I happened to catch a bio-pic about OW on Logo this weekend - well, I sort of did. Mostly I fast-forwarded to see what Jude law was going to do and how far he would go with playing gay (admirably far, I have new respect for Jude - despite the fact that he's not a particularly strong actor). The actor playing OW is quite hideous and not at all as cute as the real Wilde.


Poor, vain Oscar would die another death if he saw the hair on Steven Fry in this movie. It's like a wilted mushroom cap.

Anyhow, in one scene of this bio-pic OW is watching a rehearsal of one of his plays and he stops the rehearsal to instruct the actor to say the lines as though they are nothing special - as if people always talked this way.

I think this movie must have been colorized because no costume designer could have inflicted that shade of purple on anyone, not even Lady Bracknell.

I want to give this movie four stars, even though I haven't finished reading it.
Four stars.