The Libertine (2004)

I was lucky enough to work as an extra on The Libertine and from my three day experience I was confused as to how this film would look when it was finally released. It seemed to be shot in a hurried, slightly chaotic manner but upon seeing the final product I realise the genius of those involved with this movie. It captures so much a dark and frenzied time in history, full of intrigue and plotting. It is such a dark and muddy film but added up to a unique and refreshingly different cinematic experience. Thought it was Johhny Depp's best performance to date and also Samantha Mortan was fabulous as the determined and hardened actress who succeeded in out smarting the Earl and getting what she wanted. Hope this marks the start of more realism in todays films and sure in the end it will become a cult favourite even if it has limited success now.

Fmovies: The Libertine is a central story centered in one debauching, drunk, poet, charismatic, relentless and magnific man called Earl of Rochester.

As it often happened with other great men in the past centuries, Earl is posthumously recognized later as a great personality.

More than excellent acting for all the cast with Johnny Deep equal to his mastery performances, Malkovich, with a small role, equally great, a classical set of the XVII century, the royal court, the local vagrant Inns, brothels and theaters makes this business fly.

The story of a man without moral principles but at the same time intelligent, subtle and with a possession of a genuine libertine archetype, rare for the most common men.

The frantic image of a poet-drunker, embedded with the long-time relationship with prostitutes and a somewhat laziness ambiguous behavior of irrational life against the reason.

He falls in love with a rookie actress, "humiliates" the English King with an uncommon play presented to the french ambassador/representative of the French King and dares to do what it pleases him most: Erotic playwriting...

Excellent movie, that's all... but not for everyone.

My experience in viewing Laurence Dunmore's The Libertine at the Toronto Film Festival left me overwhelmed and in a high emotional state of awe and praise. The dramatic opening prolog was enough to convince me that Johnny Depp is the life force in this powerful film. He is more than an actor portraying a character, he is a force that knows no limitations nor will stop at anything. His performance in The Libertine had such an effect, that I was overwhelmed and moved to the point of tears and fear. Once sitting in the darkened theater, I was not prepared for what I was about to witness. Slowly, coming into view, his beautiful face emerges as big as life itself and from his sinister and well formed sensual lips he speaks the words, "You're not going to like me." From there, this man gives the most gut wrenching speech I have ever heard. This is Johnny Depp like you've never seen before. Powerful, intense, and compelling are an understatement. I felt as if I were hit between the eyes with a forty-five automatic and left spent without even remembering the act. Even Laurence Dunmore could not say enough about Johnny's performance and I give him high praise for his art in progress. In my opinion Dunmore handed the reins to Johnny allowing him to play the Earl without restraint. Not only was Dunmore courageous with that decision, he was brilliant in doing so.

This period piece about the wretched Earl of Rochester has him go through incredible transformations and, willingly, pulled me along with each gritty step. I loved him, I despised him and I wanted him. Most of all, I felt him in my soul and this I will never forget. This Oscar worthy performance by Johnny Deep truly needs to be experienced.

The film was the perfect vehicle in allowing Laurence Dunmore his creativity to soar with its wonderfully wicked and gritty feel and intense acting from Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton. John Malkovitch was superb as well, however, I would have liked to have seen more scenes with him and Mr. Depp.

After watching Johnny Depp in The Libertine, I am convinced, he is a powerful force who, not only took my breath away, but held me on his rock hard pedestal and kissed my soul.

The Libertine fmovies. I had the "liberty" of seeing the libertine at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year. Though I am a big Johnny Depp fan, I truly didn't know what to excpect.

Considering the movie started off with Johnny's character 'pleasuring' his wife..... I was a little shocked, but the film really turned itself around and turned out to be funny, sad, disgusting and just a little rude.

I personnaly feel that Johnny Depp gave the most impressive performance of his career, and deserved considerable praise. It was probably one of the more difficult of characters he has played, and in my opinion the most compelling.

Samantha Morton was simply SUPERB playing Johnny's actress lover. She showed her true acting ability, and also portrayed a difficult character with ease.

Laurence Dunmore showed true potential in his debut film, and directed an EXTREMELY controversial piece making it stand out.

In my downright opinion, the Libertine has not received at all as much praise as it should be receiving. It would be a travesty not to release this masterpiece worldwide.

*********.5/10

The libertine - What a film... Despite its murkiness, and turgid subject matter, Johnny gives what has to be, his most intricate and breathtaking performance. The first forty-five minutes focuses mainly on John Wilmot's drunken and lecherous ways, and the final forty-five minutes (roughly at around the time that Johnny removes his wig), the sad and awful truth of the life of Rochester kicks in, and from then on, its a cracking story. At the final scene as the light fades along with the haunting words of Rochester's final monologue, I don't think that I would be alone in saying that I was moved to goosebumps and spine chills. Depp is just so intense that frankly, he is beyond brilliant. If the academy don't recognise him this time, I will personally have 'words' with Mr Weinstein! On the whole, an absorbingly different film that deserves all credit.

What images are conjured up by the title! Especially when we know in advance the lead is to be played by the handsome Johnny Depp. Perhaps a likable rake, a dissolute, even fashionable but very colourful icon of male supremacy - to be forgiven by female fans if they can watch from the safety of a cinema seat!

The reality is a disturbingly different film, dark and sombre, a 17th century candle-lit England, a portrait of the poet and debauchee John Wilmot, and one that ultimately bows out to a feminist heroine in the form of the great actress Elizabeth Barry (played by Samantha Morton).

In an opening prologue, Wilmot tells the audience that they will not like him. With the gusto characteristic of Depp, he throws himself into his melodramatic character in a way that is markedly different from his many half-serious, half-comic roles. As if to win his wager, he is out to repulse us - but not just with licentious excess: the tragedy of Wilmot is that he possesses genius but is unable to use it to furnish his own fulfilment. He is a tragic character, no Don Juan that follows a promiscuous lifestyle as a summum bonum, but a man of inner greatness for whom the outer world is so boring that he loses himself in drink and sexual excess and eventually alienates those around him. "I have to speak my mind," he says, "for it is always more interesting than what is going on around me."

As the 2nd Earl of Rochester, Wilmot is in and out of favour at the court of Charles II (John Malkovitch) and frequently upsets his lovely wife (Rosamund Pike) with his whoring and drinking. But his wife's jealousy is eventually piqued not so much by the loose women or the ale-house, but by Wilmot's love of the theatre - especially in the form of prostitute-destined-for-greatness, Elizabeth Barry. At a time before the emancipation of women, when the stage had recently been the sole province of men, Barry is determined to make it as an actress. She is hobbled by inexperience and a lowly position, but Wilmot takes her under his patronage and tutelage. Wary of the deal, Barry resists, saying she wants to rise by her own efforts - not so Wilmot can take the credit! He asks her what drives her, and her response, her passion for theatre, the desire to thrill and move an audience, is one that Wilmot identifies with, for he is tired of the lukewarm pastiches that trivialise even great writing.

Unfortunately for Wilmot, his own greatness is on the ebb. It was said of him that he was, "A man whom the muses were fond to inspire, but ashamed to avow." His taunting of the king and a scurrilous lampoon of Charles II in front of the French ambassador help to seal his fate.

Samantha Morton continues to show her acting talents with a substantial (if not substantial enough) part and Malkovitch is an adequate counterbalance to the very considerable stage presence of Depp. The screenplay (based on an earlier play starring Malkovitch) sparkles with wit and, even if the direction is a little uneven or turgid at times, it is an admirable and important debut from Laurence Dunmore. The desaturated colours and muddy, rain-sodden English countryside create an air of foreboding entirely appropriate for a work that is more serious than its title suggests.

Intellectually, we are treated to the drollness and intelligence of Wilmot but realise that he is a 'locked-in' and isolated character, a loner and barely appreciated trailblazer (in some respects like the great Marlon Brando to whose memory, among