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Rating: "I do not mean to please you" says Johnny Depp in the first two claustrophobic minutes of "The Libertine". A prologue in which the second Earl of Rochester talks to us about sexual encounters, erections, sensations...
This film, directed by Laurence Dunmore and released in 2004, presents itself as a fresco of 17th-century England but actually condenses only on the life of a single character, the libertine John Wilmot. A man decidedly excessive in his way of living, in his attitudes, in his experiences. A very important figure at the court of Charles II of England (John Malkovich), who first exiles him from his kingdom and then commissions him to create a majestic work to celebrate its greatness.
Beyond intrigues, loves, and political favors, this costume film is primarily a love story. Not a love story as one would expect with a man desperately searching for his woman but hindered by family and political duties. In The Libertine, love is present because John Wilmot is skilled with women (or so it would seem) and finds his match in the theater actress Elizabeth (Samantha Morton). But external factors do not influence their relationship; rather, it is Wilmot who destroys everything with his own hands. In fact, it is the meeting of these two passions (women and theater) that destroys the not so stable soul of the count. In the destructive encounter of his two most burning passions, "the cursed man" falls as any noteworthy intellectual does. It seems, indeed, that all (or almost all) intellectuals of any era have been caught in some way by depression or affliction. And so John Wilmot enters a spiral of self-destruction triggered by his mind. First solitude, then excessive use of alcohol, and finally syphilis, slowly annihilate the soul and body of a man as refined in speech as he is ill-mannered.
Speaking of the making of the feature film, Dunmore has chosen good collaborators and achieved a satisfactory result in the complicated portrayal of the 17th-century English world. Indeed, with great reconstruction work, truly excellent locations were chosen and used, combined with oppressive and dark cinematography, effectively conveying the atmosphere at the court of Charles II.
"The Libertine" is a film that is appreciated mainly for an extraordinary performance by Johnny Depp, here perhaps tackling one of his lesser-known characters but with which he best showcases his acting skills. What, however, prevents the film from being fully assimilable is the screenplay, which is simultaneously the strong and weak point of Dunmore's film. Although it is very suitable for the situation for its refined subtleties, in the long run, it demolishes the patience of the viewer who in turn gets lost in this excessive heaviness and pompousness. Overall, a work that knows how to be refined and excessive but never fully takes off due to its forced channeling into the depiction of a sick world.
"Do you like me now?"
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