The Happy Prince Dvd

The Happy Prince is a 2018 biographical drama film about Oscar Wilde, written by, directed by, and starring Rupert Everett in his directorial debut. The film stars Everett, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Edwin Thomas and Tom Wilkinson. It premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and was shown at the 2018 BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival. At the 9th Magritte Awards, it received a nomination in the category of Best Foreign Film.

The film’s title alludes to the children’s story by Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince and Other Tales, which Wilde would read aloud to his children. The film was released in Italy on 12 April 2018, in the United Kingdom on 15 June 2018 and in the United States on 10 October 2018 to positive review from critics.

Plot

1897. Oscar Wilde has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for homosexuality caused by his affair with Alfred Douglas. Removed from his wife and children, he arrives in Dieppe, where old friends Reggie Turner and Robert Ross await him. Wilde assumes the fictional identity of Sebastian Melmoth and tries to rebuild his life: he writes to his wife Constance Lloyd to try to make peace with her, but in vain; moreover, his true identity is soon discovered and he becomes the victim of acts of homophobia, to which he responds with violence, then receiving severe warnings.

The writer then writes to Bosie Douglas, his old lover that he has never forgotten, causing anger in his friend Robbie, secretly in love with him forever and never reciprocated. The two meet again and instinctively flee together to Naples, where they will live for some time in a house in Posillipo. Here the two are free to love each other and lead their libertine life, but soon Lady Douglas, Bosie’s mother, ceases to send her son the necessary subsidies to cover their expenses. Lady Douglas is willing to give Bosie her income and give a £ 200 prize to Oscar if the two lovers separate. Despite Oscar’s anger, the two give in and separate. Shortly after Constance dies from complications due to a surgical operation, and Oscar is denied parental authority over the two children she had with her.

Now incapable of writing, Oscar takes refuge in Paris, where he lives off his wits and the alms of his old supporters. He meets Reggie and Robbie again and shortly after he finds Bosie, who became rich following the death of his father; his old lover violently refuses to help him. Meanwhile, the writer begins to show strange symptoms that he attributes to mussel poisoning, suspecting however that it may be syphilis. Meanwhile, the man meets two begging brothers with whom he shares misery: the elder becomes his favorite, while the younger wants to hear the fairy tale The Happy Prince, which the writer always told his children.

Oscar gets worse and a surgical operation is necessary to remove an abscess. The precarious physical state in which he finds himself causes him post-operative infections which in a short time lead him to a coma. With his last strength Oscar asks for an extreme Catholic unction, only to die surrounded by the few friends he has left. At the funeral Robbie complains to Bosie that he was a hypocrite, because he mourns the death of the man who had always loved him and whom he had abandoned without showing any gratitude. Bosie replies that these words are dictated by jealousy, and that only he will be remembered alongside Oscar Wilde, while Robbie will be forgotten.

At the end of the film, the headlines inform that Bosie will die alone and in poverty in 1945, while Robbie, who died in 1918, will be buried in Oscar’s own grave. The latter will only be rehabilitated in 2017 together with all the other people unjustly convicted because of their homosexuality.

Cast

Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde
Colin Firth as Reggie Turner
Colin Morgan as Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas
Emily Watson as Constance Lloyd
Tom Wilkinson as Fr Dunne
Anna Chancellor as Mrs Arbuthnot
Edwin Thomas as Robbie Ross
Béatrice Dalle as Café Manager
Julian Wadham as Mr Arbuthnot
John Standing as Dr Tucker
André Penvern as Mr Dupoirier
Tom Colley as Maurice Gilbert
Stephen M. Gilbert as Paine
Alister Cameron as Mr Howard
Benjamin Voisin as Jean