The Libertine

Feeling sick and depressed about nothing in particular this afternoon, except perhaps the persistant rain and cold and the can of Stella I'd consumed over lunch (they don't call it "wifebeater" because it induces a sunny disposition) I went out and bought the new dvd release of "The Libertine", Johnny Depp's portrayal of John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester (see my quick pencil sketch on the left). I can't really afford to spend the better part of fifteen quid on a movie I'll probably only watch twice, but sometimes letting go of money can give you a temporary lift; I believe people who are more humourous than me call that "retail therapy".

The movie is sold as a bawdy comedy, like "Tom Jones", but that misrepresents it completely. It's very funny in places, if you have a dirty sense of humour (and if you don't you won't be watching a film about Rochester), but its undertone, which in many places turns into an overtone, is extremely dark. The film, aided by a fabulous performance by Depp (a career best, actually), gets into the Earl's cynical, hopeless outlook on life, portraying him--probably with some accuracy-- as a man driven by despair. Why else would someone of such intelligence and literary talent squander his gifts writing brilliant doggerel and building a reputation that caused him to be ridiculed and shunned? Why else would he risk his neck abusing his apparent close friendship with Charles II?

I'd like to have seen some exploration of the theory that Rochester's deathbed conversion was an attempt to hedge his bets in the afterlife, or to manipulate his posthumous reputation on Earth, as opposed to a repenting of his wicked ways, but maybe that's just me. I don't like my bad boys to repent. Even though the sadness that "rips and tears" (Bukowski's words) at a man like Rochester (and Bukowski, and me), is unendurable and may, underneath all the morning horrors and the revulsion towards the human race, be no more than an overgrown child crying for the love of God (I say, it may be). But anyway.