Book Report: The Picture of Dorian Gray
When I read a book I tend to pick up on the themes from that book in other pieces of art or media. This occurred recently with “The Picture of Dorian Gray” which is about a dashing young aristocrat (Dorian Gray) from 1800′s England who has a portrait of himself painted that has supernatural powers. After a bit of time with the painting he realizes that it ages and bears the effects of his lavish and unhealthy lifestyle, not his physical body. He stays he rich, good looking bachelor while the painting wrinkles and decays through the course of his life. He does what I would do in that scenario and parties his ass off while slaying the local ladies with his aging wit and nubile good looks. In the process he turns into a real bastard, causing the suicide of an ex-lover, becoming an opium addict, murdering one of his friends with little sense of remorse except how all of the events effect him (living the high life and fucking everything that moves I can understand but these other three I may have some reservations about).
The book is obviously well written and Oscar Wilde must have been an interesting cat because some of the lines form the book are so insightful even to someone living in 2011. Most of the interesting dialog is spoken by Lord Henry, one of Dorian’s older admirers, who is the devil on Dorian’s shoulder, equipping him with the rhetoric that allows him to act out in the way that he does with self-moralizing impunity. Throughout the novel Lord Henry delivers some spectacular one-liners like:
Men marry because they are tired: women marry because they are curious, both are disappointed.
or
The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
Fucking brilliant, and he keeps them coming throughout the novel. A lot of what Lord Henry said and what Dorian does was probably considered deviant and horrible based on the public standards of 1800′s England. Many of the book reviews of the time refer to “The Picture of Dorian Gray” as “poisonous” and that it contained “moral and spiritual putrification”. The critics could not see past the aberrant behaviours of the characters to see the larger themes that the book contains. This well crafted, thoughtful novel was simply tossed aside by many due to the content that could potentially be seen as off-putting or amoral.
This brings me back to the point that I brought up at the outset of the post of coincidentally seeing recurring themes in other forms of media. As I was reading this novel I stumbled across “Irreversible” on my Netflix cue and decided to check it out. This movie has a reputation for being pretty rough (rough, as-in a couple hundred people walked out of its screening at Cannes). It is a French film shot “Memento-style” (the movie starts at the end and moves backwards in segments).
Ho-ly-shit, it certainly lives up to its billing. The first few minutes contain a vomit inducing camera spin and a certain sound frequency that is known to make people nauseous (I read about this after I watched the movie). The director, Gaspar Noe, literally is attempting to make the viewer physically sick. It is for good reason though as the characters are in a world of shit. The first 20 minute segment of the movie (the end of the movie chronologically) is set in a hardcore gay club and climaxes with one of the main characters bashing another guy’s head in with a fire extinguisher. “Irreversible” slowly pulls itself out of the terrifying abyss of its “ending” to reveal the characters motivations as well as some interesting perspectives on relationships, sex and life choices in general is it works backwards.
As the movie progressed the viewer starts to understand what is driving the characters and eventually has a happy “ending” (the beginning chronologically). There are parts of the movie that are literally difficult to sit through (yes, there is a scene more disturbing that the start of the movie – I won’t spoil it though, in case you want to check it out, which I highly recommend if you are not squeamish). I finished it, and I was glad I did, because I really witnessed a piece of art. Even after the movie was over I thought about it and came back to one of the movie’s opening lines, spoken by a broken, half-naked, old French man: “Time destroys all things.” Irreversible has a similar theme to “The Picture of Dorian Gray” as well as a disguted response from the critics.
I went on rotten tomatoes and saw the reviews much of which were positive, and anyone that had a negative review talks about the brutal content and fails to mention the artistry of the director or the compelling storyline. I find it very unfortunate that many things in our society get dismissed out of hand for being different or challenging prevailing viewpoints. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Irreversible” are just two examples of this occurring, but it happens all the time. The critics of the time failed to recognize a great piece of art when Oscar Wilde published his novel in 1891 and many people today miss amazing contributions to literature, music and film solely from the idea that art can be “poisonous”. Art itself is nothing but a vehicle to elicit a response from its audience, I think that some of the readers and viewers are unhappy with their own response so they castigate the art itself, rather than turning the mirror on themselves and understanding why they are reacting the way that they do.
A great shot from "Irreversible"... what happens directly after this shot may not be suitable for all viewers...
Sure was some rape scene, hey.