The Portrait of Dorian Gray (1945)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The portrait of Dorian Gray |
| Original title | The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Albert Lewin |
| script | Albert Lewin |
| production | Pandro S. Berman |
| music | Herbert Stothart |
| camera | Harry Stradling Sr. |
| cut | Ferris Webster |
| occupation | |
| |
The picture of Dorian Gray (Original title: The Picture of Dorian Gray ) is an American film by Albert Lewin from the year 1945. It is based on the novel of the same name by Oscar Wilde . It was shown for the first time in Germany on February 3, 1950.
action
The young Dorian Gray lives in London towards the end of the 19th century. While the painter Basil Hallward was painting a portrait of him, he met his friend Lord Henry Wotton, who convinced him that youth was the only value in life. When the portrait is finished, Dorian wishes to be forever as young and beautiful as the picture shows him, while the picture should age in its place.
Dorian falls in love with the singer Sibyl Vane and plans to marry her, but then leaves her. When Sibyl Vane then commits suicide, Dorian Gray notices the first change in his portrait, which now reflects a streak of meanness. Dorian realizes that his wish has come true and that the picture has changed in his place. He begins - still under the influence of Lord Henry - to live for his own pleasure and completely irresponsible, and in doing so brings misfortune to some of his friends. The picture, which not only ages in its place, but also takes up the traces of his unscrupulous behavior, he locks in his old nursery. When his friend Basil Hallward confronts him and gets him to show him the picture, Dorian kills the painter.
He blackmailed a former friend into destroying the corpse, who did so and shortly thereafter committed suicide. Neither death is associated with Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray becomes engaged to Gladys Hallward, Basils niece, who has been in love with Dorian since childhood. However, James Vane, Sibyl Vane's brother, has been looking for Dorian Gray since his sister's death. When James Vane is killed in a hunting accident, Dorian realizes that the last person who could have revealed his secret has died and he can go undetected forever. But he also realizes how much damage he is causing other people and decides to leave Gladys to protect her from himself.
Dorian visits the room with his picture and stabs the heart of the portrait with a knife in order to free himself from its influence. He then collapses dead. Gladys and Lord Henry, who have since become suspicious, enter the room and find the portrait as Basil Hallward painted it. Dorian Gray's face, on the other hand, has taken on the distorted features of the portrait.
Relationship to the original
Although the film essentially follows the plot of the novel, it differs in a few details from the original. Sibyl Vane is an actress in the novel whose performance becomes weaker when she sheds her romantic illusions through her love for Dorian - whom she calls Prince Charming and not Lord Tristan as in the film . Dorian therefore loses his fascination for her and rejects her, while he leaves her in the film after seducing her on Lord Henry's advice and being disappointed by her lack of steadfastness. Gladys Hallward takes on the role of the fictional character Hetty Merton, an unspecified young woman who leaves Dorian for her own good. In addition, nobody in the book guesses Dorian's secret; he dies without anyone suspecting him and is only identified with difficulty by his servants who find him.
A sculpture of the Egyptian goddess Bastet plays a special role in the film and is not mentioned in the book. Basil Hallward paints it next to Dorian and gives it to him along with the picture. According to Lord Henry, this character can fulfill wishes. Since she is in the room when Dorian expresses his wish to swap roles with the picture, it is suggested that she is responsible for the further course of the action. The cat figure is shown repeatedly throughout the film.
The film makes direct reference to Oscar Wilde when Dorian Sibyl Vane reads a poem "by a brilliant young Irishman named Oscar Wilde". The lines presented are an excerpt from Wilde's poem The Sphinx .
In order to comply with the production code for American films and not to shock the audience, Albert Lewin dispensed with most of the already subtle allusions to the characters' homosexual traits in Oscar Wilde's novel .
background
This film adaptation is the first sound film adaptation of the novel Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray , which had previously been adapted several times as a silent film . Although the film was shot primarily in black and white , four short takes were produced in Technicolor . The portrait can be seen, twice the original, and later twice an alienated image.
The portrait of the young Dorian Gray was painted by Henrique Medina . The picture of the aged and disfigured Dorian was painted by Ivan Le Lorraine Albright . His painting is now in the Art Institute of Chicago .
Reviews
To this day, the film is mostly received positively by critics, with Rotten Tomatoes, for example, nine of the ten existing reviews are positive.
"Successful and suggestively photographed adaptation of Oscar Wilde's fantastic social novel, interspersed with light horror elements."
Awards
At the 1946 Academy Awards , Harry Stradling Sr. won the award for best camera in a black and white film. Angela Lansbury was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress, as was Cedric Gibbons , Hans O. Peters , Edwin B. Willis , John Bonar and Hugh Hunt for Best Design in a Black and White Film .
Angela Lansbury won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1946 . In the same year, the film also won the Hugo Award (given retrospectively in 1996).
Web links
- The Picture of Dorian Gray in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The portrait of Dorian Gray in the German synchronous index
Individual evidence
- ^ Dianne F. Sadoff: Victorian Vogue. British Novels on Screen. University of Minnesota Press, 2010, pp. 220-222.
- ↑ Harry M. Benshoff: Monsters in the Closet. Homosexuality and the Horror Film. Manchester University Press, 1997, pp. 111-114.
- ^ George Aachen, John Howard Reid: Memorable Films of the Forties. Rastar Press, Sydney 1987, pp. 131-134.
- ^ The Art Institute of Chicago - Information about the artwork
- ↑ "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ The Portrait of Dorian Gray. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Hugo Awards Overview