The Oscar Wilde Collection (The Importance of Being Earnest / The Picture of Dorian Gray / An Ideal Husband / Lady Windermere's Fan)
List Price:
Our Price: $12.49
You Save: $12.49 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $9.07 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Gemma Jones, Jeremy Brett, Joan Plowright, Sir John Gielgud, Susan HampshireBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 408 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-06-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- Let the BBC transport you back to the decadent aristocratic drawing rooms of 1890s England. Lovingly restored for DVD, these plays feature a who's who of great actors of the British stage and screen, including Sir John Gielgud, Joan Plowright, Jeremy Brett, Susan Hampshire, Margaret Leighton and Gemma Jones. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR Age: 794051265227 UPC:
DVD Reviews of The Oscar Wilde Collection (The Importance of Being Earnest / The Picture of Dorian Gray / An Ideal Husband / Lady Windermere's Fan)
DVD Review: "The truth is a thing I get rid of as soon as possible."
Summary: 5 Stars
Best remembered for his countless poignantly witty epigrams, Oscar Wilde was a leading representative of Aestheticism, a movement espousing the notion that art exists for no other purpose than its existence itself. Born in Dublin and a graduate of Oxford's Magdalen College, he worked as a journalist, editor and lecturer before turning to dramatic writing, and produced his most acclaimed works in the six-year span from 1890 to 1895, roughly coinciding with his romantic involvement with sixteen years younger Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. "Bosie's" strained relationship with his father, the Marquees of Queensberry, eventually caused a series of confrontations between Wilde and the Marquees, in turn resulting in three trials, Wilde's conviction for "gross indecencies" under a law interpreted to prohibit homosexual relationships, and a two-year prison sentence of "hard labor." Wilde emerged from prison a broken man and, after three years' wanderings throughout Europe, died in 1900 of cerebral meningitis, barely 46 years old.
This marvelous collection brings together four of his best-known works in productions from the BBC's long-running "Play of the Month" series, starring an array of Britain's finest actors; plus a biography with contributions by, inter alia, renowned scholar Isobel Murray, Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland and "Bosie's" great-grandniece Lady Alice Douglas, as well as many well-chosen excerpts from Wilde's works and the trial transcripts, visits to the locations of his life's key stations, and a wealth of photographs.
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" was Wilde's only novel (first published 1890; republished 1891 after widespread condemnation as "immoral," with a preface explaining Wilde's views on art); the tale of an exceptionally handsome young man who sells his soul to maintain his beauty, letting his portrait age in his stead, and soon growing increasingly evil, believing that his beauty will make up for any and all acts of cruelty. Those who know the splendid 1945 adaptation starring Hurd Hatfield in the title role, George Sanders as his seducer, decadent Lord Henry Wotton, Lowell Gilmore as painter Basil Hallward and young Angela Lansbury as Dorian's innocent lover, actress Sibyl Vane, will come to this with high expectations, but the BBC's 1976 cast more than holds its own. Peter Firth is a perfect Dorian, complete with "finely-curved ... lips, frank blue eyes [and] crisp golden hair" (Wilde) - the proverbial golden boy turning ugly under an angelic, albeit increasingly arrogant exterior. Sir John Gielgud, probably the 20th century's best British actor with an uncanny ability to portray *any* character as if he were born to play that role and that role alone, turns in a stellar performance as Sir Henry, dropping some of Wilde's most biting epigrams with an unmatched deadpan expression and impeccable timing. Jeremy Brett, best-known to later TV audiences as Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, completes an excellent leading trio as Basil Hallward. Scripted by noted playwright John Osborne, this dramatization somewhat streamlines the novel's storyline, without, however, straying from its core; and pointedly (but never gratuitously) uses its medium to reveal the three protagonists' homoerotic relationship (as well as that between Dorian and his friend Alan Campbell); only alluded to in the novel and yet, besides its mockery of 19th century society's shallowness, the one factor most contributing to its initial condemnation.
"The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895) is a comedy of manners revolving around two friends, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, their love interests, Jack's ward Cecily and Algy's cousin Gwendolyn, and the problems arising from both ladies' preference for a husband with the first name Ernest and from Jack's ignorance about his origin, as he was found in a bag in a Victoria Station cloak-room, which Gwendolyn's mother Lady Bracknell scorns as a show of "contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution," assuring Jack that she'll never allow her daughter to "form an alliance with a parcel." Again there's a superb cinematic adaptation against which this 1988 BBC production has to compete, the 1952 film starring Michael Redgrave (Jack), Michael Denison (Algy), Edith Evans (Lady Bracknell), Joan Greenwood (Gwendolyn), Dorothy Tutin (Cecily) and Margaret Rutherford (Cecily's tutor Miss Prism). But while this production isn't quite such a class act - nor as visually dazzling as the less faithful 2002 movie starring Colin Firth (Jack), Rupert Everett (Algy), Judi Dench (Lady Bracknell), Frances O'Connor (Gwendolyn), Reese Witherspoon (Cecily) and Anna Massey (Miss Prism) - it does feature fine performances, particularly from Joan Plowright (Lady Bracknell) and Rupert Frazer (Algy).
"Lady Windermere's Fan" (1893), Wilde's first truly successful play, deals with the moral trials faced by a young woman of society whose uncompromising, Puritan views of life are tested when she has reason to suspect her husband of infidelity with a Mrs. Erlynne, a divorced (and for that reason alone, ill-reputed) woman trying to make a comeback into London society after years of living abroad. Helena Little and Tim Woodward acquit themselves well in the BBC's 1985 adaptation as Lady and Lord Windermere, but the true standout performances are Stephanie Turner's (Mrs. Erlynne) and Sara Kestelman's (the Duchess of Berwick, who in a wonderfully ad-libbed line sends her daughter to go outside and "look for" - instead of at - the sunset).
"An Ideal Husband" (1895) finally takes a rather darkly sardonic look at blackmail, hypocrisy and corruption in politics. Although brought to the big screen in 1999 with an all-star cast led by Julianne Moore (Mrs. Cheveley), Cate Blanchett (Lady Gertrude Chiltern), Minnie Driver (Mabel Chiltern), Jeremy Northam (Sir Robert Chiltern) and Rupert Everett (Lord Goring), the BBC's 1969 version holds up well; if for no other reason because of young Jeremy Brett's captivating portrayal of Scarlett-Pimpernellish Lord Goring, Margaret Leighton's devious Mrs. Cheveley ... and because it's actually a faithful production of Wilde's play, whereas the 1999 movie, like 2002's "Importance of Being Earnest" directed by Robert Parker, takes several crucial artistic licenses, not the least, the omission of Lord Goring's and Mrs. Cheveley's face-off over a certain bracelet.Best remembered for his countless poignantly witty epigrams, Oscar Wilde was a leading representative of Aestheticism, a movement espousing the notion that art exists for no other purpose than its existence itself. Born in Dublin and a graduate of Oxford's Magdalen College, he worked as a journalist, editor and lecturer before turning to dramatic writing, and produced his most acclaimed works in the six-year span from 1890 to 1895, roughly coinciding with his romantic involvement with sixteen years younger Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. "Bosie's" strained relationship with his father, the Marquees of Queensberry, eventually caused a series of confrontations between Wilde and the Marquees, in turn resulting in three trials, Wilde's conviction for "gross indecencies" under a law interpreted to prohibit homosexual relationships, and a two-year prison sentence of "hard labor." Wilde emerged from prison a broken man and, after three years' wanderings throughout Europe, died in 1900 of cerebral meningitis, barely 46 years old.
This marvelous collection brings together four of his best-known works in productions from the BBC's long-running "Play of the Month" series, starring an array of Britain's finest actors; plus a biography with contributions by, inter alia, renowned scholar Isobel Murray, Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland and "Bosie's" great-grandniece Lady Alice Douglas, as well as many well-chosen excerpts from Wilde's works and the trial transcripts, visits to the locations of his life's key stations, and a wealth of photographs.
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" was Wilde's only novel (first published 1890; republished 1891 after widespread condemnation as "immoral," with a preface explaining Wilde's views on art); the tale of an exceptionally handsome young man who sells his soul to maintain his beauty, letting his portrait age in his stead, and soon growing increasingly evil, believing that his beauty will make up for any and all acts of cruelty. Those who know the splendid 1945 adaptation starring Hurd Hatfield in the title role, George Sanders as his seducer, decadent Lord Henry Wotton, Lowell Gilmore as painter Basil Hallward and young Angela Lansbury as Dorian's innocent lover, actress Sibyl Vane, will come to this with high expectations, but the BBC's 1976 cast more than holds its own. Peter Firth is a perfect Dorian, complete with "finely-curved ... lips, frank blue eyes [and] crisp golden hair" (Wilde) - the proverbial golden boy turning ugly under an angelic, albeit increasingly arrogant exterior. Sir John Gielgud, probably the 20th century's best British actor with an uncanny ability to portray *any* character as if he were born to play that role and that role alone, turns in a stellar performance as Sir Henry, dropping some of Wilde's most biting epigrams with an unmatched deadpan expression and impeccable timing. Jeremy Brett, best-known to later TV audiences as Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, completes an excellent leading trio as Basil Hallward. Scripted by noted playwright John Osborne, this dramatization somewhat streamlines the novel's storyline, without, however, straying from its core; and pointedly (but never gratuitously) uses its medium to reveal the three protagonists' homoerotic relationship (as well as that between Dorian and his friend Alan Campbell); only alluded to in the novel and yet, besides its mockery of 19th century society's shallowness, the one factor most contributing to its initial condemnation.
"The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895) is a comedy of manners revolving around two friends, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, their love interests, Jack's ward Cecily and Algy's cousin Gwendolyn, and the problems arising from both ladies' preference for a husband with the first name Ernest and from Jack's ignorance about his origin, as he was found in a bag in a Victoria Station cloak-room, which Gwendolyn's mother Lady Bracknell scorns as a show of "contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution," assuring Jack that she'll never allow her daughter to "form an alliance with a parcel." Again there's a superb cinematic adaptation against which this 1988 BBC production has to compete, the 1952 film starring Michael Redgrave (Jack), Michael Denison (Algy), Edith Evans (Lady Bracknell), Joan Greenwood (Gwendolyn), Dorothy Tutin (Cecily) and Margaret Rutherford (Cecily's tutor Miss Prism). But while this production isn't quite such a class act - nor as visually dazzling as the less faithful 2002 movie starring Colin Firth (Jack), Rupert Everett (Algy), Judi Dench (Lady Bracknell), Frances O'Connor (Gwendolyn), Reese Witherspoon (Cecily) and Anna Massey (Miss Prism) - it does feature fine performances, particularly from Joan Plowright (Lady Bracknell) and Rupert Frazer (Algy).
"Lady Windermere's Fan" (1893), Wilde's first truly successful play, deals with the moral trials faced by a young woman of society whose uncompromising, Puritan views of life are tested when she has reason to suspect her husband of infidelity with a Mrs. Erlynne, a divorced (and for that reason alone, ill-reputed) woman trying to make a comeback into London society after years of living abroad. Helena Little and Tim Woodward acquit themselves well in the BBC's 1985 adaptation as Lady and Lord Windermere, but the true standout performances are Stephanie Turner's (Mrs. Erlynne) and Sara Kestelman's (the Duchess of Berwick, who in a wonderfully ad-libbed line sends her daughter to go outside and "look for" - instead of at - the sunset).
"An Ideal Husband" (1895) finally takes a rather darkly sardonic look at blackmail, hypocrisy and corruption in politics. Although brought to the big screen in 1999 with an all-star cast led by Julianne Moore (Mrs. Cheveley), Cate Blanchett (Lady Gertrude Chiltern), Minnie Driver (Mabel Chiltern), Jeremy Northam (Sir Robert Chiltern) and Rupert Everett (Lord Goring), the BBC's 1969 version holds up well; if for no other reason because of young Jeremy Brett's captivating portrayal of Scarlett-Pimpernellish Lord Goring, Margaret Leighton's devious Mrs. Cheveley ... and because it's actually a faithful production of Wilde's play, whereas the 1999 movie, like 2002's "Importance of Being Earnest" directed by Robert Parker, takes several crucial artistic licenses, not the least, the omission of Lord Goring's and Mrs. Cheveley's face-off over a certain bracelet.
Also recommended:
Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Collins Classics)
Oscar Wilde
Wilde (Special Edition)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Importance of Being Earnest - Criterion Collection
The Importance of Being Earnest
An Ideal Husband
A Good Woman
More The Oscar Wilde Collection (The Importance of Being Earnest / The Picture of Dorian Gray / An Ideal Husband / Lady Windermere's Fan) reviews:
1 2
1 2
Description of The Oscar Wilde Collection (The Importance of Being Earnest / The Picture of Dorian Gray / An Ideal Husband / Lady Windermere's Fan)
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/24/2008Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Charles Dickens Collection, Vol. 2 (David Copperfield / The Pickwick Papers / The Old Curiosity Shop / Dombey and Son / Barnaby Rudge) (Slim Case)WHV; Release date: 2009-05-05; DVD
Best price: $22.49
Price in other shops:
The George Eliot Collection (Middlemarch / Daniel Deronda / Silas Marner / Adam Bede / The Mill on the Floss)WHV; Release date: 2007-04-17; DVD
Best price: $22.49
Price in other shops:
Wilde (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2002-03-19; DVD
Best price: $17.95
Price in other shops:
Henrik Ibsen Collection (Hedda Gabler / Ghosts / Little Eyolf / The Wild Duck / The Master Builder)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-07-24; DVD
Best price: $26.99
Price in other shops:
![Anton Chekhov Collection (Platonov/The Wood Demon/The Proposal/The Wedding/The Seagull/An Artist's Story/Uncle Vanya [1970 and 1991 versions]/Three Sisters/The Cherry Orchard [1962 and 1981 versions]) Image](/images/Anton-Chekhov-Collection-Platonov-The-Wood-Demon-The-Proposal-The-Wedding-The-Seagull-An-Artist-Story-Uncle-Vanya-1970-and-1991-versions-Three-Sisters-B0013D8M4O-X.jpg)
Anton Chekhov Collection (Platonov/ The Wood Demon/ The Proposal/ The Wedding/ The Seagull/ An Artist's Story/ Uncle Vanya [1970 and 1991 versions]/ Three Sisters/ The Cherry Orchard [1962 and 1981 versions])Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-08-02; DVD
Best price: $26.99
Price in other shops:
The Henry James Collection (The American / The Portrait of a Lady / The Wings of the Dove / The Golden Bowl / The Spoils of Poynton)WHV; Release date: 2009-01-13; DVD
Best price: $21.99
Price in other shops:
The Shaw Collection (Pygmalion / The Millionairess / Arms and the Man / The Devil's Disciple / Mrs. Warren's Profession / Heartbreak House)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2006-05-16; DVD
Best price: $22.67
Price in other shops:
The Importance of Being Earnest (The Criterion Collection)REDGRAVE,MICHAEL; Release date: 2002-06-25; DVD
Best price: $18.21
Price in other shops:
The Importance of Being EarnestLGF; Release date: 2011-04-26; DVD
Best price: $6.27
Price in other shops:
An Ideal HusbandEBH; Release date: 2011-06-21; DVD
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops: