Importance of Bein Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest written by play writer, novelist, art critic and flamboyant socialite Oscar Wilde is a romantic, drama, comedy set in the high class provinces of urban and country England. There are many differences between the play and the motion picture film, the differences stem from the amount of advantages and disadvantages that take place when a motion picture film is made from a stage play.

This stage play has been made into a motion picture film many times before, the most recent being the Oliver Parker screenplay made in 2002.This screenplay has the elements of a good story line, backed with a capable and experienced cast. Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon are the biggest names that appear in the movie now.

Wilde is described to be a man of feminine qualities, a man of wit, courage and prosperity and a man that can cause controversy and ultimately set trends among people his age and the scene that he is apart of. Wilde is a homosexual man, with extremely high intelligence in the form of art, literature and politics.

Wilde’s stage play caused moral uproar from the public upon the release of the play. Throughout Wilde’s career, he was a critic and a criticized critic. People envied the way he could put wit and humour on every aspect of life and as an Irishman, the English way of living and the high democracy that the country possessed. Each part of The Importance of Being Earnest reflects his life in one way or another and reflects the standards produced by people in high society England.

Although Wilde is mocking high society England, he is part of it, an important character of the high society that lives large and does everything with the up most of extremity. His lavish life caused him to be trapped in debt, owing to people from restraints as well as clothing shops. He also was in debt because of the expense of entertaining his lovers of the time.

The visual elements of cinema have the advantages of capturing the moments that Wilde wanted to make to the audience simply clear and obvious. This however was not obvious to many people in the audiences of his stage plays, where he once mentioned, “there would only be a small minority, who understood the point I am making”.

The cinema’s advantage was the things the character said could be exaggerated and heightened to give the audience a clear understanding that it was a pun against society, or his own personal life. Wilde’s literary writings were of double standard and of huge contradiction. The characters of the film play are all playing a stereotype of high class England, yet act in an unfavorable manner, around people in their family and of other families. The characters talk with an over the top language, one of which has become obsolete in modern society; this is possibly the way in which Wilde acts and talks in his every day life.

The characters send messages of fake and over the top friendliness towards each other; as if inside themselves they are saying the absolute reverse. The film depicts the characters to act so tremendously nice around one another, as this is the polite and high-class thing to do. The sarcasm on the voices of the characters is palpable.

The films scenes are very intense; caused by the many camera angles used in the film. To create a sense of madness the cameras move from abundant angles and also shake and are moved at very fast pace. This fast pace is carried throughout the movie and in the characters voices the words are said fast and to the point, in a very rehearsed tone, this is possibly Wilde’s suggestion to high society rehearsing the things they say to each other in social groups to sound more intelligent that the most likely are. The unnaturalness of all the characters gives them the feel that they are holding up a fake exterior and one of which they wish they could let go. The authenticity of their language is transparent to the audience and the accents of the actors are done in a very high -class tone.

Camera movement is the main element of the film and this element is only possible in