I stumbled across this on youtube while looking for the opera, a scene of Millais-Scott reciting the love poetry. The movie grew on me and I have now watched it a number of times and find it fascinating.
This is an almost comic strip version of the Biblical event. Wilde's play has serious issues with repetition, but the director's wife's version of the play is vastly superior to the archaic language version I have. It sticks to the original very closely. The Salome character is remarkably modern. She is in a bizarre family situation. Her father's brother had her father killed. Her mother then married her father's brother. Her now step-father openly courts her. Her mother spends her time allegedly having sex with soldiers. John the Baptist, the prophet, says appalling things about both of her parents and the rebellious Salome is naturally attracted to him. She gets him out of prison, attempts to seduce him, recites love poetry to him, and does a strip-tease dance for the king to get whatever she desires, which is to have John beheaded so she can finally kiss/seduce/dominate him. I think it is still the only time I have seen a female character attempt to seduce a male with love poetry, yet it was written in the 1880s. I'm surprised this character hasn't become more popular and the peak of it's fame was probably in the early 20th Century including two silent films.
A lot of the play isn't that entertaining, though the actors do a great job of bringing the play to life. The most interesting thing is the performance by Imogen Millais-Scott, who uses all kinds of vocal styles and mime in her performance. There are significant periods where she is on stage where I end up simply watching her rather than the actors who have all the lines. She uses mime to add an entirely new role to whatever else is going on. A comparison performance might be Nicholson's over-the-top Joker in Batman (also written by an Englishman). Her performance is high school princess-child-provocoteur-dominatrix-psycho.
I found myself watching this film quite a few times and it is such an antidote to the overwhelming seriousness of so many recent productions. The only comparable visual media I can think of is probably children's television, maybe Aardman. It is very much in the English over-the-top pantomime/Flying Circus/Aardman style, but more realistic and threaded with underlying English visciousness.
This is an almost comic strip version of the Biblical event. Wilde's play has serious issues with repetition, but the director's wife's version of the play is vastly superior to the archaic language version I have. It sticks to the original very closely. The Salome character is remarkably modern. She is in a bizarre family situation. Her father's brother had her father killed. Her mother then married her father's brother. Her now step-father openly courts her. Her mother spends her time allegedly having sex with soldiers. John the Baptist, the prophet, says appalling things about both of her parents and the rebellious Salome is naturally attracted to him. She gets him out of prison, attempts to seduce him, recites love poetry to him, and does a strip-tease dance for the king to get whatever she desires, which is to have John beheaded so she can finally kiss/seduce/dominate him. I think it is still the only time I have seen a female character attempt to seduce a male with love poetry, yet it was written in the 1880s. I'm surprised this character hasn't become more popular and the peak of it's fame was probably in the early 20th Century including two silent films.
A lot of the play isn't that entertaining, though the actors do a great job of bringing the play to life. The most interesting thing is the performance by Imogen Millais-Scott, who uses all kinds of vocal styles and mime in her performance. There are significant periods where she is on stage where I end up simply watching her rather than the actors who have all the lines. She uses mime to add an entirely new role to whatever else is going on. A comparison performance might be Nicholson's over-the-top Joker in Batman (also written by an Englishman). Her performance is high school princess-child-provocoteur-dominatrix-psycho.
I found myself watching this film quite a few times and it is such an antidote to the overwhelming seriousness of so many recent productions. The only comparable visual media I can think of is probably children's television, maybe Aardman. It is very much in the English over-the-top pantomime/Flying Circus/Aardman style, but more realistic and threaded with underlying English visciousness.