The young wife of Lord Windermere a woman who considers herself to be morally above reproach is about to learn some hard lessons about what makes up good and bad behavior in society.
This is Oscar Wilde's first success as a playwright and apparently involved a lot of hard work to achieve this witty drama that is loaded with his famous epigrams.
This DVD is from the BBC collection of Oscar Wilde plays filmed on videotape. For a production that is "uncinematic" it plays very well. A good example of Orson Welles' theory that a great story and dialog is always preferable to flashy storytelling. But let's go to the videotape with some quotes from the play.
Nowadays we are all of us so hard up that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They're the only things we can pay.
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
I prefer women with a past. They're always so damned amusing to talk to.
What a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us
History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
My own business always bores me to death. I prefer other people's.
118 minutes
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