Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

kenjha Poor Oscar Wilde must sit and watch his play "Salome" performed by the inhabitants of a brothel. Russell occasionally turned out some fine films like "Women in Love," but all too often he made films that reflected his bad taste and cheesy style. This is perhaps the most dreadful movie he ever made. From the look of it, it was probably made for a budget of about $1.98. The acting is uniformly awful. The sets are cardboard cutouts. The costumes look like they came from a rummage sale. These sins could have been overlooked if the film managed to be entertaining in some way, but it's a plodding bore featuring dull dialog and a non-existent plot.

bandw Oscar Wilde's play "Salome" is staged within this movie as Wilde himself looks on from a couch in a male brothel. I cannot determine if Wilde's play is a bomb, or whether it is this amateurish production that is such. I have rarely been as irritated by a performance as that of Imogen Millais-Scott in her portrayal of Salome. I was grossly put off by her constant mugging. And after a dozen or so times of her saying, "I want to kiss your mouth, John the Baptist," I felt that if she were to say it again, I would scream. She did, and I did.How Glenda Jackson wound up in this mess is a puzzle. What a waste. Nickolas Grace plays Wilde as a walking and talking epigram machine with no depth. Compare his Wilde with Stephen Fry's in "Wilde" and you will see how paltry Grace's performance is. Douglas Hodge, looking eerily like the late-stage Michael Jackson, plays John the Baptist (in the "Salome" play) with an overwrought energy that gets on your nerves. I felt like cheering when Glenda Jackson said, "Shut him up." If you find flatulence and belching humorous, then parts of this film will entertain you. If not, be warned that that is how desperate things get.The music is a hodgepodge of overworked classical pieces.After the play within the movie ends we see tears coming to Wilde's eyes. I could not figure out if he was thinking, "God, did I actually write that horrible thing," or "That was so bad as to make one cry."I have to give this a star for the sheer spectacle of it - I give it credit for being uniquely imagined. And another star for the dance scene, even though a "body double" was used for the crucial climax.In summary, I quote Glenda Jackson's exhortation to members of the cast, "Shut them up, they bore me."

hmghosthost Shocking. Revolting. Human. Those three words may sound like the description of a flop, but in reality those words describe the brilliance of this movie. Set in a theater-stage atmosphere akin to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, this movie sucks you in to a devilish plot dripping with intrigue. It leaves you feeling a bit dirty, too, like you've had a secret fling behind your spouse' back. Glenda Jackson ("Herodius") absolutely shines in this production; a temptress of the same flavor as Joan Collins in Dallas. If I had four hands, this movie would get all four thumbs up. (Not for the squeamish - or the uppity prude).Important notes: contrary to the false comments made by other people here about this film... The actress playing Salome is indeed a FEMALE - Imogen Millais-Scott - not a male in drag. Furthermore, some have said that the movie made a discrepancy by having Oscar Wilde arrested for "sexual crimes" on Guy Faulks Day (the day of the movie's setting) when in fact he was not arrested on that day - the actual truth being that the arrest in the film WAS FICTIONAL... in this movie he is arrested with everyone else in the brothel because the man playing Herod tells the centurion, "Kill that woman!" and he actually hurls a spear at Salome and murders her, and she falls off the stage impaled by the spear and the police find her dead body. As everyone is being tossed into the paddy wagon, Glenda Jackson attempts a defense by saying, "She wasn't murdered! She slipped on a banana peel!"

L. Denis Brown Oscar Wilde, who wrote the stage play "Salome", was one of the greatest wits of his time, but lived a lifestyle that created continuous controversy in the society in which he lived. Today he is perhaps best known for authorship of "The Ballard of Reading Jail", which was written during one of the times when he was in prison following a direct confrontation with the government of the time. When he wrote "Salome" it was banned for a time by the English stage censorship and, even though it can be a most rewarding performance to watch, stage productions of it are still relatively infrequent. Consequently many people today are more familiar with the bowdlerised opera which was based on the play and was composed by Richard Strauss. The opera has been filmed by at least two major directors, but for the cinematographic enthusiast there is also this very noteworthy film, directed by Ken Russell, which is much more closely based on Wilde's play. In my opinion this film is dramatically far superior to the rather pathetic opera, and is very worth while seeking out by anyone interested. Basically it exploits the psychological tensions which may have existed in King Herod's court, and which could have accounted for the demand by Salome for the head of John the Baptist on a platter; the story that is so baldly reported in the Bible. The scenario of this film is set in a brothel where Oscar Wilde is treated to an illegal birthday performance of his play, acted by friends who include some of the employees of the host establishment. This choice of venue has upset many critics but it is totally irrelevant to the play - it is helpful for a modern viewer to remember that, at the time in which this film is set, Oscar Wilde and his literary friends would meet regularly to present impromptu performances of works they had written, basically as a quality control procedure for the final product they eventually published; and this film simply exploits the practice. It is essentially a film of a play, with the story associated with the presentation of the play added to maintain cinematographic interest. Ken Russell is a controversial director but although the film is not without faults, the overall quality is outstanding, the cast is superb, and there are particularly memorable performances by Glenda Jackson as Queen Herodias and by Imogen Millais-Scott (who shows the capability of looking any age between thirteen and thirty) as Princess Salome. Both the play and the film effectively capture the decadence, which was characteristic of the royal courts of petty despots at this point in history, better than any other works I have seen. It should be a must for anyone who has the opportunity to see it.