the Hellenic ideal
So this is the first released picture from the new film version of The Picture of Dorian Gray (called, pithily, Dorian Gray; why the filmmakers think it necessary to excise “The Picture of” I have no idea), due in fall 2009 and starring Ben Barnes as Dorian, Colin Firth as Lord Henry, and Rachel Hurd-Wood (Wendy in the 2003 Peter Pan) as Sybil Vane.
I don’t really know what to think of it. On the one hand, I do think Barnes is absolutely mouth-droppingly droolworthily gorgeous (easily out-prettying everyone else in Prince Caspian), and I don’t really have a problem with his acting. On the other hand… I simply can’t see him as Dorian. Dorian is blond-haired, blue-eyed, ivory-skinned, charming and beautiful; I will always, always remember him as having “rose-red youth and rose-white boyhood”, which is so suggestive of a delicacy and sensuality that I’m just not feeling from this picture or from Barnes in general.
It just baffles me how the perfect Dorian still hasn’t surfaced after multiple TV and film adaptations. I mean, Stuart Townsend? Really? And is it all that hard to find a blond actor to play him? I readily confess to being a bit of an overzealous stickler for book details when it comes to adaptations, where said details may not be not all that relevant (e.g. Dan Radcliffe having blue eyes rather than green), but I really think Dorian’s colouring is very important to the way his character comes across. I just can’t see brunettes doing the corrupted beautiful innocent thing so well.
Having expended 2 paragraphs ranting about Dorian, I should end by saying, in fairness to the filmmakers, that I think Colin Firth will do well as Lord Henry. Though I see him more as Basil, somehow - and this guy who’s playing Basil, Ben Chaplin? He could be Lord Henry, in my book. Go figure.
9 comments
haha that’s true - i stand corrected 
i think for dorian in particular though the golden-boy appeal is very important!
and ben barnes is mmmmm ♥ although apparently, caspian was supposed to be blonde too. 
dorian needs to be blonde, wtf! it’s because of his perceived purity and the link with the painting and how much basil was obsessed over him that underlines his inner evil!!!!!
colin firth as lord henry?! i always saw him as this slick, dark-haired gentleman in my head. more rupert everett in the recent Earnest film (also with colin firth) than anything else. actually, rupert might be my perfect lord henry.
…does lord henry get wet/fall into a pond/lake/sea/go swimming at any time? *goes to reread dorian again*
i’m glad i’m not the only idiot who’s all hung up about dorian needing to be blonde!
i haven’t read the book in a while so i actually haven’t got a very strong impression of what anyone is supposed to be like, other than lord henry. i did read other comments elsewhere though that a younger rupert everett (circa my best friend’s wedding) would have been the ideal lord henry.
i’m sure it won’t be too difficult for them to insert a wet scene for colin
Not know much about the book except the um abridged version I read when little, but…
well…
ifheathledgerwerealivesomeonewouldsayheshouldbetippedfortherolebutsoithinkintermsofcheekbonesandnoseandthelike, the dark-haired chap looks very good. in terms of the need for that rosy blond youth, i’d agree! it was hard for the movie folks to find, i suppose,someone who is knownly hot and can therefore sell the show as is probably muchly needed (which would explain also the title, it being a Theory that the generation to sell movies to cannot hold a title more than four words long in their MTV heads; probably “nah, ‘Dorian Gray’ sounds a lot snappier” was the reason. hmm, the ’snappy’ word!).
Yes to the rupert everett. I agree.
Is it easier to find females who would fit the kind of description needed for male roles. To cast males for a book like “The Secret History” (donna tartt) feels hard, but females there are a truckload out there who could fit.
Nah, but then we’d have Scarlett J in the role of Dorianette.
Maybe this line of thought should stop here…
who is playing sebastian in the adaptation of the novel brideshead revisited?????????????
is he not blond. is he? i saw a black-and-white picture. if they found a blond there, they could find a blond here? hmmm. who knows… but his acting might redeem the looks thing.
sorry for spamming.
sorry for breaking the layout! T_T
and please forget the comment above about brideshead revisited–i can’t remember the photo very well either. D:
*crawls away to sleep*
how ARE these very obviously fake (and annoying) comments getting past Akismet? =O
answer which was so obvious i didn’t realise it till i actually went to check: akismet had somehow been turned off and not reactivated during my last wordpress automatic upgrade
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ben barnes is really pretty but you don’t really have to be a blonde to be an uncorrupted boy; it’s the delicacy of the cheekbones and the eyes innit
but then that’s just me haha