Greatness restored
It’s not terribly often that you see a film of a scene from a film that makes your kjaw drop and makes you think ‘this is amazing’ even as it’s happening. Possibly I can remember the last two times this happened, the lobby scene from The Matrix and the whole of Sin City. Now add a third. Saw the amazing ‘The Libertine’ last Friday. Fantastic - and how very much like my own life!
Jaw dropping moment - Johnny Depp’s opening address to the camera.
‘Allow me to be frank at the commencement. You will not like me. The gentlemen will be envious and the ladies will be repelled. You will not like me now and you will like me a good deal less as we go on. Ladies, an announcement: I am up for it, all the time. That is not a boast or an opinion, it is bone hard medical fact. I put it round you know. And you will watch me putting it round and sigh for it. Don't. It is a deal of trouble for you and you are better off watching and drawing your conclusions from a distance than you would be if I got my tarse up your petticoats. Gentlemen. Do not despair, I am up for that as well. And the same warning applies. Still your cheesy erections till I have had my say. But later when you shag - and later you will shag, I shall expect it of you and I will know if you have let me down - I wish you to shag with my homuncular image rattling in your gonads. Feel how it was for me, how it is for me and ponder. 'Was that shudder the same shudder he sensed? Did he know something more profound? Or is there some wall of wretchedness that we all batter with our heads at that shining, livelong moment. That is it. That is my prologue, nothing in rhyme, no protestations of modesty, you were not expecting that I hope. I am John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester and I do not want you to like me.’
And the closure:
‘So here he lies at the last. The deathbed convert. The pious debauchee. Could not dance a half measure, could I? Give me wine, I drain the dregs and toss the empty bottle at the world. Show me our Lord Jesus in agony and I mount the cross and steal his nails for my own palms. There I go, shuffling from the world. My dribble fresh upon the bible. I look upon a pinhead and I see angels dancing. Well? Do you like me now? Do you like me now? Do you like me now? Do you like me... now?’
That, combined with:
Countess: Anyone can drink.
Rochester: Only few can match my determination.
Made me think that, what with the pox, the drinking, the theatre-going and the wigs, not to mention foppery and cavorting about a London filled with grime, drunkards, harlots and swine, swine, swine, the whole thing was not unlike a day in the life of your blogger. But how different, how very different from the home life of our own dear Queen.
Jaw dropping moment - Johnny Depp’s opening address to the camera.
‘Allow me to be frank at the commencement. You will not like me. The gentlemen will be envious and the ladies will be repelled. You will not like me now and you will like me a good deal less as we go on. Ladies, an announcement: I am up for it, all the time. That is not a boast or an opinion, it is bone hard medical fact. I put it round you know. And you will watch me putting it round and sigh for it. Don't. It is a deal of trouble for you and you are better off watching and drawing your conclusions from a distance than you would be if I got my tarse up your petticoats. Gentlemen. Do not despair, I am up for that as well. And the same warning applies. Still your cheesy erections till I have had my say. But later when you shag - and later you will shag, I shall expect it of you and I will know if you have let me down - I wish you to shag with my homuncular image rattling in your gonads. Feel how it was for me, how it is for me and ponder. 'Was that shudder the same shudder he sensed? Did he know something more profound? Or is there some wall of wretchedness that we all batter with our heads at that shining, livelong moment. That is it. That is my prologue, nothing in rhyme, no protestations of modesty, you were not expecting that I hope. I am John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester and I do not want you to like me.’
And the closure:
‘So here he lies at the last. The deathbed convert. The pious debauchee. Could not dance a half measure, could I? Give me wine, I drain the dregs and toss the empty bottle at the world. Show me our Lord Jesus in agony and I mount the cross and steal his nails for my own palms. There I go, shuffling from the world. My dribble fresh upon the bible. I look upon a pinhead and I see angels dancing. Well? Do you like me now? Do you like me now? Do you like me now? Do you like me... now?’
That, combined with:
Countess: Anyone can drink.
Rochester: Only few can match my determination.
Made me think that, what with the pox, the drinking, the theatre-going and the wigs, not to mention foppery and cavorting about a London filled with grime, drunkards, harlots and swine, swine, swine, the whole thing was not unlike a day in the life of your blogger. But how different, how very different from the home life of our own dear Queen.
1 Comments:
Oh dear. I really don't know what to say to that other than you might need help. Haven't seen the movie yet, but now I don't really feel I need to---you seem to have summed it up, and I feel a little bit dirtier for have reading it. I think you need to watch Caddyshack and lighten up a little.
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