In every generation, there comes along a person so scandalous, so rebellious, so willing to break taboos that they topple the world’s ideas of what being a free spirit truly means. In the 17th century that person was unequivocally John Wilmot, AKA the 2nd Earl of Rochester -- the wily and talented rogue who in the course of his short, wild life, become known all at once as a troublemaker, a genius and one of history’s most irrepressible believers in liberty.
Release Date: November 25, 2005 (One week run in NY & LA; wide release: January 13, 2006) Studio: The Weinstein Co. Director: Laurence Dunmore
Screenwriter: Stephen Jeffreys Starring: Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich, Rosamund Pike, Tom Hollander, Johnny Vegas, Kelly Reilly, Jack Davenport, Richard Coyle, Francesca Annis, Claire Higgins Genre: Drama MPAA Rating: Not Available Official Website: WeinsteinCo.com/TheLibertine
In every generation, there comes along a person so scandalous, so rebellious, so willing to break taboos that they topple the world’s ideas of what being a free spirit truly means. In the 17th century that person was unequivocally John Wilmot, AKA the 2nd Earl of Rochester -- the wily and talented rogue who in the course of his short, wild life, become known all at once as a troublemaker, a genius and one of history’s most irrepressible believers in liberty.
Now, in Laurence Dunmore’s THE LIBERTINE, two-time Academy Award nominee Johnny Depp and an award-winning cast and crew bring forth the sexy, irreverent and ultimately moving adventures of a man who broke all the rules at a time when the rules of modern society were first being written. With a gritty and raw realism, the film brings to life the swinging times of 70s London -- 1670’s London, that is -- with striking parallels to the attitudes and dilemmas of our own modern times.
Set against the extraordinary backdrop of The Restoration -- a pivotal age of enlightenment when rapid-fire new developments in science, religion and the arts, as well as a growing new sensual freedom, created the modern world as we know it -- THE LIBERTINE follows the meteoric rise and fall of the Earl. As the story begins, he is drawing acclaim with his daring writing and raising eyebrows as a gifted rogue with a lascivious lifestyle. A close confidante of the high-living King Charles II (two-time Academy Award nominee John Malkovich), the Earl delights in lampooning England’s royals with his subversive wit and scandalizing London society with his sexual escapades -- all the while reveling in getting away with anything he can.
But when the Earl falls in love with the brilliant and fiercely independent Elizabeth Barry (two-time Academy Award nominee Samantha Morton), the theatrical protégé he plans to turn into England’s biggest star, their affair and a subsequent betrayal will be the start of the Earl’s plunge from the heights of social celebrity to the depths of ruin, as he seeks his final redemption.
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