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 The Libertine Production NotesHe didn't resist temptation. He pursued it.
'The Libertine' follows the adventures of John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, in London of the 17th century. He has a passionate romance with a young actress, Elizabeth Barry, and he writes a scurrilous play which lampoons the monarch who commissioned it, Charles II, leading to the Earl's banishment and eventual downfall.
Johnny Depp stars in "The Libertine" as the scandalously decadent John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester. The film follows the Earl's adventures in London, from his passionate romance with a young actress, Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton), to the writing of a scurrilous play which blisteringly and bawdily lampoons the very monarch who commissioned it, Charles II (John Malkovich), leading to the Earl's banishment and eventual downfall.
Laurence Dunmore makes an assured directorial debut, creating a period atmosphere that combines the dark debauched underbelly of London with the allure and glamour of the Restoration court.
“The wildest and most fantastical odd man alive.” -- John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester, in a description of himself
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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The Earl of Rochester (Johnny Depp) and Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton) in The Libertine.