Dorian Gray (film)

Victorian England. The handsome and naive young man Dorian Gray arrives in London , where he is captured in a social whirlpool by the charismatic Lord Henry Wattton, who introduces Dorian to the hedonistic culture of the city.

Henry's friend, the talented artist Basil Hallward, paints a portrait of Dorian to capture his youthful beauty and purity. The young man, looking at the creation, voices the desire to give anything in order to remain as in the picture - even his soul. From this moment, the picture begins to age instead of him, and also to take away all his wounds and ailments.

Seducing the young actress Sibylla Wayne, Dorian accidentally drives her to suicide by refusing the promised marriage (like the heroine of her play Ophelia, she rushes into the river). The news of the death of Sibylla brings her brother Jim and in a fit of anger and despair trying to strangle Gray. However, he himself is twisted and sent to a hospital.

Gradually, under the influence of Henry Dorian, he becomes increasingly dissolute, selfish and cruel, and the portrait hidden in the attic displays all his vices. He indulges in the most base passions, participates in orgies, engages in sodomy, sadism and masochism, and tries drugs.

Basil decides to arrange an exhibition of his works and asks Dorian to borrow his portrait for this, but he refuses to a friend, explaining this by protecting the canvas from sunlight. After one of the parties at which Gray seduces Basil, the artist comes to him and insists that he return the painting. Dorian takes Hallward to the attic and shows him what is required. Basil is horrified and calls for the portrait to be destroyed, but he himself dies at the hands of his comrade. The young man throws the dismembered body from the bridge to the Thames . To wait out the investigation, he leaves to travel the world and returns only twenty-five years later, still as young and handsome. His aged acquaintances begin to suspect something was amiss. Henry compares photographs of Dorian - taken at the premiere of the portrait and recent - and recalls the friend’s willingness to give his soul for eternal youth.

Dorian meets Henry's daughter Emily, whom she falls in love with. Wilton is unhappy with their mutual enthusiasm for each other, because he doubts the authenticity of feelings, but his daughter does not want to listen to her father. Gray in church in confession tells the priest about his stinking soul and tries to repent.

Dorian is attacked by the impoverished and sinking Jim, who has longed for revenge all these years. In pursuit, both find themselves in the subway. Wayne, not having time to make a fatal shot, falls under the train. Returning home, the man tries to pierce the portrait with a sword, but only breaks the mirror opposite. He comes back to Emily and says that he wants to start all over again, after which he loses consciousness and falls asleep right on the floor in her house. In the same position - asleep - and the next morning Henry finds them, who unleashes their anger on Gray. The girl runs after leaving Dorian and apologizes to him for his father.

Dorian and Emily get married and are about to go to the States to start life in New Orleans. At a farewell party at Wotton's house, Gray looks for him and sees from the window how he gets into the car and hurries off. Dorian runs after the car, which stops near his house, and finds Henry in front of a curtained portrait. The words that this is a portrait of grandfather do not convince the lord; during the argument, he notices in the corner of the attic a scarf from Basil, who was killed many years ago, and from under the curtain of the portrait a strange movement is visible. A fight breaks out between them, interrupted by Emily's voice. Henry hits the opponent in the face with the handle of a sword, he falls and loses consciousness for a moment, and he seizes the moment, tears the fabric from the portrait and sees there an old balding freak in scars, with his nose falling from syphilis and rare teeth, only his right eye similar to Dorian. Henry grabs the kerosene lamp on the table and throws it into the portrait, it lights up (a guy who has come to his senses can only shout: “No!”). His face darkens and is distorted. Henry runs out of the room and locks the door grille with a key, then tears off the lamp from the wall, from which the gas begins to flow. Emily runs up to the attic and begs Dorian to give her the key so she can let him out of the flames of the room, but he lets go of her fingers and says that his heart forever belongs to her. Watter forces her daughter away because an explosion is about to happen. Gray, determined to pay for his sins, takes a sword and pierces a hated portrait. A half-rotten picture screams in an inhuman voice, and all its ugliness begins to return to its rightful owner. The gas ignites, and Dorian burns alive.

Emily leaves her father and renounces him. Henry enters the abandoned pantry of Gray’s house to his portrait, which became the same as at the time of creation, only with a charred frame. The old man sighs heavily and locks the room.

The last frame shows how in the ensuing twilight the eyes of the portrait brighten and widen somewhat, hinting that the soul of Dorian Gray has remained forever in the picture.

Filming began in the summer of 2008 at Ealing Studios and in various parts of London ^[1] and ended in October. The British Cinema Council Premier Foundation has provided £ 500,000 to the filmmakers from the National Lottery Fund. ^[one]

The film premiered on September 9, 2009 in the UK , with the Russian premiere on February 4, 2010. ^[2]

• Dorian Gray at the Internet Movie Database
• Dorian Gray on allmovie