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From the Page to the Screen – The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is an 1890 classic British philosophical novel written by Oscar Wilde. It is one of the best books I’ve read and its status of a revered classic is more than deserved as it remains one of the most thought-provoking, sophisticated works of literature out there.

THE FILM ADAPTATION

The film was released in 1945 and it received pretty good reviews from the critics and it was nominated for three Academy Awards. But I personally think it deserved more Oscars and much more recognition as it’s such an amazing adaptation that is thankfully nowadays respected quite a bit.

PLOT

The film follows the book maybe to a fault in terms of faithfulness, but I love my adaptations faithful so I’ve had a blast with this one. Most of the minor changes worked, and simply every great plot point was perfectly adapted for the big screen. But the book did it before and in a more memorable fashion.

WINNER – BOOK

CHARACTERIZATION

The new character Gladys is added here and she’s fine herself as is Sibyl. James Vane is also pretty good. But I loved how great Dorian, Basil and especially Harry were in the film. The latter was stupendously played by George Sanders. The casting was so strong throughout here, and thus the characters really took off.

WINNER – TIE

EMOTION

I liked how the film was eerily atmospheric, creepy and much more horrific than the book. They also sold those emotionless sequences with Dorian. However, the movie was never as emotional as the book was in its ending and especially in Basil’s much subdued death sequence.

WINNER – BOOK

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THEMES

How could this movie possibly compare to Wilde’s amazingly crafted, thematically rich and provocative dialogue and storytelling? The film is sophisticated throughout, don’t get me wrong, but the book remains a quintessential work of Aestheticism with all of its themes being thought-provoking and intriguing.

WINNER – BOOK

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

The book is superbly written by Wilde, in particular his dialogue is playful, sophisticated and extremely intelligent and witty. The same goes for the movie which uses his dialogue very well while also being superbly shot and wonderfully scored.

WINNER – TIE

BOOK 5: FILM 2

In the end, the novel easily got this one despite the movie being great. It’s the essential adaptation for sure and it’s so superb in almost all of its aspects, but the novel came first and it’s much striking, memorable and provocative as an experience.