Salome's Last Dance
Salome's Last Dance
R | 06 May 1988 (USA)
Salome's Last Dance Trailers

London, England, November 5th, 1892, Guy Fawkes Night. The famous playwright Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas discreetly go to a luxury brothel where the owner, Alfred Taylor, has prepared a surprise for the renowned author: a private and very special performance of his play Salome, banned by the authorities, in which Taylor himself and the peculiar inhabitants of the exclusive establishment will participate.

Reviews
Scanialara

You won't be disappointed!

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Fairaher

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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Quiet Muffin

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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Lela

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

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imagicdigital

Currently selling for over $100 on eBay, copies of Salome's Last Dance are not easy of cheap to come by. Truly a cult classic. A few years ago it was available from Netflix, but no more.For those lucky enough to see the film (which I will not discuss) what awaits is a series of set pieces and costumes that manage to merge the magic of theater with that of Cinema. If you are in the right state of mind, few movies are as enjoyable to watch as this one... truly captivating.If you do choose to see Salome, please do others the favor of re-selling the DVD when you are done with it - think of it as a security deposit. The sound and picture quality of the DVD version is quite good. If you liked the Giger scenes in Alien, this movie is likely for you.

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L. Denis Brown

Oscar Wilde, who wrote the stage play "Salome", was one of the greatest wits of his time, but lived a lifestyle that created continuous controversy in the society in which he lived. Today he is perhaps best known for authorship of "The Ballard of Reading Jail", which was written during one of the times when he was in prison following a direct confrontation with the government of the time. When he wrote "Salome" it was banned for a time by the English stage censorship and, even though it can be a most rewarding performance to watch, stage productions of it are still relatively infrequent. Consequently many people today are more familiar with the bowdlerised opera which was based on the play and was composed by Richard Strauss. The opera has been filmed by at least two major directors, but for the cinematographic enthusiast there is also this very noteworthy film, directed by Ken Russell, which is much more closely based on Wilde's play. In my opinion this film is dramatically far superior to the rather pathetic opera, and is very worth while seeking out by anyone interested. Basically it exploits the psychological tensions which may have existed in King Herod's court, and which could have accounted for the demand by Salome for the head of John the Baptist on a platter; the story that is so baldly reported in the Bible. The scenario of this film is set in a brothel where Oscar Wilde is treated to an illegal birthday performance of his play, acted by friends who include some of the employees of the host establishment. This choice of venue has upset many critics but it is totally irrelevant to the play - it is helpful for a modern viewer to remember that, at the time in which this film is set, Oscar Wilde and his literary friends would meet regularly to present impromptu performances of works they had written, basically as a quality control procedure for the final product they eventually published; and this film simply exploits the practice. It is essentially a film of a play, with the story associated with the presentation of the play added to maintain cinematographic interest. Ken Russell is a controversial director but although the film is not without faults, the overall quality is outstanding, the cast is superb, and there are particularly memorable performances by Glenda Jackson as Queen Herodias and by Imogen Millais-Scott (who shows the capability of looking any age between thirteen and thirty) as Princess Salome. Both the play and the film effectively capture the decadence, which was characteristic of the royal courts of petty despots at this point in history, better than any other works I have seen. It should be a must for anyone who has the opportunity to see it.

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matty03

I really love this Ken Russell film. Very compact it features all of the qualities that I most love about Russell's work. I am not sure if anyone outside of his fans will really enjoy it. DVD contains entertaining commentary from Russell.

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sin-a-ma

Sick, twisted, bizarre, blasphemous, shocking, and perverse. In short, everything I look for in a Ken Russell movie. The 'professionial' critics really missed the point on this one.

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