Oscar Wilde's "De Profundis" by Rupert Everett 30 Nov 2011 Père Lachaise

Rupert Everett reads from "De Profundis" at the ceremony for Oscar Wilde's renovated tomb statue - a (n improvised) film by Seamas McSwiney - on Lumix TZ7 pocket camera using inbuilt mike. Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris Nov 30th 2011. De Profundis (Latin: "from the depths") is an epistle written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to Lord Alfred Douglas. During its first half Wilde recounts their previous relationship and extravagant lifestyle which eventually led to Wilde's conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency. He indicts both Lord Alfred's vanity and his own weakness in acceding to those wishes. In the second half, Wilde charts his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ, whom he characterises as a romantic, individualist artist. Wilde wrote the letter between January and March 1897, close to the end of his imprisonment. Contact had lapsed between Douglas and Wilde and the latter had suffered from his physical labour and emotional isolation; a new warden thought that writing might be more cathartic than prison labour. Wilde's work was closely supervised and he was not allowed to send the letter, but took it with him upon release, whereupon he entrusted the manuscript to Robert Ross, with instructions to have two copies made: one to be sent to the author himself and the other to Douglas. Ross published the letter in 1905, five years after Wilde's death, giving it the title "De Profundis" from Psalm 130. It was an incomplete version, excised of its autobiographical elements; various editions gave more text until 1962 when the complete and correct version appeared in a volume of Wilde's letters. (from wikipedia; more info on: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Profundis_%28letter%29 and complete text at: fullbooks.com/De-Profundis.html ) A film by Séamas McSwiney. Shot with a Lumix TZ7 pocket camera using inbuilt microphone.