Based on the play Salomé by Oscar Wilde, written in 1891-1892, in turn based on a passage in each of the gospels of Mark and Matthew. Also based on facts of Oscar Wilde's life.
Wilde is spending an evening at a brothel where they are staging his play Salomé. Play's plot: Herod Antipas has imprisoned John the Baptist due to his preachings which reproached his marriage to Herod's brother's former wife Herodias. The latter's daughter Salome desires John and, after having been spurned by him, asks Herod for the prophet's head on a platter in exchange for a dance for the Tetrarch.
The play itself is poor, written in a dull lyrical style. It endows the poor young girl with a malevolence and a concupiscence which is totally absent in the biblical original, in which she is just following her mother's wishes. This cinematic version has beautiful sets and good performances, but its farcical elements are totally at odds with the lyricism of the dialogue -- there is adultery in a wooden crate, three lecherous dwarf scholars, among other vulgarities, and the dance of the seven veils is performed by a male dancer, enigmatically with no attempt to disguise his sex. I haven't read the play, but I presume these elements are the filmmaker's contribution.
Rating: 38
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