The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde's
The Importance of Being Earnest

Last Updated:   November 25, 2006

   DJD with IOBE director, Oliver Parker

Dame Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell
and with director, Oliver Parker

Photo from the inside of the CD Cover

"The Importance of Being Earnest" DVD is now available
for Pre-Order at Amazon.com - scheduled to ship November 12, 2002

From the Reader's Digest -- British Edition -- August 2002 Issue

Oxted's Gala Preview of IOBE -- July 2002

Click on the Photo to go to that page

Note: Look for Finty Williams as the Young Augusta (Lady B)

Dame Judi driving the "Brackmobile" and talking on her cell phone

Release dates:

May 22 (US and Canada)
July 4 (Australia)
August 1 (Russia)
Sept 6 (UK)
Sept 12 (Germany)
Sept 13 (Austria)
Sept 19 (Switzerland)
Dec 18 (France)

Thanks to Karen R.

Miramax's Official Webpage / IMDb Website Information
Karen's Colin Firth Website -- IOBE Section

Read the Reviews at the Rotten Tomatoes Website

Buy the Soundtrack
Amazon.com CD Now (listen to excerpts of each track)

Watch Video Interviews with the Cast (not DJD)
More Cast Interviews

Listen to Colin Firth and Rupert Everett sing "Lady Come Down"
Real Player .ram Streaming Audio Clip (1:53 Minutes)

Film Premiere -- Monday, May 13th -- Paris Theatre, NYC at 7:30 PM

(Dame Judi was not in attendance)

Poster from the Miramax IOBE Webpage

Excerpt from The Hollywood Reporter Article about IOBE ...

... Parker didn't actually begin work on the screenplay until about a year and a half ago. "I spent a few months on the adaptation," he said, "and then decided it was in quite good shape and started to polish it up and talk about actors. Various people were immediately interested in Rupert. I even discussed the idea with him at the press junket for 'Ideal.' He was always interested. He was more interested in (playing) Lady Bracknell, but Judi was there for that one in the end. I'm not joking! He would have been marvelous! He sort of set a good standard for this and for the tone that we were looking for (by) straddling the period and giving it a contemporary feel without blowing its roots.

"Judi was the one I'd always wanted for Bracknell. We had a little bit of a headache trying to fit (it into her schedule). She did so much work. It was at that sad time when her husband had died and she was working on about three pictures at once, I think. But she was pretty determined and the various producers got together and managed to squeeze a few days (from the schedule she'd need to fit into). She had about 13 days to do all her stuff. She came in and it's not one of those parts where you can sort of hang about for a couple of days. You hit the ground and you run, you know. She was amazing. She did 'Earnest' at the National, probably over 10 years ago. Her main concern was that it would be a too theatrical grasp of it, but what appealed to me about her in the first place is that she always brings a very deep humanity to whatever she does. For me, that counters any fear you have of it being theatrical. It's inevitably going to be theatrical in some respects. That's its roots and I don't think you need to shy from it. But, at the same time, the bad side of that coin is often a less rooted emotional characterization. She's incapable of not giving a full-blooded performance, so I never had any fears about that though she (was) a little nervous to start with. But within a few epigrams she was roaring along."

Read the full article at Karen's Colin Firth IOBE Section

From the Photo Gallery

There's that infamous "hand on the knee" ... and now we know what DJD meant by learning Archery