Dorian Gray

When I came across Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, I couldn’t stop myself from manifesting the impact this book had on me into a film; therefore, I directed, acted in, and wrote an adapted script of the story. I painted two self-portraits: one of a pure, ingenuous, youthful Dorian Gray, and the other of a corrupt, nearly zombified Dorian. Despite its 1800s' time stamp, the themes of age, time, gender, sexuality, and self image are as prominent in today's culture as always. The film starts out with Dorian's portrait being painted. As the devious Lord Henry infects Dorian with the fear of aging, the young girl's soul is captured in the pigment of the paint. Dorian soon finds a love interest, the actress Sybil Vane. Yet she does not love her for herself, but for her art. When Sybil embarasses Dorian in front of her friends, Dorian accepts her own heartlessness and verbally attacks Sybil. Despite the warnings of her corruption, Dorian lives fifteen unageing years in sin, as the portrait grows progressively more and more zombified. Dorian learns, albeit, too late, that her pleasures have been ephemeral, and have only led to a tortuous secret.