Salome’s Last Dance (1988)

• Year: 1988
• Released: 01 Jun 1988
• Country: United Kingdom, United States
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096029/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/salomes_last_dance
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama
• Runtime: 89 min
• Writer: Oscar Wilde, Vivian Russell, Ken Russell
• Director: Ken Russell
• Cast: Glenda Jackson, Stratford Johns, Nickolas Grace
• Keywords: london, england, brothel, black humor, based on play or musical, victorian england, stage play,

	6.4/10
	33% – Critics
	85% – Audience

Salome’s Last Dance Storyline

Oscar Wilde goes to a performance of his controversial, banned play ‘Salome,’ on Guy Fawkes Day 1892. A bordello’s the theatre and the performers are prostitutes; Wilde’s lover Lord Alfred (Bosie) Douglas is John the Baptist. Wilde’s interactions with some of the cast soon ignite Bosie’s jealousy.—grantss

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Salome’s Last Dance Movie Reviews

Ecstatically beautiful on so many levels

This is a film that operates on so many levels. The framework of the plot is that a group of friends in late 19th century London help Oscar Wilde put on a private performance of his play “Salome,” banned in Britain for its controversial political and sexual themes. We get to watch the interactions of the characters in the play, the interactions of the actors in the play (and offstage), and the interactions of the players with the sole member of the audience (the play’s author). If you loved “Lilies,” you won’t go far wrong with “Salome’s Last Dance” — both feature an immersive blurring between the action in the play and the actors portraying it. Don’t let anyone tell you much more than that about the film, because there are some delicious surprises.

Much better than initially thought

Salome’s Last Dance is one of those films that will fascinate people or repulse them very like director Ken Russell’s directorial style. First viewing I disliked it, seeing it again in a better mood just recently it was much better than remembered, though for me one of Russell’s weaker films. A few things stop it from being a masterpiece. Russell does go overboard with the excess at times- not unusual for Russell- and some of those excessive images are disgustingly ugly, especially with Salome licking saliva off her face. Russell also writes himself in an acting role as a photographer and is rather embarrassingly bad and in a somewhat creepy way. Imogen Millais-Scott I had mixed feelings on, she is gorgeous, seductive and age-appropriate, though with a tendency to mug. Even with the excess, Salome’s Last Dance does maintain the spirit of Oscar Wilde’s play Salome with its beauty and ability to shock. The film is expertly filmed and the production values are a mix of the hypnotisingly beautiful and the decadent, which is hardly inappropriate(Strauss’ opera Salome, which I personally love, has those qualities too). The music is a hodgepodge of classical music, and a wonderful hodgepodge at that, Rimsky-Korsakov and especially Debussy the prime composers and they further add to the beautiful yet shocking atmosphere. They are performed very well and mostly fit within the film. The script is witty and uproarious, Herodias has some truly hilarious lines, and the story is interestingly structured with a good touch of the theatrical and the cinematic. You cannot take your eyes away from the dance scene either. Most of the acting is better than its given credit, Glenda Jackson and Stratford Johns especially. Jackson is a little bizarre but also very regal and authoritative and Johns is suitably wry and mischievous, making a potentially tiresome character interesting. Nickolas Grace is a witty Oscar Wilde and Douglas Hodge a mostly effectively warning John the Baptist though he does over-compensate a bit. Overall, easy to see why people will dislike it, it’s far from perfect but has interest points and entertainment value. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

Rare, Kinky and Cultish: Classic Russell

There is never ending debate over the value of work by directors like Russell. He is almost universally written off by professional critics as a mostly sensationalist, tasteless crackpot who’s real talent is questionable, yet he is passionately defended by other people and this deserves some comment. Russell’s work is often described as “tasteless, vulgar, unrestrained, even misanthropic” and “employing the imagery of sexual excess.” One might make a case for the idea that these adjectives describe many fans of Russell’s work themselves, or at least that they enjoy these themes in film. The latter is admittedly the case of this author, and unlike many people I certainly feel these are often necessary qualities of good art. Many fans of Russell attempt useless claims that his work is really quite tasteful and not offensive or “over the top” at all, but that would be somewhat inaccurate and in this author’s opinion completely missing the point of his work. Compared to normal standards, Russell’s films ARE as many critics claim they are, and they will offend people who for the most part should not waste their time viewing his work, and no, offending people is NOT the point of his films, and yes- many nice, healthy, well adjusted people feel his work is fantastic, ingenious and rewarding. Rather than digress into some probably useless philosophical (or political?) arguments over whom is correct or whom is better qualified to comment, it’s better that the author’s perspective be made clear from the outset. In the end, it might be argued that all ideas about the comparative merits of film or art are pointless, pretentious exercises used to promote arbitrary opinion based on personal taste.

     When I saw this film (on DVD), I was under the impression that it was much older than 1988, for some reason. I have since found nothing online to confirm this, but I will always think of this film as something from the 1970’s that was way ahead of it’s time, and it has that feel to it. It included a copy of the entire film with live commentary by Russell himself that I found as interesting as the film itself. It is a simple, low budget film, almost deliberately retro in style. The work is Russell in a nutshell. What a man can do with a stage, almost no money, a camera, a few extraordinary friends (including a passionate costume designer), a love of irony and a profound sense of visual style. The elements are crude, simplistic devices- annoyingly, even deliberately so, like archetypal metaphors, and the results completely transcend the execution. That crucial departure is where many critics are simply left behind and forced to write off the work as plainly bad, manipulative sensationalism (unlike every Hollywood film? this film is NOT Hollywood in any way). I could not help thinking how easily this film could be adapted into a cultish, kinky and funny stage play.

     Examining the psychology of eroticism is a hallmark of Russell and is put to great use in this film. That is not some simple offensive device used in Russell’s films, it is the whole genius of his work! Sex and eroticism is the driving debacle of social, moral and religious history and deserves a great deal of examination. People have a crying need for Russell’s talent of recontextualizing erotica in order to create self-understanding and inspire it’s positive aspects within themselves. In other words, if one ever happened to fantasize about any of the crude scenarios Russell presents in his films (though no one can admit it), one might then find it incredibly beneficial to see it presented in an intelligent, imaginative way by someone else. If these themes interest you, I recommend the film highly.

     “Salome’s Last Dance” is spectacular only in terms of it’s personalities, in no way is (and does not have to be) one of the “greatest” films, yet it is wondrously rare. It is uniquely stylish, and because of it’s truly low budget and simple execution, I would say (in direct contradiction of many critics) it is amazingly unpretentious and humble, as well as beautiful.