The Happy Prince is a film directed by and starring Rupert Everett, focusing on the figure of Oscar Wilde.The film describes the last days of the writer's life. After a period of literary and theatrical successes, Oscar Wilde falls into disgrace. Tried for homosexuality and sentenced to two years of hard labor, he retires to a boarding house in Paris. Here he spends his days in misery and illness, recalling his life, his passions, his relationship with Lord Douglas and his relationship with his wife Constance. During his last days, he has a meeting with two young Parisian boys and tells them the fairy tale of "The Happy Prince". The story is about a statue that allows a swallow to deprive it of its gold to help the poor. In the film, it becomes a metaphor for the discovery of love as the only form of worship.

Plate illustrating the story "The Happy Prince" in Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Tales (Wikimedia Commons)

(Images: IMDB, IMDB)