FRANCES LOVES OSCAR WILDE
Frances (centre, light blue dress) studied painting at the Académie Julian in Paris, where women were allowed to enroll (unlike the École des Beaux-Arts). Image credit: Maria Konstantinowna Bashkirtseff (1858-1884), In the Studio [at the Academie Julien in Paris]. 1881, oil on canvas, 60 5/8 × 73 1/4 in. Dnipropetrovsk State Art Museum, Dnipro, Ukraine
It all started when…
While on a book tour across North America, Oscar Wilde meets Frances Elwood-Richards, Canadian artist, early feminist and the favoured daughter of an upper class family. Oscar and Frances have a have a brief, torrid affair. She breaks off her engagement with her fiancé, a respectable and well-connected but dreary lawyer, to chase Wilde across Paris and London, having fallen madly in love with him. Their relationship burns bright then fades, again and again. She is devastated when he marries another woman but proves to be a stalwart friend when he faces criminal charges as a result of his homosexuality.
Long-listed by the National Screen Institute's Features First program
Short-listed by the Harold Greenberg Script Development Program. They write: "In Victorian Canada, an artist tenaciously loves Oscar Wilde, enduring his marriage to another woman and then coping with his emerging homosexual lifestyle, until she is forced to change to realize what true happiness really is. Phenomenal character development with exposition well disguised in the dialogue, the script's pacing is steady, well orchestrated and crafted. This important, little-known Canadian artist's story would be a perfect fit for a CBC/BBC movie or mini-series."
Scriptwriter York Davis is a lifelong performer. He sings, acts, and writes for stage and screen. His script, Frances Loves Oscar Wilde, was optioned by Pelee Entertainment and is winning kudos in many places. It's entertaining, and shines a light on an important but little-known Canadian artist and provides a new and engaging perspective on one of literature's greatest, and most misunderstood, heroes. The script was shortlisted by the Harold Greenberg Script Fund in 2017 and, as a result, York will be attending the Toronto Screenwriters Conference.