"Una oscura y poética meditación sobre Inglaterra bajo Thatcher"
En 'The Last of England', los recuerdos, los pensamientos y las fantasías de Derek Jarman son montados en un collage de estilos (crónica cuasi-documental, películas y vídeo), para ventilar su furia hacia la Inglaterra de Thatcher. El uso de imágenes de sueño, superposiciones y de diferentes tonalidades de color expresa el añoro nostálgico del pasado de Jarman. Esta película ha sido comparada con el poético documental de Humphrey Jennings “Escuche a Gran Bretaña” (1941), que da himno a los tiempos de guerra británica.
'The Last of England' es el segundo film estilo inglés diario de Jarman. En Jubilee (1978) presentó una Inglaterra de los 70 transformado por una rebelión punk. 'The Last of England' ofrece una visión apocalíptica de la futura nación como un estado homofóbico, represivo y totalitario. La enfermedad de la nación se refleja en los sombríos paisajes de East London – utilizado contemporáneamente por Stanley Kubrick en 'Full Metal Jacket' (US/UK, 1987) para representar los horrores de la Guerra de Vietnam. La declinación de dicha Inglaterra se manifiesta en las alteraciones físicas y mentales de sus habitantes: un hombre desnudo comiendo y vomitando un coliflor, la primavera inyectándose con heroína…
"…sexo sobre la Unión Jack (bandera británica) y la primavera masturbándose las convenciones sociales…"
Una mano temblorosa del camarógrafo evoca la ansiedad y la paranoia, y la omnipresente melancolía expresada en los extractos de los poemas de T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men y Howl de Allen Ginsberg, entonado monótonamente por el narrador Nigel Terry. La sensación del desplazamiento y la confusión es transmitida por una edición rápida y con ángulos inusuales de cámara. Una inquietante yuxtaposición de imágenes y sonidos nos recuerda a Dante's Inferno: un baile macabra de fogata es entrecortada con imágenes dramáticas. Esas imágenes son contrapunteadas por las sonatas de violín de Bach y música disco de los 80. Los cráneos, el fuego y las cenizas encarnan la muerte y la destrucción, mientras que las escenas de sexo en la bandera británica y la primavera masturbándose en las convenciones sociales nos sugiere un país en estado de caos y sórdida decadencia.
"A través de las lágrimas del arco iris ella ve un resplandor más brillante"
Esta representación es más poética que realista, la que Jarman mismo consideró como la pérdida de la cultura tradicional inglesa de los 80. Es nombrado en honor a una pintura de un artista Pre-Rafaelista, Ford Madox Brown. Al igual que otros de la misma tendencia, Brown escribió un soneto para exaltar su pintura: señala cómo la pareja fue obligado a escuchar "Low ribaldry from sots, and share tough cheer / With rudely-nurtur'd men, ... [nevertheless] "She grips his listless hand and clasps her child, / Through rainbow tears she sees a sunnier gleam, / She cannot see a void where he will be". En su poética e hipnótica pintura nos permite contemplar más aún las conexiones con imágenes de la película de Jarman.
"baila en la playa, llorando su vestido de novia aparte . ."
La impresionante secuencia final muestra una novia llorando por su marido ejecutado. Ella baila en una playa, llora con su vestido de novia, envuelta en las fuerzas creativas y destructivas del agua y del fuego, que prevalecen en la película. En el última toma, ella sale de la enfermiza tierra en barco - una escena de la pintura de Ford Madox Brown. Profundamente influido por las pinturas de Goya, la grotesca alegoría de la Italia de Mussolini de Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italia/Francia, 1975). The Last of England llora por la pérdida de la juventud y la esperanza que conduce a una sociedad más enferma y cruel. La película desvanece con una nueva apertura, como si estuviera exhortándonos a ser más conscientes, a ser más fuertes, y nos alientan a entrar valientemente en la oscuridad del mar, aún teniendo solamente una bengala de iluminación. Esa es la esencia desafiante de la humanidad de Jarman. Pese a los constantes rechazos de la corriente principal, Jarman estuvo aquí, en el tope de sus facultades creadoras.
Jarman escribió un libro para acompañar la película, que trata más explícitamente la relación que tuvo con su padre, quien fue en sus tiempos un piloto bombero Lancaster en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Jarman usó el impacto de la desesperación de su padre, la depresión y la violencia para su propia visión artística. La depresión que su padre sufrió es atribuido al alto número de fatalidades experimentados por su tripulación y las atrocidades de los bombardeos civiles. La película es también un medio para explorar su visión en la disolución del tradicional vida inglesa previa a la guerra. (Véase su anterior película 'Jubilee' para contextualizar con el movimiento punk de 1977). El libro y, en menor medida de la película están muy relacionada con la cámara de Roland Barthes Lucida, Susan Sontag y Jeanette Winterson, y en menor grado las maneras de ver de John Berger, que utiliza como un vehículo para el diálogo sobre el arte contemporáneo. Derel Jarman recibió el premio Teddy Award de 1988 en Berlín por “Last of England”.
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La película más aclamada de Derek Jarman es un intoxicante retrato de amor.
Jarman mismo describió "La Conversación Angelical" como: "mi más sobrio trabajo, pero también el más cercanos a mi corazón, a un mundo ideal, a un mundo mágico y de rituales, y con todo eso, imágenes de coches ardiendo y sistemas de radar, que te hacen recordar que hay un precio que pagar para ganarse ese sueño frente a un mundo de violencia."
Intenso, ensoñador y poético, "La Conversación ANgelical" es una de las películas más artística de Derek Jarman y es su cuarta obra. Es casi más un objeto estético que una película. Con su ojo de pintor, Jarman invocó, en una hermosa paleta de luz, color y textura, una visualización evocadora y radical de los poemas del amor de Shakespeare.
El director basó la inspiración pasando imágenes stop-printed Super-8 al formato de 35 mm resaltando asi el grado de aspereza exagerada de dos jovenes hermosos que suben rocas, arrastran cargas y nadan, haciéndolos casi abstractos los 154 sonetos escritos por Shakespeare.
La Mayoría de estos sonetos fueron escritas a un hombre joven innomado, referido comúnmente como la juventud justa.
El ajuste de Jarman para los catorce sonetos de Shakespeare no es ninguna narrativa como tal, y el único diálogo que hay es la de la emotiva lectura de los sonetos por Judi Dench al son de las etéreas secuencias de los jovenes en las costas, por las olas y en los jardines coloridos que nos hiptonizan hermosamente.
La interrupción de estas escenas mágicas con imágenes de panoramas estériles y amenazantes hace eco perfectamente la celebración y el tormento del amor explorados en los sonetos. Sus cuadros de cuevas, rocas, agua y figuras texturizadas en un paisaje extraño y terrible devuelve esas similitudes pictóricas: La menor pesadilla religiosa de un Bosch o Brueghel. Indiscutiblemente una romántica y bien pulida obra del retrato del amor de Derek Jarman que no podemos dejar de deleitar.
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"Sex, drugs & punk rock. Add violence & time travel & you have . . . . Jubilee"
Derek Jarman's 'Jubilee' (1978) is a wildly beautiful film which strikes a precarious, and compelling, balance between sheer anarchy and genuine tenderness. Jubilee begins when Queen Elizabeth I (played with quiet power by Jenny Runacre, who also portrays Bod) has her court alchemist, the historical John Dee, summon Ariel. The sloe-eyed spirit with huge hands (whom Jarman describes as having "a glitter punk scintilla") transports all of them 400 years into the future – just beyond our own time – to a dystopic London, which has become a literal wasteland, overrun with violence and decay.
Let Jarman summarize Jubilee for you in his own words: "Law and order has finally been abolished and do-your-own-thing is the order of the day. The church is a strip club [and Buckingham Palace a recording studio].... Open war between all factions of society. A gang of bike girls centered at H.Q. in Southwark, rape and kill all adversaries, led by the Queen of Punk, Bod [Bodicea].... The music of groups like The Slits, Sex Pistols plays incessantly to rapturous reception. The film is anarchic and very beautiful." "Leave the guy alone, he's better than a vibrator and he's bigger" The film has misleadingly been called a "Punk movie." It is much more than that, although the then-nascent movement informs the film in many ways, from music to casting to tone. Punk's heyday was 1975–80, with its two key albums – The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks and The Clash's The Clash – both appearing in 1977, the year Jubilee was filmed (coinciding with Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee). Punk provided a clarion voice for alienated teenagers in its mix of hard-driving rock, socially aware but simple lyrics – that crystallized the mood of anger, powerlessness, and rebellion in the face of a severe economic recession – and a confrontational style which extended from the songs to the fashions of its devotees. 'Jubilee' provides a virtual catalog of the Punk Look, from Mad's (Toyah Willcox in a stunning performance) close-cropped hair dyed Day-Glo orange to angsty graffiti which covers almost every wall to the scrawled quotation from 'Psycho' which ends "...wouldn't even harm a fly" which fills the back of the jackets worn by the female biker gang. You may recall Hitchcock's final scene, when the strait-jacketed Norman Bates, "possessed" by his dead mother, tells us how harmless he now is, yeah, right. Even a small detail like this resonates, since the tangled connection between gender identity and violence is one of Jarman's key themes. "Most people would hang up the phone, she's hanging on for dear life." Jarman's brilliance as an artist allows him to meld all of these eclectic sources, and more (including his two wildly diverse stated sources: Punk fan magazines of the day and Frances A. Yates's The Art of Memory (1966), a classic study of how people learned to retain vast stores of knowledge before the invention of the printed page), into a film of consummate originality and power. He also brings beauty and emotional resonance to the film through his characters. He creates a resonance with these eccentric, and sometimes lethal, allegorical people. Jarman is well-known for including friends and lovers in his films. Not only does this provide a cost-effective approach to casting, it also brings a deeply personal connection to his films. Jarman not only published his autobiography in book form, throughout his life he also shot hundreds of hours of Super 8 footage. Some of those "home movies" found their way into his feature films, including the surreal "Jordan's Dance" and Jarman also re-edited and incorporated into Jubilee "Amyl's Dance,".
"I just love a man without its uniform."
Despite its Punk trappings, ultimately the film seems more about Punk than of it. How Jarman uses then-rising star Adam Ant reveals much about the film and filmmaker. When Crabs meets, and instantly tries to pick up, Kid (Adam Ant's character), she coos that he is "gorgeous." With his sweetly boyish persona – made just a bit wild by the black leather and painted-on lower sideburns – it is no wonder that Jarman, as reported by a friend on the DVD's documentary, fell "madly in love with him." But how Jarman uses Kid in the film may reveal at least as much about his sociopolitical insights as his romantic frustration. When Kid is asked what he does, he replies, "Nothing... Music." And throughout he is as passive offstage as he is frenzied onstage. His performance with his group, Adam and the Ants, is one of only two or three full musical numbers in the film; and it strikingly reveals Jarman's gifts as one of the originators of music videos.
But Kid is unable to connect with anyone, including Crabs. He seems content to lie on his stomach while Crabs pulls his t-shirt up and strokes his back, and that only because she has promised to introduce him to Borgia Ginz (played by "Orlando," aka Jack Birkett), the mogul who controls the entire world's media and hence political, and even religious, power structure. (Ginz shares a palatial mansion in Dorset with an aged Adolf Hitler.) Ginz is, of course, taken with Kid and signs him, immediately rechristening him "Scum." Claiming that's commercial. It's all they [the audience] deserve."
"It's like pornography; better than the real thing."
In the "triangle" between the two teasingly incestuous brothers, Sphinx and Angel (who utters the classic line, "I didn't know I was dead till I was fifteen."), and the artist Viv there was real connection and tenderness between all three of them, despite what many people would consider the highly "problematic" nature of their relationship. The brothers read as a gay couple and Jarman describes Viv as a "butch dyke." Yet they go to bed together; although the morning after Sphinx and Angel again seem more interested in each other than in Viv. What makes their relationship so poignant is that Jarman then goes on to show us their day together, which is the most genial sequence in the film. They also introduce us to the most hilarious character, Max – the Bingo king and former pimp, who now has a huge garden entirely of artificial flowers. (Max is played to the hilt by Neil Kennedy, who was a comparable character with the same name in Jarman's previous film, 'Sebastiane'.) You will not soon forget what happens when Max, horrified, spots a caterpillar on one of his plastic plants.
"Scum. That's commercial. It's all they [the audience] deserve."
Perhaps the most haunting, and disturbing, image of Kid is the close-up of Kid kissing his own image on TV and a moment later, he licks the screen lasciviously with his tongue, giving a decidedly postmodern twist to the myth of Narcissus. And on still another level, Jarman was showing his foresight into Punk's future. Just a few years after the release of Jubilee, as the filmmaker wrote in his memoir Dancing Ledge, "the film turned prophetic.... the streets burned in Brixton and Tosteth. Adam [Ant] was on Top of the Pops and signed up with Margaret Thatcher to sing at the Falklands Ball." Jarman concluded the passage by repeating the chilling words he gave Borgia Ginz at the end of 'Jubilee': "They all sign up in one way or another." " . . and cries and cries, clutching herself, rolling . . " The film's most overwhelming moment comes from an unlikely source: Mad. At one point, she and Amyl go off on a vendetta against two of the fascistic police officers. They find one, alone, taking a pee. Mad whips out her knife, as she and Amyl jump him, wrestle him to the ground, kicking and screaming. Then Mad, in a frenzy, castrates him. Although this is not Jubilee's only scene of "ultra violence," the result is unprecedented. Mad breaks down – the only time any character does this in the film – and cries and cries, clutching herself, rolling. Shockingly, this moment feels absolutely real. Significantly for the film, as actress Toyah Willcox (Mad) notes in the documentary on the DVD, Jarman shot a huge amount of film for this project. But this was the only instance where he included the "extended" footage. By implication, Jarman forces us to confront the full human toll taken by life in a completely anarchic world, without any order or social restraint. Although much of the film has depicted an ebullient, even enticing, picture of life in this near-future wasteland, this scene stops us cold. It forces us to reconsider the price of absolute "freedom" – and the deeply complex connections between anarchy and beauty – even as it humanizes the most dehumanized character in the film. It's an extraordinary, raw, literally visceral scene, and one which most will not soon forget.
No one can live in such a world, even in its ultimately commercialized form as 1970s Punk, with mass-produced albums and Punk boutiques. But Jarman ends his film on a much more subtly problematic note. In a hauntingly beautiful coda, we see our Elizabethan time travelers back in their own "Golden Age," as they walk along a placidly beautiful sea coast. But Elizabeth longs for a still earlier, and more pure, time, when she asks, "Oh, John Dee, do you remember those days? The whispered secrets at Oxford, like the sweet sea breeze? Codes and counter-codes." The 'doubleness' of her "codes" remark reminds us of the complexity of her reign: Does Jarman expect us not to know about the Machiavellian (or Borgian) intrigues, and murders, which marked the historical Elizabeth's court? As Mad remarks near the film's beginning, "There are no heroes." – yet Jarman acknowledges how we long for them, for a leader like Elizabeth, whom he describes (in his notes on Jubilee) as "The Virgin Queen, distant yet sympathetic, the paradigm of royalty." And what about John Dee, with his multiple nature, as another possible "hero"? He was a man half in the superstitious past (as an alchemist and magician) and half in the modern world (as one of the first scientists). The film nicely, and again - ironically, circles in on itself. Happiness is swept away with hope to be replaced by despair, all at the doing of the punks who are only acting out of what they feel is justice. Self destruction reigns supreme. Again, Jarman gives us no clear, or simple guides for our own lives. ~ J. Clark FILM INFORMATION: 'Jubilee'
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" . . at once spiritual, sadomasochistic, homoerotic, and heartrendingly tender . . "
Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress created a remarkably authentic historical film, and a landmark of gay cinema, about the martyred fourth century Roman soldier, who was later both canonized as Saint Sebastian and revered as an enduring gay icon. The film strikingly balances a cinéma vérité depiction of the everyday life of common soldiers, in a remote desert outpost of the Roman Empire, and a visionary exploration of one man's defiant growth in faith, even as it subtly questions the nature of that experience.
Sebastiane works brilliantly on many levels – cinematic, psychological, spiritual, aesthetic, even political – but what may strike you first is the vividness of the ancient world it depicts, captured with an authenticity matched by few films.
From stills, you might think that Sebastiane's cast was chosen for their sculpted bodies. But each of these actors, even those in supporting roles, fully inhabits their characters and brings them to life. Leonardo Treviglio (seen most recently in Julie Taymor's 1999 film, Titus) gives an intensely restrained, brilliantly nuanced performance in the title role. Neil Kennedy as Max (a year later he played another memorable character with that same name in Jarman's Jubilee) brings a twisted comic energy to his role as the troublemaker extraordinaire. And Barney James, whose only other film role was as the policeman in Jubilee, creates a genuinely complex antagonist in his Captain Severus, smitten with Sebastian and torn between lust, duty, and love.
Shot on location in Sardinia, every well-worn costume and dusty prop seems genuine. The dialogue is in the rough "street Latin" of its day (with English subtitles), but rather than feeling gimmicky it helps capture the texture of these nine banished soldiers' daily life. Its realism is in striking contrast to big-budget "sword and sandal" epics, from the Silent Era to the recent Gladiator, which always look too manufactured. In fact, its stylistic roots are more in the hyper-real mythic films of Pasolini, like Oedipus Rex and Medea.
" . .a society where gay and bisexual people were part of the accepted norm . ."
These nine exiled soldiers speak the earthy "dog Latin" of that time with total believability (there are English subtitles; classics scholar Jack Welch translated Jarman and Humfress's original script). Rather than a gimmick, this ancient "street talk" helps capture the texture of their rough daily life in some godforsaken outpost of the Empire. We see just the kind of loose camaraderie you would expect under the circumstances – merciless ribbing of each other, some literally painful practical jokes, constant questioning of each other's manhood (although somewhat different from today, since this was historically a society where gay and bisexual people were part of the accepted norm), flaring tempers; yet all is forgiven by the next day. This constant roughhousing gives the film not only verisimilitude, but energy and unpretentiousness.
That latter quality is especially important, because Jarman and Humfress deal with some dauntingly complex themes, as important now as seventeen hundred years ago, including the meaning of spirituality, the place of sexuality in life, and the contradictory nature of reality. The film's wild streak of humor, and its sometimes breathtaking visual design, help keep this profoundly serious work from overdosing on what some people call "heaviosity."
The thematic core, as expected in a work about a man on the road to sainthood, is spirituality; and few films, including self-styled "religious movies," let one feel so deeply the growing importance of faith to an individual. Even some of the translated dialogue is beautiful, as when Sebastian, gazing at his and the sky's reflection in a pool of water, says that divinity is "That beauty that made all colors different.... The heavens and earth are united in gold." But while that vision of faith is powerful, it also has many layers, some of which are provocatively ambiguous. For some viewers, a central question will be: Is Sebastian a true Christian or is he a syncretist grafting his personal version of the new religion onto much older, Greco-Roman roots? The film offers different possible answers, not as a dodge, but because the film realizes how multi-faceted religious experience is, growing out of social, personal and spiritual contexts.
"I love him. He is beautiful. More beautiful than Adonis"
The film shows us Sebastian becoming ever more removed from his fellow soldiers, an outsider among outsiders, as he feels himself drawn closer to his deity. While Sebastian is being tortured (the first time) for his intransigence – stripped and staked to the ground – he talks with the sweet-natured Justin (Richard Warwick, who was Antonio in Jarman's The Tempest), who is in love with him (perhaps more for his beauty than his faith). At the climax of this scene, Sebastian cries out, referring to the personification of his growing spirituality, "I love him. He is beautiful. More beautiful than Adonis." The subtext – at once spiritual, sadomasochistic, homoerotic, and heartrendingly tender – is made apparent when Sebastian, oblivious to Justin's feelings, says, "He takes me in his arms and caresses my bleeding body." When Justin shields Sebastian from the sun, he jerks his head away; for Sebastian, only God can give him solace.
The full nature of Sebastian's ecstatic faith is subtly questioned. In his delirium, he has mistaken the character referred to in the credits as the Leopard Boy, presumably a member of a local tribe, for a manifestation of a god or God. Since we see the Leopard Boy before Sebastian does – soon after the latter's arrival in this remote outpost – it is assumed that he is a real character and neither a figment of Sebastian's imagination nor a literalistic manifestation of deity. So, does this self-delusion lessen the importance of Sebastian's growing faith?
One of the most remarkable aspects of the film is that it can be seen as either spiritual or secular; perhaps its deep strain of humanism is the common link. Sebastiane is spiritual in that we feel the deep importance of faith to Sebastian, more so than in most self-styled religious movies. But this film also offers a rational, secular reason for that – Sebastian's world is harsh (betrayed by his beloved Diocletian) and his life is hard (he lives in a literal and metaphorical wasteland); it also shows Sebastian's confusion (misinterpreting the Leopard Boy as a deity, not to mention one which may be simultaneously, to him, Greco-Roman and/or Christian). Whether or not Sebastian's faith is based on layers of confusion, we can fully understand why it is so essential, and nourishing, to him under the circumstances of his life.
On the other hand, if Sebastiane is seen as a straightforwardly spiritual film – and some people consider it so – then there are few other pictures which depict, in such profoundly real and moving terms, the slow but unshakeable process of one person embracing a faith fully, to the extent that he would sacrifice his life for its principles. When Sebastian, a former commander to the emperor, early on refuses to engage in mock combat because, as he says in all sincerity, "Christians don't fight," we know that he is paving the way for his own destruction, which the film depicts step by inexorable step.
Aesthetically Sebastiane is an extremely well-made film – dramatically, visually, and musically – despite its constricted budget. The screenplay is deftly structured, with each scene finding the right length to delineate its characters and expose the necessary information. This film knows how to balance its oppositions, both dramatic, from soldierly raunch to spiritual awakening and visual, finding beauty in the mysterious depths of water and the serenity of the fatal desert.
The cinematography by Peter Middleton (who also shot Jarman's next two films) is exceptional, especially considering that these powerful images were originally shot in 16mm (before being blown up to 35mm for theatrical release). The editing by co-writer/director Paul Humfress is crisp. And Brian Eno's superb minimalist score (his first work for film) provides both haunting atmosphere and, in its electronic modernness, just a bit of distance from the realism of the ancient setting.
"That beauty that made all colors different.... The heavens and earth are united in gold."
There is also beauty in the English of Jarman and Humfress' subtitles. In radiant contrast to the soldiers' tart slang is Sebastian's mystically beautiful hymns of praise to his deity and its world. "That beauty that made all colors different.... The heavens and earth are united in gold." Sebastiane achieves genuine cinematic poetry, uniting word, image, and sound, which adds not only another rich texture to a many-layered film, but still more depth to Sebastian's evolving character.
This film is no mere exercise in historical recreation. It is a work of flesh and blood, which in its depiction of the collision course of Sebastian's religious fervor and Severus's uncontrollable desire cuts through the disastrously tangled knot of desire and power. Here, the theme is explored from the dual perspective of spirituality and gay life.
Paradoxically, much of the film's power as a specifically gay-themed work comes from the fact that the homoeroticism is not only unselfconscious but in the background. It is just another aspect of these men's lives, and one which their larger society takes for granted. They reveal, through their jibes, that a man may just as likely be attracted to a woman as to another man. This is a place where guys can taunt each other about their interest in both Vestal Virgins and popular female whores and equally, about their interest in members of the same sex. This is still one of the only films to present a world which is both credible and completely accepting of same-sex relationships; where sexual orientation is a non-issue. That vision must have been extraordinarily gratifying to gay audiences a mere quarter of a century ago (which also explains Sebastiane's great success at the box office, which surprised many people), at a time when movies and books offered only the most hopeless depiction of trapped, doomed homosexual existence (which, on one level, the Sebastian/Severus plot strand reflects).
Sebastiane also contains some of the most genuinely tender and loving moments of any gay-themed film up to that time, especially in the budding relationship of the minor characters Adrian, whom the other men tease about being a virgin, and Anthony. Their scene together in the water, shot in slow motion, may look like some soft-core fantasy – with the camera lingering over almost every inch of their sculpted bodies – but the emotional connection between them seems every bit as real as their physical desire. Early in the film there is a comparably overt scene, consisting of Sebastian pouring water over his nude body and rubbing himself clean. What makes these scenes of central importance is that they highlight one of the film's most interesting layers. They are both clearly from the point of view of Severus, the repressed but passionate captain of these outcast soldiers. In other words, these sensual, beautiful and moving images are all from the antagonist's point of view.
But then, Severus is much more than a traditional villain. In a comparable story of this type he would be the closeted 'homosexual heavy,' like the diabolical Claggart in Melville's 1891 final novella, Billy Budd, or the officer in Carson McCullers' 1941 novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye. Severus is more complex than that, both psychologically and in his key role in the narrative structure. Severus has such resonance because of the depth of Jarman and Humfress's film making, as well as Barney James engrossing performance in the roll.
"Sebastiane, love me."
Severus seems to be equally divided between raw lust and genuine love for Sebastian. But Sebastian is no simple martyr in this film. He is portrayed simultaneously as a young man with the beauty of a Greek god but with the fierce piety of a saint-in-training, yet one who is not adverse to teasingly close physical contact with his friend Justin. And it is all too clear how he contributes to the monumental frustration of Severus, which ultimately leads to the visceral climax. Before that, and the final seduction attempt by Severus, there is an intimate moment with him. This scene, with Severus drunk, alone in his narrow quarters and going mad with desire for Sebastian, is so powerful in part because the voyeuristic interest in his "private life" is being fulfilled. Even more, Jarman and Humfress provide a fascinating, subtle visual gloss on the action and emotion. They shoot the scene from overhead – perhaps from the ironic perspective of, say, a low-flying god – which makes the claustrophobia of Severus's space, and life, all the more vivid. You can see the duality of Severus which stands at the center of a film filled with dualities yoked together in the climactic rape scene with Sebastian where Sebastian is dark, even a bit menacing, with the underlighting and the "devilish" beard; while Severus – hair ringed with golden light – looks like a Renaissance image of a Greek god, Apollo or Adonis, the very deities which not-quite-fully-Christian Sebastian longed for. The complex and contradictory role of Severus becomes even more intriguing when you realize that he implicates the viewer in his voyeuristic and disturbing, yet undeniably beautiful, gazing at radiant young men.
Perhaps an even more subtle influence on the film's tone is its rich connections to art, as well as gay, history. Jarman, of course, was already both an acclaimed painter and impassioned gay rights advocate before becoming a filmmaker. Historically, Saint Sebastian with his muscular physique, tied to a pillar, drilled with arrows, the embodiment of intense but safely-bound desire and soulful eyes, became not only one of the most frequently-painted subjects in Renaissance art but an enduring, albeit sadomasochistic, gay icon.
Saint Sebastian has had a revival in the time of AIDS, perhaps because of his dual role as icon of tortured male beauty and as the patron saint of – even more than soldiers, athletes, and archers – sufferers of the plague.
Jarman and Humfress's visionary film is a fascinating, aesthetically and emotionally complex addition to the long tradition of works about Saint Sebastian. For some, its matter-of-fact depiction of a world, although ancient, free of homophobia is compelling. ~ (excerpted review) J. Clark
"Sebastian. Renaissance. Pretty boy smiles through the arrows on a thousand altar pieces - plague. Saint. Captain of Diocletian's guard. Converted, stoned, and thrown into the sewers. Rescued by a Holy Woman. Androgyne icon banned by the bishop of Paris. Danced by Ida Rubenstein. Impersonated by Mishima. In love with his martyrdom.February 1975, Sloane Square; James wants an oil and vanilla film full of Steve Reeves muscle men working out in locker rooms. Paul Humfress, who is to edit, wants a very serious art film, slow and ponderous. I want a poetic film full of mystery. The debate rages as I write, and the script is caught in a tug-of-war between the grey mirrors of Sloane Square." ~ Derek Jarman - from his book -'Dancing Ledge' "The compensation for making Sebastiane for £30,000 or Edward II for £800,000 is that I can be certain that these films, which are now involved in a struggle, will be shown thirty or forty years from now." ~ Derek Jarman - excerpt from his book -'Dancing Ledge'
Method 1.) File Self Extraction. (For PC) Download files into the same folder. then click on the 'xxxx.part01.exe' file and the film will self extract. (For Mac) You will need a Command Line Archiver like Rar for Mac OS X'
"All art is against lived expression. How can you compare flesh and blood against pigment?!!....I have trapped pure spirit in matter!"
Rarely would 5 stars not be sufficient to express the magnitude of greatness in a film, but Derek Jarman's 'CARAVAGGIO', the director's homage to the late Baroque painter, his life, his view of art, his sexuality and his struggle with life versus art, staggers the mind with the intense detail and love with which Jarman treats this fascinating and tortured artist. The film's director and the film's subject is best summed up in Caravaggio's quote while painting; "All art is against lived expression. How can you compare flesh and blood against pigment?!!....I have trapped pure spirit in matter!" This was the creed and the mission, almost Holy Grail of Caravaggio, as well as the late Jarman himself ; to take life and mimic art, and to make art mimic life!
Writer/director Derek Jarman and Italian masterpiece artist Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) cannot and will not be separated in this film. The director and the artist are soul mates in life and art, 400 years apart in time, but indelibly linked in common purpose in life and purpose. Jarman, always the provocateur in film sees Caravaggio the same as himself; struggling against all convention, religion, and social norm to capture the human spirit on canvas and on film. Jarman honors Caravaggio's famous figures that illuminate out of the blackened background of the canvas rendering all of the film's scenes in that same spirit. Actors Nigel Terry, as Caravaggio; Tilda Swinton as Lena the prostitute; Sean Bean as the street trade object of desire Ranuccio Tomassoni; Michael Gough as the pederast Cardinal Del Monte; and Spencer Leigh as the deaf mute who is Caravaggio's lifelong apprentice Jerusalame are all realistically portrayed as the true humans they were in forming Caravaggio's stable of models, friends, rivals, tutors, admirers and jealous lovers, all of which were the real life people who were the John the Baptists, Baachus' and Virgin Mary's of his 50 great masterpieces. Jarman frames each scene as Caravaggio would have seen it; he shows us how the artist saw the human life as it was and painted it into The Divine. This, of course, was a prevailing criticism of the time placed upon Caravaggio's work; he used live models, not pictures, to portray what he was to put to canvas. This upset many other artisrs, and infuriated the Church, though secretly Cardinals and Popes commissioned his work as "intimate chamber pieces known for their homoerotic ambience" but hid them behind curtains in the Salon!) Derek Jarman Derek Jarman makes no apology for his open homosexuality, as Caravaggio made no apology for his work and fascination with the male form. Therefore, this film has a strong emotional connection between the filmmaker and the painter; the two understand one another deeply and Nigel Terry, as Caravaggio, is overwhelmingly the artist on screen. The subject of pederasty, older male taking under wing the younger male (which was quite common in the day- not just simply apprenticeship) is openly examined in 'CARAVAGGIO', relationships not only tutorial in the mind, but educational of the body also.
There are many levels on which this film can be viewed. Jarman, undoubtedly intends it to be that way; 'CARAVAGGIO' is about art and the artist, but it is also about human desire, passion in life, and passion in Art.
One viewing of a Jarman film is NEVER sufficient. To see it as pornography (as some are wont to do) does no credit to the filmmaker or the 17th -century genius who gave us paintings such as "Death of the Virgin", "The Incredulity of Thomas", "The Cardsharps","The Calling of St. Matthew", "Amor Vincit Omnia","Boy With a Basket of Fruit", "Young Sick Baachus" as well as "The Entombment of Christ." Jarman cleverly and with awe and reverence "stages" all of these paintings with great precision within his film. Even the famous "The Calling of St. Matthew" is hilariously framed as a sniping news critic types his critique of Caravaggio in a bathtub with the famous "ray of light", that is in the painting, streaming through a window upon the man! Such is the imaginative Jarman, who never shies away from shocking images that to some seem senseless.
Caravaggio the artist, who was sexually open with both men and women, who was put into exile, who needed a papal pardon, who painted life as he saw it, who was constantly arrested for brawling and who died under mysterious and controversial circumstances and whose life has been biographied countless times by "experts" who vehemently disagree about him!
Jarman is not just wanting us to see Caravaggio as a historical figure, but is interested in painting a canvas of the celebration and hardships of humanity on film. ~ Kerrlines "CARAVAGGIO' features wonderful performances from Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, and in her first role, Tilda Swinton, who was to become Jarman's muse and long time collaborator. A visual treat, it was the first major film production for award winning costume designer Sandy Powell, with luscious production design by Christopher Hobbs.
Method 1.) File Self Extraction. (For PC) Download files into the same folder. then click on the 'xxxx.part01.exe' file and the film will self extract. (For Mac) You will need a Command Line Archiver like Rar for Mac OS X'
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