Derek Jarman

[sevenarts]

I just watched The Angelic Conversation and I'm eager to talk about Jarman a bit, and realized he didn't have any dedicated thread here. So here it is.

This was the first Jarman film I've seen, and I'll admit I approached it more as a Coil fan than anything else. I've had the wonderful soundtrack for ages, and figured that the new BFI DVD was a perfect opportunity to finally see the film that it came from. And I couldn't be more happy that I did. What a remarkable and hypnotic work. Obviously, the music plays a big role here, and combined with the dreamlike images and Judi Dench's ethereal readings, this becomes very much a form of visual poetry. The elemental forces (especially water and fire) and the jerky slow-motion logic of dreams are combined into a weird synthesis that should be cheesy as hell, but somehow works. The film's narrative-less meditation on love, desire, longing, and fantasy is beautifully achieved, with some gorgeously damaged images slowly unfolding across the screen. There's a scene early on where the wind blows smoke around one of the men, by turns obscuring and then revealing him again. It's all in slow motion, with the characteristic jitteriness of the motion in this film, and the low resolution quality of the images makes it appear like the smoke is slowly eating away at the man's face as he disappears. The constantly wavering flames, dancing a sinuous dance; the fluid sensuousness of water as it gels and flows around the swimming man; the ceremonial intimacy of washing the tattooed man as he sits on a throne. The film is packed with such strange, compelling, and erotically charged imagery, building towards a climax that occurs in a long display of sensual extremes -- the erotic violence of wrestling, the tender kisses of lovers -- and then subsides into bittersweet memory and dreams.

Really a remarkable film, all told. I'm very eager to explore some more Jarman now, especially something in this same abstract, experimental vein. How are his Super-8 shorts? Are the Raro DVDs of those any good?

Anyway, hopefully this will spark some Jarman discussion here.

[Tommaso]

I couldn't agree more with what you say about "The Angelic Conversation". I too came to Jarman first via the Coil/Psychic TV association, though I only relatively late came to watch "Conversation". If you're interested especially in the more non-narrative/experimental variety of his work with music playing an important part, I would suggest you next watch "The Last of England", which is much darker and more complex, but highlights the mystical/alchemical part of his work even more (and the political side of it).

I haven't got the Raro Video compilation, but some of his short films show up on the "Last of England" and "Tempest" dvds from Second Sight as well. They look more like early studies for his more mature work, but especially "The Art of Mirrors" is well worth seeing in its ritual-like, occult imagery. "A Journey to Avebury" is basically a 'landscape'-film, containing very 'still' images of that ancient pagan religious site in England. There was also a Coil soundtrack for that one, which they once hosted as a free download on their site several years ago. The version on the dvd is completely silent, though.

[Zillertal]

what exactly do you mean by 'mature work'? are Jarman's experimental films that 'amateur'? I myself prefer much more his experimental works, although his later films are also nice, in his early experiments he shows great skill and technique to execute his intention, I would without any shadow of doubt place Jarman's earely works together with James Bidgood 'Pink Narcissus'.

[Tommaso]

what exactly do you mean by 'mature work'? are Jarman's experimental films that 'amateur'? I myself prefer much more his experimental works, although his later films are also nice, in his early experiments he shows great skill and technique to execute his intention, I would without any shadow of doubt place Jarman's earely works together with James Bidgood 'Pink Narcissus'.

Well, I haven't seen "Pink Narcissus", so I cannot say how these films are compared to the Bidgood film. I guess with more 'mature' I meant that in his later films there is a far greater complexity in the combination of themes and the use of images and music. I wouldn't say the earlySuper-8 films as far as I have seen them are all 'amateurish', but looking for example at "Sebastiane" (his first feature) I would say that there's a certain lack of 'flow' and visual elegance. He tries to make a sexual/political statement with it, of course, but the same goes for all his later work, too, and there I find it much more encompassing and relevant for viewers who are perhaps not in the position to directly identify with questions of homosexual liberation. Also, later films like "The Angelic Conversation" and especially "The Last of England" and "The Garden" are for me much more experimental and challenging than his earlier films, narrative or non-narrative. And could you really think of something more unusual and daring than "Blue", his very last film?

[David Ehrenstein]

I introduced a screening of Pink Narcissus this past Wednesday here in L.A. and it's clear the it influenced Derek. There's shot of Bobby Kendall playing with the globe that is restaged in The Last of England.

All of Derek's work is experimental, including the films with actual "plots" (Caravaggio, Edward II.) He was about a way of seeing and living.

[Poncho Punch]

David, I noticed you had a quote on the back of the copy of The Last of England that I recently watched. Any advice for understanding this film more fully? I've read the relevant chapters in John Hill's British Cinema in the 1980's as well as Chris Lippard and Guy Johnson's "Private Practice, Public Health: The Politics of Sickness and the Films of Derek Jarman", reprinted in Fires Were Started, but while they put the film in a general context well, I feel they fail to really comment enough on the numerous references and debts owed to outside sources (filmic and otherwise), as well as presenting a clear way of viewing the film. It certainly seems to be more an emotional response to Thatcherite Britain than a structured argument, but he introduces so many elements that would surely have been understood at the time by Jarman's audience, but may be lost on someone like myself, born three years earlier in a different hemisphere.

I introduced a screening of Pink Narcissus this past Wednesday here in L.A. and it's clear the it influenced Derek. There's shot of Bobby Kendall playing with the globe that is restaged in The Last of England.

I didn't realize that this was staged for the film, I just assumed it was one of the sections of found/re-used footage.

[David Ehrenstein]

No, it was all new footage. All of The Last of England is new, save for the home movies fo Derek's childhood. War Requiem has an extensive amount of newsreel footage however.

[Person]

Jeremy Issacs interviewing Jarman in 1993

[bollibasher]

I'm very eager to explore some more Jarman now, especially something in this same abstract, experimental vein. How are his Super-8 shorts? Are the Raro DVDs of those any good?

The super-8 shorts are good, the ones expermienting with mirrors are interesting, especially if you compare them with his use of similar light tricks in Angelic Conversation and Jubilee. I've got one of the two Raro DVDs and it's good, worth it for the compilation film Glitterbug, which is often thought of as a positive visual companion to Blue (NB. Glitterbug is now also available on DVD in the UK for the first time as an extra on the new Artificial Eye DVD release of Blue).

The William Burroughs short is also pretty good - hypnotic and quite funny, it's basically the same short footage of Burroughs and a quote by him about boys running over and over with various different edits.

I don't know about the other Raro DVD but I think it contains a similar selection of shorts to those found as extras on the various other DVDs (Gardens at Luxor? Art of Mirrors?). I've got an idea not all of Jarman's fully edited shorts are available commercially, I was talking to someone at the BFI's 'Derek Jarman's Books' event last year who said the guy who has the copyright to the super 8mm films is notoriously hard to persuade which is why they are only screened very occasionally...

I love Jarman's films, not entirely sure which are my favourites tho. Last of England's pretty amazing (my dream-machine loving flatmate goes mad for that one - though i wish the Second Sight DVD release was anamorphic rather than letterboxed and the cover didn't look like a photocopy!) but I think i prefer The Tempest or The Garden. And the Ariel character in Jubilee - beautiful. Jarman's concept drawing for this character from his workbooks is stunning too, maybe i'll try n upload it later.

xx

[Tommaso]

the compilation film Glitterbug, which is often thought of as a positive visual companion to Blue (NB. Glitterbug is now also available on DVD in the UK for the first time as an extra on the new Artificial Eye DVD release of Blue).

Yep, it's a great final statement of a great artist, a sort of virtual autobiography made up of home movies. Much of the material is in the other Super 8 films, of course, but there is a lot of wonderful Tilda Swinton material near the end that I've never seen anywhere else.
I didn't care too much for the Burroughs short, but then I don't care much for Burroughs either... but it's nicely done, and probably worth seeing (as is the short TG film).

I'm missing the other Raro disc as well, but AFAIK apart from "Luxor" and "Art of Mirrors" (also available on Second Sight's Jarman discs), it contains the seminal "In The Shadow of the Sun".

As to the aspect ratio of "Last of England" on the Second Sight disc: I always wondered why this was 1.78 and not 1.33. It was made for TV in the 80s, and so I would assume it to be full frame originally? Unlike you, I would prefer this to "The Garden". The latter film is very good, but in a way a little self-indulgent. I'm fully aware of the political/sexual rights statement that he wanted to make with "The Garden", but somehow it's a bit sentimental in places, not as harsh and so much to the point as "Last of England".

T

[David Ehrenstein]

Derek nearly died during the production of The Garden and much of it was made by his associates. But then all his works were collaborations.

Tilda devised and shot that scene in War Requiem where she's playing with her hair and swaying to the music all by herself.

[bollibasher]

As to the aspect ratio of "Last of England" on the Second Sight disc: I always wondered why this was 1.78 and not 1.33. It was made for TV in the 80s, and so I would assume it to be full frame originally? Unlike you, I would prefer this to "The Garden". The latter film is very good, but in a way a little self-indulgent. I'm fully aware of the political/sexual rights statement that he wanted to make with "The Garden", but somehow it's a bit sentimental in places, not as harsh and so much to the point as "Last of England".

Yeah I see your point, but I think The Garden blew me away so much precisely because it was so self indulgent - so much of it was self-referential, and being a fan of his other films every time he used a visual motif or technique from previous films it seemed fitting. And a good way to effectively round off (or summarise) his film-making career. Yes I know there are later films, but the imagery in Garden was deliberatly nostalgic, it's like a 'retirement' epic or something! I do agree it was quite a poncy high-art approach to film though, and less natural in technique than Last of England.

Re: aspect ratio, was it made for tv? I'm not sure, can't remember offhand... Was it financed by Film Four or Channel 4 or something? If so that doesn't necessarily mean it was for tv...

[MichaelB]

Re: aspect ratio, was it made for tv? I'm not sure, can't remember offhand... Was it financed by Film Four or Channel 4 or something? If so that doesn't necessarily mean it was for tv...

Channel Four was one of the production partners, though it had a reasonably healthy cinema run before its TV debut in August 1992. So it wasn't made for TV as such, though Jarman would have been well aware (a) that it would be shown on TV relatively quickly, and (b) that he'd get the vast majority of his audience via the small screen.

It's usual in these circumstances to point out that most cinemas couldn't show 1.33:1 any more by 1990 - but in fact the kind of cinemas that still could were precisely the kind of cinemas that would show something like The Garden in the first place. So there's every likelihood that this was the intended aspect ratio for all presentations.

[Tommaso]

Channel Four was one of the production partners, though it had a reasonably healthy cinema run before its TV debut in August 1992. So it wasn't made for TV as such, though Jarman would have been well aware (a) that it would be shown on TV relatively quickly, and (b) that he'd get the vast majority of his audience via the small screen.

I'm pretty sure that the actual TV debut of "The Last of England" was in Germany, on the channel ZDF in their series "Das kleine Fernsehspiel", and that this was way back in 1987 already. I remember that I first saw it there (though I don't remember the aspect ratio) because that was my first Jarman and I immediately bought the soundtrack cd,too, which was new then as well. This was my reason to believe that the intended ratio was 1.33, though it doesn't look bad in 1.78 either.

[MichaelB]

My apologies - I was talking about The Garden.

That said, both Channel Four and Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen backed The Last of England, which made its British TV debut on 26 October 1989, pretty much exactly two years after its UK theatrical release. So the same arguments would probably apply.

[bollibasher]

Anyone who lives in London (or UK i suppose) may be interested to know that there's a big Jarman retrospective coming up in a couple of weeks based around a new biopic film, Derek, and an exhibition of his paintings sculptures, and an installation of Blue at the Serpentine Gallery. They are also showing his films at various Picturehouses around town (Gate cinema Notting Hill, Ritzy Brixton, Greenwich Picturehouse).

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Evidently, Colin MacCabe is involved in the biopic. I hope it's good - I'm certainly in no mood for hagiography. I love Jarman, but I need a little more than reverential talking heads. I hope that Tilda Swinton and Chris Hobbs get some good screen time.

[David Ehrenstein]

Tilda was very much involved and went to Sundance with it for a screening this year.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

GreenCine Daily's coverage

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

This film sounds great! I'm looking forward to the interview with Jarman. I've never really seen too many with him. I'm only used to his voice from Blue. Between this and Zeitgeist's Jarman box, it should be a good year for his fans.

[colinr0380]

The Second Sight UK discs of Sebastiane and Jubilee contained the essential Face to Face interview with Jarman - it is also on YouTube at the moment. (EDIT: Sorry Gordon, I didn't look properly to see that you had posted it before!)

(By the way, I am glad to see that the Face to Face interview with Bernardo Bertolucci is included on Criterion's edition of The Last Emperor)

Moved from the Zeitgeist thread:

The Times ran a big piece on Jarman today - it's available here.

I would be interesting in hearing more about what the Isaac Julien film Derek mentioned in the article, starring Tilda Swinton was like.

[rhallas]

I am currently completing a book on witnessing AIDS in queer film and video which has a chapter devoted to Derek's BLUE. In that chapter, I am really interested in exploring the different responses that people have had to the film in its different manifestations: a 35mm film seen at the cinema, on TV, on the radio, on VHS, on DVD, on CD, as a book, in a gallery installation. I am particularly interested in hearing about people's responses to the installation of Blue at the current Serpentine show in London (since I won't be able to make it back to the UK in time to see the show). So here are my questions:

When did you first experience BLUE and under what circumstances (e.g. did you experience it alone or with others etc.)?

How would describe this experience and its impact on you?

How did the format in which you experienced BLUE shape its meaning and impact?

Have you experienced BLUE in more than one format? And if so, to what effect?

I would appreciate any responses that you may have to these questions.

[Tommaso]

Very briefly, but I hope it will be sufficient for your aims:

When did you first experience BLUE and under what circumstances (e.g. did you experience it alone or with others etc.)?

In a normal cinema, when it was first shown in Germany, stupidly in a German dub.

How would describe this experience and its impact on you?

A one-of-a-kind experience, like being immersed in a deep state of meditation, and despite the sometimes rather gruelling reports of the illness and the medication Jarman had to take, in a curious way almost uplifiting. There's so much depth and poetry in his observations about the colour Blue, for instance, and the effect was only heightened afterwards when I read the "Chroma" book.

How did the format in which you experienced BLUE shape its meaning and impact?

Have you experienced BLUE in more than one format? And if so, to what effect?

Of course, seeing it on a TV screen from dvd afterwards wasn't the same, even though my screen isn't particularly small. Also, curious as it may sound, the image quality is significantly worse, the Blue just isn't quite the same, doesn't have this 'oceanic' quality on disc compared to celluloid.

Hope this doesn't sound too lyrical....

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

When did you first experience BLUE and under what circumstances (e.g. did you experience it alone or with others etc.)?

I was at home by myself.

How would describe this experience and its impact on you?

The auditory experience was captivating which made the intellectual experience incredibly moving and beautiful. The other impact it made was that it convinced me that film could be anything.

How did the format in which you experienced BLUE shape its meaning and impact?

Well, as a home viewing experience, it made the viewing very personal and private. It was just me close to the TV with the beauties of Blue close to my ears and mind.

[zedz]

When did you first experience BLUE and under what circumstances (e.g. did you experience it alone or with others etc.)?

My first experience was of the soundtrack CD (got it as soon as it was released, film only screened in my neck of the woods several months later).

How would describe this experience and its impact on you?

I found it extremely moving. I had been following Jarman's work for several years and knew the context around the film (a friend of mine had spent some time with Jarman while this film and Glitterbug were being completed).

How did the format in which you experienced BLUE shape its meaning and impact?

I assumed that hearing the soundtrack (and thinking 'blue') was not that different from the experience of the film proper, and thought of the work as primarily a sound collage.

Have you experienced BLUE in more than one format? And if so, to what effect?

Several months later I saw Blue in a great 35mm print on a massive cinema screen in an old 1920s movie palace. It was a completely different experience. The 'visual' element of my previous experience of the film had been a mind's eye illustration of the soundtrack, despite my best intentions of thinking pure blue thoughts. In the cinema, however, the active blue field was completely dominating, and I even found myself 'tuning out' the soundtrack (which I already knew fairly well) and concentrating on the visual effects occasioned by the blue field. Some of those effects were intrinsic to the film itself - the constant dance of the film grain; some to the projection - the rhythm of the flicker; some to the history of the print - the ebb and flow of scratches and other damage marks marking the passage of the reels; and some to the mechanics of my eye and brain - phosphenes, hypnagogic elements - the Brakhage dimension. The screening was such an intense experience, and one so in tune with the content of the film, that I've never been interested in 'seeing' the film in any lesser format, and even the extremely rich soundtrack seems rather thin and one-dimensional now.