Painter and film maker, born in Northwood, NW Greater London, UK. He studied at London University and the Slade School of Art, London, then worked in costume and set design for the Royal Ballet and the film industry. He directed his first feature film, Sebastiane, in 1976, and his later (often controversial) works included Jubilee (1977), Caravaggio (1985), and The Last of England (1987). The Garden and Edward II both appeared in 1991. He also directed pop videos, designed for opera and ballet, and wrote several books, including the autobiographical Dancing Ledge (1984).
Derek Jarman (January 31, 1942 – February 19, 1994) was an English film director, stage designer, artist, and writer.
Life
Jarman was born in Northwood, Middlesex, and from 1960 studied at King's College London.
Films
Jarman's first films were experimental super 8 mm shorts, a form he never entirely abandoned, and later developed further (in his films Imagining October (1984), The Angelic Conversation (1985), The Last Of England (1987) and The Garden (1990)) as a parallel to his narrative work.
Jarman first became known as a stage designer getting a break into the film industry as production designer for Ken Russell's "The Devils" (1970), and later made his debut in "overground" narrative filmmaking with the groundbreaking Sebastiane (1976), arguably the first British film to feature positive images of gay sexuality, and the first (and to date, only) film entirely in Latin.
He followed this with the film many regard as his first masterpiece, Jubilee (shot 1977, released 1978), in which Queen Elizabeth I of England is transported forward in time to a desolate and brutal wasteland ruled by her twentieth century namesake.
After making the unconventional Shakespeare adaptation The Tempest in 1979 (a film praised by several Shakespeare scholars, but dismissed by some traditionalist critics), Jarman spent seven years making experimental super 8 mm films and attempting to raise money for Caravaggio (he later claimed to have rewritten the script seventeen times during this period). Finally released in 1986, the film attracted a comparatively wide audience (and is still, barring the cult hit Jubilee, probably his most widely-known work), partly due to the involvement, for the first time, of the British television company Channel 4 in funding and distribution. This marked the beginning of a new phase in Jarman's filmmaking career: from now on all his films would be partly funded by television companies, often receiving their most prominent exhibition in TV screenings.
The conclusion of Caravaggio also marked the beginning of a temporary abandonment of traditional narrative in Jarman's work. Frustrated by the formality of 35 mm film production, and the institutional dependence and resultant prolonged inactivity associated with it (which had already cost him seven years with Caravaggio, as well as derailing several long-term projects), Jarman returned to and expanded the super 8 mm-based form he had previously worked in on Imagining October and The Angelic Conversation.
The first film to result from this new semi-narrative phase, The Last of England told the death of a country, ravaged by its own internal decay and Thatcher's economic restructuring. "Wrenchingly beautiful…the film is one of the few commanding works of personal cinema in the late 80's -- a call to open our eyes to a world violated by greed and repression, to see what irrevocable damage has been wrought on city, countryside and soul, how our skies, our bodies, have turned poisonous," wrote The Village Voice.
During the making of The Garden, Jarman became seriously ill. Although he recovered sufficiently to complete the film, he never attempted anything on a comparable scale afterwards, returning to a more pared-down form for his concluding narrative films, Edward II (perhaps his most politically outspoken work, informed by his Queer activism) and the Brechtian Wittgenstein, a delicate tragicomedy based on the life of the eponymous philosopher. It was a later complaint of Jarman's that with the disappearance of the Independent Film sector it had become impossible for him to get finance.
At the time when he made the film Blue, he was blind and dying of AIDS-related complications.
His final testament as a film-maker was the film "Glitterbug" made for the Arena slot on BBC2, and broadcast shortly after Jarman's death.
Other works
Jarman's work broke new ground in creating and expanding the fledgling form of 'the pop video' in England, and as a forthright and prominent gay rights activist.
Filmography
Short and feature films
1974 - In the Shadow of the Sun 1975 – Sebastiane 1977 – Jubilee 1979 – The Tempest 1985 - The Angelic Conversation 1986 – Caravaggio 1987 – The Last of England 1988 – War Requiem 1990 – The Garden 1991 – Edward II 1992 – Wittgenstein 1993 – BlueJarman's early Super-8 mm work has been included on some of the DVD releases of his films. Derek Jarman and Lyric Film: The Mirror and the Sea. (2004).
User Comments Add a comment…