Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman (January 31 1942 â€" February 19 1994) was a British film director, stage designer, artist, and writer.

Life

Jarman was born in Northwood, Middlesex, and from 1960 studied at King's College London. This was followed by four years at the Slade School of Art, starting in 1963. He had a studio at Butler's Wharf, London, and was part of the Andrew Logan social scene in the 1970s.

On December 22 1986 he was diagnosed HIV positive, and was notable for later discussing his condition in public. His illness prompted him to move to Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, near to the nuclear power station. In 1994 he died of AIDS. Chumbawamba subsequently released Song for Derek Jarman.

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. Jubilee was arguably the first UK punk movie, and among its cast featured punk groups and figures such as Wayne County of Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, Jordan, Toyah Willcox, and Adam and the Ants.

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. Caravaggio also saw Jarman work with actress Tilda Swinton for the first time.

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 tolled the death of a country, ravaged by its own internal decay and Thatcher's economic restructuring. "Wrenchingly beautifulâ€¦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 1980s Jarman was still one of the few openly gay public figures in Britain and so was a leading campaigner against "anti-gay" legislation and to raise awareness of AIDS.

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. Jarman made a side income by directing music videos for various artists including Marianne Faithfull, The Smiths and the Pet Shop Boys.

The film Blue was his last testament as a film-maker. At the time when he made the film, he was blind and dying of AIDS related complications. Blue consists of a single shot of saturated blue colour filling the screen, as background to a soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner featuring original music by Coil and other artists, where Jarman describes his life and vision.

Other works

Jarman deserves significant credit for his work in creating and expanding the fledgling form of 'the pop video' in England, and as a forthright and prominent gay rights activist. Several volumes of his diaries have been published.

He is also remembered for his famous shingle cottage-garden, created in the latter years of his life, in the shadow of the Dungeness power station. The house was built in tarred timber. Its beach garden was made using local materials and has been the subject of several books. At this time, he also began painting again (see the book: Evil Queen: The Last Paintings, 1994).

Filmography

Short and feature films

* Sebastiane
* Jubilee
* The Tempest
* Imagining October
* The Angelic Conversation
* Caravaggio
* The Last Of England
* War Requiem
* The Garden
* Edward II
* Wittgenstein (film)
* Blue
* Glitterbug

Jarman's early Super-8 mm work has been included on some of the DVD releases of his films.

Music videos

* The Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols Number One (1976). Early live footage of the band.
* Marianne Faithfull: Broken English, Witches' Song, and The Ballad of Lucy Jordan (all 1979)
* Throbbing Gristle: TG Psychic Rally in Heaven (1981).
* Orange Juice: What Presence?! (1984).
* Marc Almond: Tenderness is a Weakness (1984).
* The Smiths: The Queen is Dead, Panic, There is a Light That Never Goes Out, Ask (circa 1986).
* Matt Fretton: Avatar (1986)
* Pet Shop Boys: It's a Sin and Rent.

External links

* Slow Motion Angel - a Derek Jarman Information and Resource Site
* Preserving A Harlequin - a Jarman retrospective by Nick Clapson.
* A short biography
* Derek Jarman at the Internet Movie Database.
* Photographs of Prospect Cottage at Flickr
* Derek Jarman on Find-A-Grave

Derek Jarman: Encyclopedia BETA

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