Derek Jarman

Manuel

Member
I just saw two short Coil-soundtracked Derek Jarman films and I really liked them...very dense, bleak, ominous stuff...my question is, was Jarman ever involved with any full-lenght movies of this sort? Could anyone recommend any Jarman/non-Jarman stuff that fits what I'm looking for? Thanks!
 
  • Like
Reactions: sus

john eden

male pale and stale
I always seem to end up watching his films when I'm really pissed (which is the best way to watch them, imo).

Off the top of my head, the more abstract full length one which Coil did a soundtrack to was The Angelic Coversation.

TG did the soundtrack for "In the shadow of the sun"

The Last of England is also great from what I can hazily remember. Bleak, poetic stuff about England in decline.


Jubillee is Jarman doing punk.

Blue is low on visuals (!) but also features some Coil on the soundtrack.

Not quite sure which shorts you saw, but "Dream machine" is very good, as is one featuring Burroughs wandering around London.

I'm must get a load of these on DVD!
 

Woebot

Well-known member
wasnt the soundtrack to blue done by simon fisher-turner? that must the archetypal case of the pre-eminence of the soundtrack. i reviewed it at the time for that short-lived mag lime lizard just after jarman's death. its not bad.

best jarman film i ever saw was wittgenstein. loved that.
 

Melmoth

Bruxist
I'm guessing these are the ones that were on in the Tate Modern a while ago on the third or fourth floor? Basically his home movies on super 8, lots of footage of Bankside in the early seventies. i remember being struck by the shots of the Thames: packed with barges carrying coal and whatnot, still a working river then. It looks like a toally different world. Very impressive generally. I think Jubilee and The Last of England are the later films that build on these.
 

martin

----
He also did a piece called 'Psychic Rally In Heaven', which was a very hazy, lingering shot of something I still can't identify (a hand? a more vital organ?), with about half of Side 1 of 'Second Annual Report' by TG over the top (the visual ended up on the front of the bootleg LP 'Rafters'). Ah the good old days when 'Midnight Underground' used to be on Channel 4...

His version of 'The Tempest' is probably the best one (not hard I know), esp when Elizabeth Welch comes out at the end and sings 'Stormy Weather'. But I thought 'Blue' was the best (tho a lot of people slagged it)
 
Last edited:

h-crimm

Well-known member
hey hello,

jubillee is like a bbc costume drama version of a john waters film, its hard to tell if i hate toyah wilcox in it... its kind of like if a guardian reader making a 'better' version of risky roads (i'm just courting controversy, i'd definitly buy that dvd...)
its definitely worth seeing... its cool to see jordan being actually like a normal unpretentious person, being interesting, intelligent, despite what i'd expect the equivalent person would be like today...
even tho punk was very fashion based, exclusive at the time it seems it actually might have been more genuine than the post punk london fashion today.

the film bloomsbury square, documenting a squat he lived in before it was evicted, is one of the earlier ones (maybe the first... its pre bankside studio) its got those sped up collage of still images, blurred people and amazing visual compositions i really like about his early movies... you can really see he was originally a painter.

when the grim-jarman gonna make the full movie of that DTI sketch off Lord of the decks? :)
 
hello,

At the curzon soho on sunday at 12:00 there's a screening of Jubilee and also Jarman's Caravagio bio... and its only six quid ;)
 

labrat

hot on the heels of love
Glitterbug is a compliation of his Super 8 stuff...again i've only ever seen it pissed.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
labrat said:
Glitterbug is a compliation of his Super 8 stuff...again i've only ever seen it pissed.

I'll have to get hold of that and get the beers in. :)

We should probably sort out a Dissensus film night sometime...
 

luka

Well-known member
I think his films are a bit shit. Like a face magazine fashion shoot. Well ropey.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
His super-8mm works have really helped over lockdown. Always found them soothing with a strange grace that's incredibly rare. The pacing is about 1/6th time in most with movement suggestive of ritual, so a sense of ambiguity resonates. Love the colour palettes of stained out layering, collage really. Gives your visual field a miasma to feast on. Optional audio.

Journey to Avebury (plus Coil)


Getting stranger


In the Shadow of the Sun. You can dive in with or without TG accompanying


Garden of Luxor. Entranced


The Art of Mirrors. Another world. A Peter Christopherson homage-gig has a (just about) listenable section of audio where the mood and quality matches, needs a bit of volume gain and might be one PC's finest compositions



 

john eden

male pale and stale
I met him a couple of times. I was also offered a chance to blag my way to the funeral by people who knew him better which I am glad to say I declined. He seemed lovely both times I met him.

It’s remarkable how the gardening angle has meant that he has been rehabilitated after his death into something less threatening to middle England.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leo

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
I met him a couple of times. I was also offered a chance to blag my way to the funeral by people who knew him better which I am glad to say I declined. He seemed lovely both times I met him.

It’s remarkable how the gardening angle has meant that he has been rehabilitated after his death into something less threatening to middle England.

Britain loves retrospection. Mad crossing paths. The Devils wouldn't be The Devils without that strange city's psychological geography and style.

Something about the slow-motion super-8's beguiles. It's there in Coil's Egyptian Basses vid (if Jarman was the director), wish it was better resolution


 

catalog

Well-known member
This is good, sort of an odd time capsule. I think I've posted it before. Some good interview footage with jarman but mostly good just cos it reminds you that stuff like this can happen. Although I think Andy came to a sticky end, predictably enough

 
Top