Jubilee

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Buy This Item Jubilee by Mystic Fire Video  Available from Amazon  $29.98  on 10-5-2008     Avant-garde spirit and punk-rock attitude combine with iconoclastic results in Derek Jarman's defiantly uncommercial <I>Jubilee</I>. Filmed in 1977--the silver jubilee year of England's Queen Elizabeth II--this fascinating hodgepodge of political dissent and audiovisual experimentation now stands as a vibrant document of its time, both immediate and enduring in its bold rejection of all things conventional. (Compared to this, the quasi-punk <I>Repo Man</I> and angst-ridden <I>Sid & Nancy</I> seem positively tame.) Jarman's film deserved its mixed reviews; like the films of Andy Warhol, it's a slapdash affair, cobbled together by Jarman and his fringe-dwelling friends, ostensibly designed as a kaleidoscopic glimpse of London's future, infused with apocalyptic nihilism and populated by proto-punks (including Adam Ant and <I>Rocky Horror</I>'s Little Nell) in an anarchic orgy of gay and straight sex, music, violence, and (in retrospect) astonishingly accurate pop-cultural prophesy. It's the pioneering, angry/funny work of a genuine artist, as essential to punk film as the Sex Pistols were to music in the dreadful days of disco. <I>--Jeff Shannon</I> Reader Reviews This is a wonderful film, and it's also greatly misunderstood. It came out in 1978 at the height of the punk movement in England, and it was labeled as a "punk" film. It is not a punk film; it is a Derek Jarman film. Since it is a Derek Jarman film, it's filled with poetry, sadness, brilliant imagery, and a deep tenderness in many of its scenes. It's also filled with homoerotic elements and some deeply poetic dialogue. The only thing the film doesn't have is punk. If it were a document of the punk movement, it would only be a historical artifact, like a news piece. It would be terribly dated now. But this film doesn't date at all. There's hardly any mention of punk in the film, and there's hardly any punk rock music in the film. In the documentary included in the DVD, the people who worked with Jarman on the film inform us that the punk movement/rockers hated the film (probably because most of them weren't in it, and Jarman didn't embrace the punk movement). Many of these people walked out on the film, and someone (I can't remember who) even wrote an "open letter" to Derek Jarman. Jarman ended up having a T-shirt printed up of it. There's a picture of him in the documentary wearing it. I must admit I like that (Jarman wearing the T-shirt, not the actual letter). There are a number of interesting performances, including Adam Ant (in his first film). Ian Charleson (Angel) is good as well in his first film. He was in Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, and Opera, and, like Jarman, died of AIDS in 1987. Richard O'Brien (John Dee) is very good here. He played Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Jenny Runacre, who plays Elizabeth I and Bod here, also played Jack Nicholson's wife in Antonioni's The Passenger. There's a real curious mix of professionals and non-professional here, and it works very well. I found this film remarkable, and I am very glad that Criterion has it in a special edition.

Jubilee Available from Amazon Price: $29.98 Updated on 10-5-2008.

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