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List Price: $74.99 | | Label: Zeitgeist Films
Salesrank: 61767
Released: June 24, 2008 |
| Our Price: $45.24 |
| Used Price: $35.99 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Painter, poet, activist and queer cinema maverick, Derek Jarman (1942-1994) is one of Britain's most visionary and extraordinary film artists. Often in collaboration with actress and muse Tilda Swinton (2007 Oscar Winner for Michael Clayton), Jarman's lush, experimental reflections on art, politics, sexuality and identity transcend and subvert both the genres in which he worked--the period costume drama, the biopic--as well as the boundaries of so-called gay filmmaking.
This four-disc set boasts two of Jarman's most accomplished arthouse features (Caravaggio and Wittgenstein), and two of his most personal and avant-garde works (Blue and The Angelic Conversation). GLITTERBOX also debuts a treasure trove of additional material including the posthumously assembled 54-minute film collage Glitterbug; rare behind-the-scenes footage; extensive video and audio interviews; production galleries; and a 20-page illustrated booklet with essays, an interview with Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell and a tribute by Coil's Peter Christopherson.
DISC ONE: CARAVAGGIO
The volatile life of the eponymous 17th-century painter is gorgeously re-imagined through his brilliant, near-blasphemous paintings and flirtations with the underworld. With Tilda Swinton, Sean Bean, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gough, and Nigel Terry in the title role.
1986 - 90 minutes - UK - Color - In English - 16:9 aspect ratio - Not Rated
CARAVAGGIO FEATURES:
- Restored anamorphic transfer, created from Hi-Def elements
- Video interviews with actress Tilda Swinton, actor Nigel Terry and production designer Christopher Hobbs
- Audio commentary by cinematographer Gabriel Beristain
- Rare audio and video interviews with Derek Jarman
- Storyboard, notebook, production photo and sketch galleries
- Original theatrical trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
DISC TWO: WITTGENSTEIN
A visually stunning and profoundly entertaining portrait of the irreverent 20th-century philosopher who preferred detective fiction and Carmen Miranda musicals to Aristotle.
1993 - 69 minutes - UK - Color - In English - 16:9 aspect ratio - Not Rated
WITTGENSTEIN FEATURES:
- Restored anamorphic transfer, created from Hi-Def elements
- Video interviews with actress Tilda Swinton, actor Karl Johnson and producer Tariq Ali
- Extensive behind-the-scenes footage
- Video introduction by film historian Ian Christie
- The Clearing (Alex Bistikas, 1994), a short film featuring Jarman
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
DISC THREE: THE ANGELIC CONVERSATION
This ethereal Super-8 mélange beautifully layers languorous music by cult band Coil and Dame Judi Dench's emotive readings of Shakespeare love sonnets.
1985 - 78 minutes - UK - Color and B&W - In English - 1.33:1 aspect ratio - Not Rated
THE ANGELIC CONVERSATION FEATURES:
- Restored transfer
- Video interviews with producer James Mackay and production designer Christopher Hobbs
- Derek Jarman in conversation with Simon Field (1989)
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
DISC FOUR: BLUE
Jarman's most daring cinematic statement (a year before his death from AIDS in 1994) lays bare his physical and spiritual struggle through a rich tapestry of voices, music and a pure cobalt screen.
1993 - 76 minutes - UK - Blue - In English - 16:9 aspect ratio - Not Rated
BLUE FEATURES:
- Glitterbug (1994), 54-minute collage of Jarman's footage posthumously assembled by the filmmaker's friends and featuring original music by Brian Eno
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
Description of Glitterbox: Derek Jarman x 4:
Glitterbox, with its extra film, Glitterbug, compiled by Derek Jarman's friends following his death, is an especially personal tribute to this idiosyncratic director, writer, and artist. Renowned for his outspoken dedication and experimental portrayals of politically radical heroes, Jarman's films challenge the conventions of narrative filmmaking and expand narrow definitions of sexuality. This boxed set contains The Angelic Conversation (1985), Caravaggio (1986), Wittgenstein (1993), and Blue (1993), which, viewed together, clarify Jarman's preoccupation with the ways language and imagery intertwines or demand separation. Each film contains heavy theatricality, unabashed passion, poetic screenwriting, and a finely tuned color palette, lending the works extreme drama that is an acquired taste. In The Angelic Conversation, a young Morrissey-type searches longingly for love until he finds his possible angel in the form of another hunky sensitive guy. The super-8 footage is romanticized by Judi Dench's reading of certain Shakespearean sonnets that question life's meaning, over a moody, ambient soundtrack by Coil. Caravaggio is an eccentric portrayal of the artist, Michelangelo di Caravaggio (Nigel Terry), embroiled in a hot love triangle between figure model Ranuccio (Sean Bean), and Lena (Tilda Swinton). Far from a conventional biopic, the film capitalizes on Caravaggio's maniacal reputation, with lurid decadence and emotionally weighty scenes throughout. Wittgenstein, co-written by Terry Eagleton, also takes liberties with its depiction of this famed philosopher, played by Karl Johnson. Filmed entirely against a black backdrop, the movie focuses on the thinker's homosexual identity crisis, throughout childhood, then as he makes academic headway at Cambridge. Blue, filmed right before Jarman's death as an expression of his fears and shock at his loss of eyesight, is 76 minutes of blue screen, which stirringly comes alive as Tilda Swinton and Nigel Terry read from Jarman's journals his musings about the color, against a soundtrack of ticking clocks and more composed by Eno, Momus, and Simon Fisher-Turner.
Extras on each disc, including multitudinous interviews with Jarman's friends, the man himself, and a short film called "The Clearing" (1994), in which Jarman silently acts, are plentiful and great. But the real extra gem here is Glitterbug, a fifty-minute compilation of Jarman's unused home film and video footage, set to Brian Eno music. Filmed on sets, in artist's studios, at parties, fashion shows, and on travel excursions, Glitterbug is a visual diary of Jarman's inspirations. Moreover, as reference material it establishes his aesthetic sensibilities, his tastes for the lavish, the punk, and for other humans fully dedicated to art. --Trinie Dalton
Glitterbox: Derek Jarman x 4 Reviews:
hatching a tube 
2008-09-17 - Caravaggio from the `Glitterbox' is a good reference. The scenes are like places to sing where an audience could catch on. It's simple to say I know what's going to happen next, but it's also simple to say only some people should find a movie about Caravaggio simple. It puts the drama in di-o-rama.
Fabulous Window into Jarman's Central Question: How Can Outsiders Form Community? 
2008-06-27 - I'm struck by the coincidence that Zeitgeist's remarkable retrospective of some of Jarman's greatest works -- was released in the same week that Disney opened "Wall.E," which also raises the question about accepting outsiders.
Of course, it's a slam dunk that people want to hug the lovable little robot. Jarman's challenge is far higher octane. He was -- until his untimely death from AIDS in the 1990s -- a real-life, sometimes-fire-breathing, British artist and activist.
Solid evidence of Jarman's stature of an artist is the Who's Who of famous British actors and actresses who worked in his avante garde productions, including Judith Dench, Tilda Swinton and even Laurence Olivier, who made his final film, "War Requiem," with Jarman. (However, "War Requiem" isn't in this particular set.)
But, Jarman wasn't interested in celebrity. Rather, he was deadly serious about probing the outer boundaries. He had no interest in producing Hollywood hits. Quite the contrary. In fact, the "extras" in this new DVD set include an interview with Jarman in which he makes precisely that point.
In one interview, he says that his whole body of work was intended as a critique of American cinema. It wasn't a question of artistic options. He had lots of lucrative work from which to choose. In his prime, for instance, Jarman was a sought-after director of music videos. When his late-in-life production, "Blue," was released -- a joint broadcast was arranged involving both British television and radio networks to broadcast the image and the audio in optimal quality throughout the UK. (And, "Blue" is in this new set.)
No, Jarman followed the road less traveled because the question he wanted to ask over and over again is: How do true outsiders form community?
In this new DVD set, you'll get a real glimpse of his range as an artist, designer and director. For example, there is painstaking work behind the shadowy opening scenes of his "Caravaggio." It's a feature-length film about the artist who took Rome by storm around 1600 with huge, dramatic canvases that reinterpreted traditional spiritual themes. These opening scenes are as gorgeous as the artist's paintings themselves. But we soon realize that Jarman is, above all, an artistic provocateur -- when we suddenly hear the distant sound of a freight train! In 1600? And, then, we discover a malicious nobleman tapping on a hand-held calculator -- and suddenly characters show up in tuxedos!
What Jarman really is doing here is extending the questions raised by "Caravaggio" into our present age. By the middle of the film, we already can see how an outsider artist can summon incredible spiritual gifts. Caravaggio's paintings helped people to see biblical stories in entirely new ways. But his status as a highly controversial and emotionally troubled rebel almost defied any community to embrace him.
Jarmans' films are challenging, intellectual, not for young viewers -- and even an aquired taste for adult viewers -- but I am amazed, on the week of the "Wall.E" release to have an opportunity, as well, to reflect on the brilliant insights of a true outsider, as well.
Five by Jarman
2008-05-07 - "Glitterbox"
Five by Jarman
Amos Lassen
Derek Jarman was a genius whose life ended too soon. He was always an original filmmaker with original ideas. Now thanks to Zeitgeist Films we have five Jarman films in a boxed ser entitled "Glitterbox". If you love gay cinema, here is a set that belongs in your movie library and these five films give a wonderful introduction to Derek Jarman. Because I am going to review these films separately I am only going to say a little about each movie.
"Wittgenstein" shows in an early Jarman film the queer militancy that characterized the director. Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian-born and British educated. He is considered to be a leading philosopher and Jarman chronicles his life from regal childhood to his position as a professor at Cambridge where he was burdened with guilt because he was homosexual. The characters wear elaborate costumes and they are set against a pitch black background. This is so we will concentrate on the very witty dialog.
"Caravaggio" pays tribute to a controversial painter who was torn between his lover and his mistress. This is a very homoerotic film which is centered on the process of creating.
"The Angelic Conversation" is a film in which Dame Judy Dench reads twelve Shakespearean sonnets which focuses on the director, Jarman himself, in a mission to discover the meaning of life.
"Blue" was made by Jarman after he had been battling AIDS for six years. His health and eyesight had been deteriorating and he brought the viewer into a startling experimental film. The film is a blue screen throughout and Tilda Swinson and Nigel Terry read from Jarman's journals, talk about his medical problems and his reflections on life and art. This is the film that closed Jarman's career and it shows no self-pity and neither does it sermonize.
Finally there is "Glitterbug", a collection of Jarman's video diaries which are set to the music of Brian Eno. The films begin in 1970 and follow the life of the filmmaker and Jarman managed to finish this film before his death in 1984.
The set also includes interviews with Tilda Swinson and Nigel Terry and Christopher Hobbs, production designer. There is also a rare video with Jarman himself, behind the scene footage. For any gay cinema buff, this is a set of films that must be seen to help us understand how far we have come.
More art than biography
2006-08-15 - Having recently read The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr, I've been pursuing other material about the early Baroque artist Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (ca.1571-1610). Derek Jarman's cinematography in this hard to find film is stunning. It's a pleasure to see (now familiar) Caravaggio works being painted from live models. It was helpful to have some knowledge of Caravaggio's life prior to viewing this film. And be forwarned that Jarman chose to include many anachronisms, such as tuxedos, cigarette smoking, and locomotive noises.
