Derek JarmanCritiques

Recorded the audio to listen to while streaming in on Criterion Channel.

Some amazing moments in this extended, impressionistic piece. It's beautiful but maybe a little self-indulgent with its aesthetic lingering (like the rest of Jarman's movies, a bit). I'm left with the amazement that he could put it together without being able to see.

paperback

First publication of the only known prose fiction story written by Jarman. It put me in mind of some of Oscar Wildes short stories in tone. The journey of a blind mythic King with his valet. Surreal and quirky.

Some of his original notebook is reproduced, along with a personal memoir written by a friend is included in this short volume.

A long time fan of Jarman's wide and various work, so a treat to add this to the collection½

Bizarre story of the Austrian philosopher and (mostly) his time in Cambridge is too strange to impart much about Wittgenstein's philosophy unless (perhaps) you already know it. The older and younger Wittgensteins are the most interesting characters. Everyone else comes across as more than a bit unreal, including Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. Only 73 minutes, however, so I was able to get through it! (Nothing here about Wittgenstein's love for detective novels. What a shame.)½

A CAIXA Cultural apresenta a mostra Derek Jarman- Cinema é liberdade, com patrocínio da CAIXA e em parceria com a Jurubeba Produções e o curador Raphael Fonseca. Uma criteriosa seleção de obras do diretor britânico, cuja produção se aproxima das artes, do experimental e da poética do excesso, da sexualidade, do drama. Seus longas e curtas, além dos videoclipes dirigidos nos anos 1980, trazem à tona a discussão de um gênero exemplar da sétima arte.

This is Derek Jarman's diary from 1989/1990 as he moves between London and Dungeness and in and out of hospital. The parts about the garden could use more colour pictures really to show what he is talking about, though perhaps my limited interest in gardening limits my interest a bit anyway! I was more interested in the bits of gossip about touring with the Pet Shop Boys and being out and about in London. Sometimes the format of a diary means there is a bit of a lack of framing/context as obviously Jarman wouldn't have needed it at the time. Anyway although the book didn't blow me away I did come out of it really wanting to visit Prospect Cottage, and with a renewed interest in Jarman's work.

A dramatization, in modern theatrical style, of the life and thought of the Viennese-born, Cambridge-educated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), whose principal interest was the nature and limits of language. A series of sketches depict the unfolding of his life from boyhood, through the era of the first World War, to his eventual Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The emphasis in these sketches is on the exposition of the ideas of Wittgenstein, a homosexual, and an intuitive, moody, proud, and perfectionistic thinker generally regarded as a genius. (fonte: imdb)

This book's virtues are its candor and its humor. A short and interesting read.

ein sehr bewegendes Buch über einen sehr individuellen Garten an der steinigen Küste Südostenglands, unter den Türmen des AKW Dungeness. Ein Muss für alle, die ihren Garten dem genius loci unterordnen, die Pflanzen frei sein lassen wollen.

One of the striking themes of this book, which is in the form of diary entries, is Derek Jarman's anger not only at the homophobia of the society in which he grew up, but also with the implicit collusion which comes from social liberals who fail to take prejudice seriously: a refrain here is that 'you failed to notice the violence which was taking place around you as you hid behind the pages of your copy of The Guardian'. Looking back on the whole of his life, with touching regret at how long it took him to take himself seriously, and under the shadow of HIV/AIDS in the final decades, this is also an emotionally intelligent and humane book, full of wit and delight - more assertive than some people will find comfortable, but, for me, anyway, a subversive inspiration.

Derek Jarman's garden is beautiful and odd. In the mid-1980s he bought a fisherman's cottage on Dungeness, a bleak expanse of shingle on the English south coast with views of the sea, a lighthouse and a massive nuclear power station. I visited Dungeness as a child and was fascinated by how desolate and strange the place is.

A few years ago, I visited Dungeness again with friends and we included a trip to see Derek Jarman's garden. Jarman, a painter and film director who died in the 90s, created a garden of stones, native plants and sculptures of wood and metal. It fits the landscape perfectly.

This book contains Jarman's writing about his garden right up to the last year of his life, accompanied by pictures taken by a friend of Jarman and the garden. It gave me a real sense of him as a person and increased my enjoyment of seeing the garden in real life.½

Quattro stelle (e mezzo) al volume cartaceo, infinite stelle al film (allegato all'edizione ALET).½

I read this in French (un dernier jardin) but I wish I owned it in English. The photos are wonderful.

Review previously posted on Amazon:

I never had the fortune to meet Derek Jarman, but his eye on life and creativity is sorely missed. This is a touching finale to the journals past that document his life - and well worth your time. I couldn't wait to get into bed with Derek! He had such bounds of joy, even in the extremis he found himself in. One 'legitimate' reviewer criticised the book because its editor, Keith Collins (HB), and Derek's companion, left too many references to himself in it. But how are we to understand Jarman's feelings for this man if they are obliterated for reasons of coyness or what others may feel appropriate. Personally I could do with him around my house as he seems to be a dab hand at most things! Secondly, the lack of an Index caused ire! Well all I can say is that the person concerned obviously wanted a quick root to what he assumed was the 'dirt' on other well known personalities - but although Derek Jarman may not have disapproved of Outing, you will find none of it here! This is a book for the Ms/Mrs/Mr straight as well as otherwise, and I hope that Derek's high profile sexuality will not put other straight readers (of whom I am one) off. His descriptions of landscape are evocative; friends touching and his disease - seering but not quite bitter. His HB was loved and we should know it. Don't let this opportunity to take up residence in a fine mind slip you by.

A love song to colour and to life from a truly unique individual. Made all the more poignant by Jarmans' (a very visual artist) loss of sight. This work is like Jarman Political, polemical but always poetical.

I defy you not to be moved by these meditations of a great artist going blind. Red pours out of his eyes. Political, whimsical, ornery, sexy and learned. The world is richer for his alchemy.

Short Films

86 min