Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman was, in my opinion, one of the most talented artists of the the last decades of the 20th Century. He died in 1994 at the early age of 51. His talents were multiple. Foremost he made films, not Hollywood blockbusters, but films which made you think; not always comfortable films. He was an artist; his paintings were as astonishing as his films (in London's Tate Gallery). His garden was considered by some as being one of the best of the last years' of the millennium, but it does not have a herbaceous border in sight. He designed stage sets. He was an author. He made pop videos (for the Pet Shop Boys).

Jarman , 1966. Photo Ray Dean

When he died a serious broad sheet (the London Independent) carried a major front page story, and many columns of obituary.

I met him occasionally at showings of his films and a few times spoke to him. I am very grateful for that.

Film maker

Derek,s films were graphic masterpieces. He had a talent for finding locations that were the narrartive.

His films seldom had a budget of more that £250K ($400K)and for budget reasons he often filmed in Super 8 (in earlier years) then used video. He explored the possibilities that these unusual formats could give. He detested Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. This is vividly brought out in 'The Last of England'; skin heads filmed in the most desolate parts of slum London.

His re-working of Edward II (of which my sailing buddie Stephen McBride was a script writer) had the persecutors in modern army address, whilst the rest of the cast was in period costume. Classical Shakespeare it was not. His 'War Requiem' put Benjamin Britten's music to stunning images of war, filmed at a ruined army hospital on desolate land; it featured the last film appearance of Lord Olivier as the old soldier. It was not a film of which Derek was proud, but I think he was wrong. An early film was 'Sebastiane'; some thought it was homoerotic and it caused an outcry when shown on a minority TV channel. The dialogue is in Latin.

His film of the Italian painter 'Caravaggio' showed that he appreciated fine art, and the film of the life of the philosopher Wittgenstein indicated a deeper meaning of life.

In his last years he started to go blind as a result of AIDS which, for such a visual artist, could have been tragic . Instead the last full feature 'Blue' he directed was simply an unvarying blue screen with a soundscape of music and words recording the last stages of his illness; an intensely personal film. It may seem extraordinary but it works. At the Edinburgh festival it received a standing oration. In the UK it was accorded the distinction of being shown on TV Channel 4 with the sound on BBC Radio 3 without commercial breaks - for 75 minutes. No other film has been so honoured. One of the best reviews I have seen of it is here

Following his death I attended a memorial to him with showings of some his less seen films. One was of a decaying boat house, with the camera lingering over the rotting woodwork, the broken windows, the weeds growing through the rotting floor, and it made me realise that Derek could see beauty in objects which the rest of us could not.

Gardening

He bought a small house in Dungeness, a remote part of south of England on the coast. This is shingle, with a nuclear power station as a neighbour. He created here a garden which has been described as one of the most influential of the latter part of the 20thC. It was not conventional, he used flotsman form the shore, hardy plants such as helibores, poppies, gorse. He kept bees. One of my regrets is that it could not have been the subject of a TV 'make over' programme; Derek would have made mincemeat of the presenter. It was used as a setting for a Sony TV commercial. Ironically the budget for that 45 sec commercial was greater than Derek had for most of his feature films.

Books

Jarman was a writer. His diaries have been published as 'Modern Nature' and "Smiling in Slow Motion'. The later chronices the last years of his life and one can get an idea of the grat courage of the man. In addition he wrote several others detailing his painting and film scripts.
A comprehensive biography by Tony Peake is scholarly, comprehensive, but readable and has a full fimography.

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