Jarman's filmic imagery is beautiful, VERY Caravaggiesque. And - like good jazz, where a soloist improvisor may play snippets of other, well-known tunes in his/her improvisation - contains scene quotations from great works of art by others NOT Caravaggio. No one has yet mentioned the obvious take on Jacques Louis David's "Death of Marat," nor Jan Vermeer's "Girl with a pearl earring," which are the most obvious to me. There may be others. I'll have to watch it again more closely to see.
This is a strange and wonderful film with many anachronistic jolts and some marvelous acting. When Tilda Swinton looks directly into the camera (making me swoon), she presages her doing so many times three years later in "Orlando."
If this film is to your taste, then see Julie Taymor's "Titus" - her take on The Bard's Titus Andronicus.
This is a strange and wonderful film with many anachronistic jolts and some marvelous acting. When Tilda Swinton looks directly into the camera (making me swoon), she presages her doing so many times three years later in "Orlando."
If this film is to your taste, then see Julie Taymor's "Titus" - her take on The Bard's Titus Andronicus.