BAMcinématek presents Queer Pagan Punk: The Films of Derek Jarman, Oct 30 Nov 11 A complete retrospective of Jarman s 12 feature films, the most comprehensive New York series in nearly two decades New restorations of debut feature Sebastiane and Caravaggio It feels like the correct time to be reminded of an ancient tradition that has always served civilization well, that of the independent, truth-telling poet provocateur. Tilda Swinton The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor for BAMcinématek and BAM Rose Cinemas. Brooklyn, NY/Sep 30, 2014 From Thursday, October 30 through Tuesday, November 11, BAMcinématek presents Queer Pagan Punk: The Films of Derek Jarman, a comprehensive retrospective of iconoclastic British filmmaker and crusading gay rights activist Derek Jarman, following its run at the BFI this spring. Jarman not only redefined queer cinema, but reimagined moviemaking as a means for limitless personal expression. From classical adaptations to historical biographies to avant-garde essay films, he crafted a body of work that was at once personal and political, during a difficult period when British independent cinema was foundering and the AIDS crisis provoked a wave of panic and homophobia. Also a poet, diarist, and painter, Jarman first entered the realm of the movies as a production designer for Ken Russell. The Devils (1971 Oct 31), Russell s controversial opus of repressed nuns and witchcraft trials, played out in a 17th-century French village that Jarman spent a year creating. His own first feature, Sebastiane (1976 Nov 9), playing in a new restoration, placed a daring emphasis on male nudity and eroticism as it chronicled the death of the Christian martyr; Jarman called it the first film that depicted homosexuality in a completely matter-of-fact way. A time-traveling Queen Elizabeth I wanders among the ruins of a dystopic modern London in Jubilee (1978 Oct 30), a shot-in-the-streets survey of the burgeoning punk scene that captures early performances by Adam Ant, Wayne County, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Slits. Jarman s unconventional take on The Tempest (1979 Nov 1) features Prospero as a young man, a Gothic mansion setting, and a show-stopping rendition of Stormy Weather. It s the Bard s rebirth in cinema (Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times). Eight years in the making, Caravaggio (1986 Nov 8), also in a new restoration, was Jarman s highest-budget film, a forthright, boldly anachronistic take on the bisexual Renaissance artist and a self-portrait in disguise. Tilda Swinton, Jarman s female muse, made her film debut in Caravaggio and stars in Jarman s segment of the opera omnibus Aria (1987 Nov 10), which also features contributions by Ken Russell, Nicolas Roeg, and Robert Altman (not to mention a side-splitting turn by Buck Henry as a sleazy, philandering movie producer). Laurence Olivier makes his final screen appearance in War Requiem (1989 Nov 6), an anti-war elegy scored entirely to Benjamin Britten s famous choral work, while Edward II (1991 Nov 2), a modernist-styled, modern-dress staging of the Christopher Marlowe play emphasizes the persecution of the English monarch and his male protégé. Spare and spry, narrated by a child and numbering a Martian among its characters, Wittgenstein (1993 Nov 9) is a poignant coda to Jarman s series of idiosyncratic gaythemed biopics.
In between these comparatively large-scale efforts, Jarman deputized friends and lovers to populate smaller, DIY-style features. The poetic The Angelic Conversation (1985 Nov 4) depicts an idyllic male love affair, narrated with Shakespearean sonnets read by Judi Dench, while the darker The Last of England (1988 Nov 5), made just after Jarman s AIDS diagnosis, contemplates the artist s death as well as the nation s a full-throttle state-of-the-nation broadside against Thatcher-era Britain (Dennis Lim, Los Angeles Times). Even more provocative, The Garden (1990 Nov 11) draws upon Christian iconography, with Swinton as the Madonna and a same-sex love story that parallels the story of Christ. Made as he was dying of AIDS and famously consisting of a single monochromatic image, Blue (1993 Nov 7) has Jarman, Swinton, and others giving voice to Jarman s elegiac meditations on the loss of his sight, his friends, and his life. Other highlights of the series include a program of Jarman s music videos (Nov 7), as well as some of his rarely-seen short films. Shot partly on Fire Island, In the Shadow of the Sun (1980 Nov 3) syncs some of Jarman s earliest Super-8 work to a Throbbing Gristle score, Imagining October (1984 Nov 3), a critique of Soviet (and Western) censorship shot partly in Eisenstein s library, and The Queen is Dead (1986 Nov 3), a set of music videos by the Smiths. Completed after his death, Glitterbug (1994 Nov 3) compiles some of Jarman s most intimate 8mm and video portraits of himself and his environs and screens alongside Pirate Tape (1987), which records a visit to London by Beat legend William S. Burroughs, and T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven (1981) a Throbbing Gristle concert film. For press information, please contact: Lisa Thomas at 718.724.8023 / lthomas@bam.org Hannah Thomas at 718.724.8002 / hthomas@bam.org Queer Pagan Punk: The Films of Derek Jarman Schedule Thu, Oct 30 7, 9:30pm: Jubilee Fri, Oct 31 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: The Devils Sat, Nov 1 7, 9:15pm: The Tempest Sun, Nov 2 4, 6:15, 8:30pm: Edward II Mon, Nov 3 7:30pm: Glitterbug + Pirate Tape + T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven 9:15pm: In the Shadow of the Sun + Imagining October + The Queen is Dead Tue, Nov 4 7, 9:15pm: The Angelic Conversation Wed, Nov 5 7, 9:15pm: The Last of England Thu, Nov 6 7, 9:15pm: War Requiem Fri, Nov 7 7:30pm: Blue 9:30pm: Music Program: Jarman Music Videos Sat, Nov 8
4:30, 7, 9:15pm: Caravaggio Sun, Nov 9 2, 6:30pm: Sebastiane 4:15, 8:45pm: Wittgenstein Mon, Nov 10 7, 9:15pm: Aria Tue, Nov 11 8pm: The Garden Film Descriptions All films directed by Derek Jarman and in 35mm unless otherwise noted. The Angelic Conversation (1985) 81min With Paul Reynolds, Phillip Williamson. Jarman s voluptuously romantic essay film sets erotically charged, slow-motion imagery of two men against the words of 14 of Shakespeare s sonnets as read by Judi Dench. The result is an ecstatically beautiful paean to desire and a ravishing feast for the senses that Jarman described as the work closest to my heart. 35mm archival print. Tue, Nov 4 at 7, 9:15pm Aria (1987) 90min Directed by Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge, Julien Temple. With Bridget Fonda, John Hurt, Elizabeth Hurley. Ten master directors contributed to this operatic omnibus film, in which each visually stunning short is set to an iconic aria. Among its highlights: Godard s staging of Armide with bodybuilders; Robert Altman packing an opera house full of inmates from an insane asylum; and Jarman s yearningly beautiful take on Charpentier s Louise, starring Tilda Swinton. Mon, Nov 10 at 7, 9:15pm Blue (1993) 79min Narrated by Derek Jarman, Tilda Swinton, Nigel Terry, John Quentin. Using only a blue screen, intricate sound design, and a running monologue by the director and some of his closest collaborators, Jarman s final film captures his increasingly sightless world while he was going blind dying of AIDS. One of the most heart-wrenching artistic statements ever put on film, Blue is an elegiac farewell to life by an artist confronting his own mortality. Fri, Nov 7 at 7:30pm Caravaggio (1986) 93min With Sean Bean, Tilda Swinton, Nigel Terry, Robbie Coltrane. Jarman s biography of the Italian Renaissance painter charts his life from the beginning of his career painting austere Biblical exaltations to his rampant flirtations with Roman counterculture. Jarman creates an evocative portrait of Rome s dark underbelly, finding cinematic equivalents to Caravaggio s masterful use of chiaroscuro. New DCP restoration. Sat, Nov 8 at 4:30, 7, 9:15pm The Devils (1971) 111min Directed by Ken Russell. With Oliver Reed, Vanessa Redgrave. Jarman created the dazzlingly imaginative production design for Ken Russell s ultra-controversial X-rated shocker (based on Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun) about a 17th-century French convent overcome with sexual frenzy and witch-hunt hysteria. An orgiastic spectacle of sadomasochistic sex and religious iconography, The Devils is a still-potent landmark of transgressive cinema. Fri, Oct 31 at 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm
Edward II (1991) 87min With Steven Waddington, Tilda Swinton, Andrew Tiernan. Christopher Marlowe s play gets a daringly original treatment in Jarman s hands, as the 14th-century monarch (Waddington) and his presumed lover Piers Gaveston (Tiernan) are portrayed as victims of gay persecution. Staged in an imaginary realm outside of time (at one point Annie Lennox sings Cole Porter), Edward II is a bold commentary on homophobia in contemporary Britain. Sun, Nov 2 at 4, 6:15, 8:30pm The Garden (1990) 92min With Tilda Swinton, Johnny Mills, Philip MacDonald. Jarman channeled his anguish over AIDS and discrimination into this scorching visual essay, combining feverish images of religious iconography and gay persecution, a camp musical number, and footage shot near the post-apocalyptic-looking nuclear power plant that abutted the director s own beloved garden. The result is an angry, lyrical, and utterly transfixing cinematic mosaic rife with blistering intensity. Tue, Nov 11 at 8pm Glitterbug (1994) 54min Assembling 20 years of home movies, Jarman s intimate self-portrait is a vibrant record of an extraordinary life, featuring footage of the director at work on his films, Britain s underground gay and punk scenes, and friends like William S. Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge, and Tilda Swinton, all set to music by Brian Eno. Screens with Pirate Tape and T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven. Mon, Nov 3 at 7:30pm Imagining October (1984) 27min Assembled from Super 8 footage that Jarman shot in Moscow and set to music by Britten and Throbbing Gristle s Genesis P-Orridge, this kaleidoscopic glimpse into pre-glasnost Russia is rife with references to Soviet art and politics. 16mm. Screens with In the Shadow of the Sun and The Queen is Dead. Mon, Nov 3 at 9:15pm In the Shadow of the Sun (1972/1980) 50min Flaming red Super 8 footage of occult rituals are slowed down to a hypnotic crawl and set to an unsettling industrial score by Throbbing Gristle, resulting in a witchy brew of magic and mysticism. 16mm. Screens with Imagining October and The Queen is Dead. Mon, Nov 3 at 9:15pm Jubilee (1978) 103min With Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox. As long as the music s loud enough, we won t hear the world falling apart. Queen Elizabeth I (Runacre) gets zapped to late-70s England, a post-punk apocalyptic nightmare in which distaff anarcho-freaks run amok in a decaying landscape of urban ultra-violence. Derek Jarman s nihilist anti-comedy features a Brian Eno score and appearances from punk pioneers Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and Adam Ant and cinema s most disturbing use of ketchup. DCP. Thu, Oct 30 at 7, 9:30pm The Last of England (1987) 87min With Tilda Swinton, Spencer Leigh, Nigel Terry. Jarman s face-melting cinematic collage delivers a snarling punk doomsday message to Thatcher-era Great Britain. Mixing the director s own home movies with apocalyptic, weirdly beautiful images of violence, urban decay, and Tilda Swinton as a crazed whirling dervish, The Last of England is visionary cinema at its best (Jonathan Rosenbaum). 35mm archival print. Wed, Nov 5 at 7, 9:15pm Music Program: Jarman Music Videos 75min
Jarman s radical queer-punk aesthetic was a perfect visual analog for some of Britain s most adventurous bands including the Smiths, Throbbing Gristle, and the Sex Pistols as seen in this program of music videos. BETASP. Fri, Nov 7 at 9:30pm Pirate Tape (1982) 12min Made in collaboration with Genesis P-Orridge s Psychic TV, this rarely seen short follows William S. Burroughs through the streets of London. 16mm. Screens with Glitterbug and T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven. Mon, Nov 3 at 7:30pm The Queen is Dead (1986) 13min This trio of music videos for three songs by the Smiths are swirling collages of violent, homoerotic, and anti-state imagery that heighten the doomy romanticism and political bite of Morrissey s lyrics. Screens with In the Shadow of the Sun and Imagining October. Mon, Nov 3 at 9:15pm Sebastiane (1976) 82min Directed by Derek Jarman & Paul Humfress. With Leonardo Treviglio, Barney James, Neil Kennedy. This milestone of queer cinema transforms the saga of Saint Sebastian into an erotic paean to the male nude. Performed entirely in Latin with music by Brian Eno, the film captures the Roman soldier s exile at a sunbaked military outpost portrayed by Jarman as part sword-and-sandals epic, part languorous gay idyll and his grisly, sadomasochistic martyrdom. New DCP restoration. Sun, Nov 9 at 2, 6:30pm The Tempest (1979) 95min With Heathcote Williams, Toyah Willcox, Jack Birkett. Jarman s audacious staging of Shakespeare s tale of magic and revenge combines a crumbling Gothic atmosphere with an outlandish cabaret-like assortment of characters. The result is a punk rock take on the Bard s final work, in which the jaw-dropping finale finds blues singer Elisabeth Welch warbling Stormy Weather amid a chorus line of sailor boys. DCP. Sat, Nov 1 at 7, 9:15pm T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven (1981) 9min Eerily pulsating images of Throbbing Gristle are set to the band s disturbingly nihilistic post-punk dirges in this experimental concert film. 16mm. Screens with Glitterbug and Pirate Tape. Mon, Nov 3 at 7:30pm War Requiem (1989) 89min With Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, Laurence Olivier. Set to Benjamin Britten s devastating War Requiem, which combines the Latin Mass with text by WWI poet Wilfred Owen, this dialogue-free drama features tour-de-force silent performances from Nathaniel Parker and Tilda Swinton as a soldier and nurse. The potent combination of Britten s elegiac music and Jarman s feverish imagery yields a shattering emotional experience. 35mm archival print. Thu, Nov 6 at 7, 9:15pm Wittgenstein (1993) 75min With Karl Johnson, Michael Gough, Tilda Swinton. This droll, Brechtian take on the life of Ludwig Wittgenstein charts the philosopher s plush childhood in Vienna, his contentious relationship with fellow intellectual Bertrand Russell, and his struggles with his own homosexuality. Jarman s fantastical touches abound as the influential thinker finds himself, variously, trapped in a birdcage and conversing with a fuzzy green Martian. DCP. Sun, Nov 9 at 4:15, 8:45pm About BAMcinématek
The four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas (BRC) opened in 1998 to offer Brooklyn audiences alternative and independent films that might not play in the borough otherwise, making BAM the only performing arts center in the country with two mainstage theaters and a multiplex cinema. In July 1999, beginning with a series celebrating the work of Spike Lee, BAMcinématek was born as Brooklyn s only daily, year-round repertory film program. BAMcinématek presents new and rarely seen contemporary films, classics, work by local artists, and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors, and other guests. BAMcinématek has not only presented major retrospectives by major filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Manoel de Oliveira, Shohei Imamura, Vincente Minnelli (winning a National Film Critics Circle Award prize for the retrospective), Kaneto Shindo, Luchino Visconti, and William Friedkin, but it has also introduced New York audiences to contemporary artists such as Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In addition, BAMcinématek programmed the first US retrospectives of directors Arnaud Desplechin, Nicolas Winding Refn, Hong Sang-soo, and, most recently, Andrzej Zulawski. From 2006 to 2008, BAMcinématek partnered with the Sundance Institute and in June 2009 launched BAMcinemaFest, a 16-day festival of new independent films and repertory favorites with 15 NY feature film premieres; the sixth annual BAMcinemaFest ran from June 18 29, 2014. Credits The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek. Steinberg Screen at the BAM Harvey Theater is made possible by The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust. Pepsi is the official beverage of BAM. Brooklyn Brewery is the preferred beer of BAMcinématek. BAM Rose Cinemas are named in recognition of a major gift in honor of Jonathan F.P. and Diana Calthorpe Rose. BAM Rose Cinemas would also like to acknowledge the generous support of The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Estate of Richard B. Fisher, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Bloomberg, and Time Warner Inc. Additional support for BAMcinématek is provided by The Grodzins Fund, The Liman Foundation, the Frederick Loewe Foundation, and Summit Rock Advisors. BAMcinématek is programmed by Nellie Killian and David Reilly with assistance from Gabriele Caroti and Jesse Trussell. Additional programming by Ryan Werner. Special thanks to Kristie Nakamura/Warner Bros. Classics; James Mackay/Basilisk; LUMA; Arnie Holland/Lightyear; Charlie Bligh, George Watson & Margaret Deriaz/BFI; Donald Boyd; Emily Russo/Zeitgeist; John Henderson/Euro- London Films; Thomas Pfeiffer/Metropolis Archiv; Dean Otto/Walker Art Center. General Information BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, offers a bar menu and dinner entrées prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a bar menu available starting at 6pm. Subway: Train: Bus: Car: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal Barclays Center B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.