Derek Jarman Filmography

Born:: January 31, 1942 in Northwood, Middlesex, England, UK
Occupation:: Actor, Director, Production Designer, Cinematographer, Screenwriter
Biography:: An accomplished painter, Derek Jarman entered films in the early '70s, designing sets for Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) and Savage Messiah (1972). After making numerous experimental shorts, mostly in Super-8, he began helming features in 1979 with Sebastiane, a controversial gay-themed account...Read More

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Derek

Actors: Derek Jarman, Tilda Swinton

Synopsis: Actress Tilda Swinton collaborates with director Isaac Julien on this richly textured tribute to the late British filmmaker Derek Jarman. In 2002, Swinton penned the text entitled "Letter to an Angel" in memory of her deceased friend and collaborator. In this film, that elegiac piece of writing is Read More

6/16/08
Glitterbug

Crew: Book Author, Cinematographer, Director

Synopsis: This British film represents the farewell of author/director Derek Jarman who died of AIDS in March 1994. It is considered to be the companion piece to Jarman's film Blue. Without a traditional plot, the film chronicles Jarman's life before AIDS with a series of free-flowing images gleaned from Read More

1994
Wittgenstein

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Karl Johnson, Michael Gough, Tilda Swinton, John Quentin, Kevin Collins

Synopsis: Derek Jarman directed this witty, stylish biography of the life of the eccentric 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (Karl Johnson). Wittgenstein is shown as a boy living a repressive youth, demonstrated by his family appearing in Roman togas. When Wittgenstein leaves to study under Read More

1993
Blue

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: John Quentin, Nigel Terry, Derek Jarman, Tilda Swinton

Synopsis: A year before director Derek Jarman succumbed fully to AIDS, he made his last film. In Blue, the color blue is all there is to see as Jarman tries to bring the audience into his vision-impaired world. Jarman offers his insights on life, love, disease, the meaning of art, and the symbology of the Read More

1993
Edward II

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Steven Waddington, Andrew Tiernan, Tilda Swinton, Nigel Terry, Kevin Collins

Synopsis: Two years before director Derek Jarman died of AIDS, he directed this extremely ambitious variation on Christopher Marlowe's 16th-century play. While Marlowe is the root of this film, Jarman has taken a great deal of leeway with the manner of presentation. The story revolves around King Edward's Read More

3/20/92
The Garden

Crew: Cinematographer, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Derek Jarman, Tilda Swinton, John Mills, Jody Graber, Kevin Collins, Pete Lee-Wilson, Philip MacDonald, Roger Cook

Synopsis: Director Derek Jarman takes the viewer for a walk around his own garden in rural England for this non-narrative film. Many of the scenes depict the Passion of Christ, but the sufferings are instead visited upon a gay couple. Jarman then assaults the senses with a series of images, including a Read More

1990
Aria

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Theresa Russell, Nicola Swain, Jackson Kyle, Buck Henry, Marianne McLoughlin, Julie Hagerty, Tilda Swinton, Marion Peterson

Synopsis: An international collection of well-known directors contributed to this compilation film, each fashioning a short film inspired by an aria from a famous opera. The approaches vary broadly, from the playful abstraction of Jean-Luc Godard's segment, which illustrates Armide with exercising Read More

3/18/88
War Requiem

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, Laurence Olivier, Patricia Hayes, Rohan McCullough

Synopsis: The first BBC television film to be given a British theatrical release, Derek Jarman's War Requiem is a cinematic interpretation of composer Benjamin Britten's famed oratorio. Narrated by Lord Laurence Olivier, whose last film this was, War Requiem combines Britten's music with the words of Read More

1988
The Last of England

Crew: Cinematographer, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Tilda Swinton, Spencer Leigh, Spring, Gay Gaynor, Matthew Hawkins

Synopsis: British filmmaker Derek Jarman combines his standard erotic imagery with innovative documentary techniques in his Last of England. The film traces the decline and fall of Britain as seen from the vantage points of London and Belfast. Old home movies, newly shot hand-held 8 millimeter photography Read More

1987
Caravaggio

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, Garry Cooper, Spencer Leigh, Tilda Swinton

Synopsis: Writer/director Derek Jarman injects his patented iconoclasm in this biography of Renaissance artist Michelangelo Merisa da Caravaggio. Nigel Terry plays the title role, whom (according to Jarman) essentially told his own life story in his paintings. Caravaggio travelled among thieves and Read More

1986
The Angelic Conversation

Crew: Cinematographer, Director, Editor

Synopsis: Through a symbolic visual language that may be misunderstood by some, director and writer Derek Jarman has created an experimental film that at first appears to be the internal fantasy of one man. In reality, the story is about the love between two gay men (portrayed by Paul Reynolds and Philip Williamson Read More

1985
In the Shadow of the Sun

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This experimental film by Derek Jarman features the multilayered, hypnotic non-linear effects of Super-8 set to a sound track with the music of Throbbing Gristle and Chris Carter. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1980
The Tempest

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Heathcote Williams, Karl Johnson, Jack Birkett, David Meyer, Elisabeth Welch

Synopsis: Filmed in 1979 and released publicly one year later, The Tempest is an abstract 16-millimeter feature film based loosely on the "magical" Shakespeare play. Director/writer Derek Jarman also throws in a few Shakespearean sonnets when the spirit moves him. Essentially, Jarman uses the material as Read More

1979
Jubilee

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jenny Runacre, Jordan, Nell Campbell, Linda Spurrier

Synopsis: Steeped in the nihilistic philosophy and rebellious fashions of the British punk movement, this early feature by experimental filmmaker Derek Jarman presents an unusual look at late 1970s London. The bulk of Jubilee focuses on a loosely connected group of female outcasts, united by a hatred of Read More

1978
Sebastiane

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Leonardo Treviglio, Barney James, Neil Kennedy, Richard Warwick

Synopsis: Filmed entirely in vulgar Latin, this experimental film recounts the life of Sebastiane, a puritanical but beautiful Christian soldier in the Roman Imperial troops who is martyred when he refuses the homosexual advances of his pagan captain. When this film was released, it was the only Read More

1976
Savage Messiah

Crew: Production Designer

Actors: Dorothy Tutin, Scott Antony, Helen Mirren, Lindsay Kemp, Michael Gough

Synopsis: Based on the book of the same name by H.S. Ede, eccentric director Ken Russell created this biographical drama of a great early 20th century artist who died tragically young. Henri Gaudier (Scott Anthony) is only 18 years old, a self-taught Parisian sculptor of enormous talent but prone to rash Read More

1972
The Devils

Crew: Production Designer, Set Designer

Actors: Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Reed, Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian, Gemma Jones

Synopsis: The Devils was the Ken Russell film version of the controversial play by John Whiting. The story, based on Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun, concerns controversial 17th century French priest Urbain Grandier, whose radical political and religious notions and profligate sex life earn him many Read More

1971