Derek JARMAN

The emergence in the 1970s of a publicly recognised British art cinema is often attributed to the impact of two directors, Peter GREENAWAY and Derek Jarman. Both have flitted between the avant-garde and more mainstream projects, and there were other similarities in their concern with the formal possibilities of the medium and in their rejection of conventional narrative. However, if GREENAWAY has sometimes been cerebral and cold, Jarman's films are more often warm and instinctive. Despite a career cut tragically short, his life and work constitute a unique, influential legacy.

Born in Northwood, Middlesex on 31 January 1942, Derek Jarman attended Kings College and the University of London, then from 1963 studied painting at the Slade School of Art. After working as a set designer at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, he moved into cinema as art director on two Ken RUSSELL films, The Devils (1971) and Savage Messiah (1972). On the former he created the memorable, gleamingly white interiors. His directorial debut, Sebastiane (1976), established a number of his recurrent themes. Its depiction of the martyrdom of St Sebastian allows Jarman to consider the figure of the outsider, as well as giving him considerably free reign for homoerotic imagery and his painterly instincts. The film gathered some notoriety for its male nudity and deserves a special footnote in film history as the first, and perhaps last, film in which the dialogue is spoken in Latin.