Caravaggio

It is of relevance that Derek Jarman was a production designer on Ken Russell’s 1973 film, The Devils, for that director was well-known for appropriating history for his own purposes. Many of Jarman's films follow a similar approach and this means that they are largely as interesting to any audience as are the director’s purposes.

Russell eventually wore out his welcome by the late 1970s whilst Jarman rose to prominence in the 1980s as a leading figure on the revitalized British art scene. “Art” more than “film” is Jarman’s homeground and I have never been taken by his films, less because his interests are not mine than because they labour under the self-regarding hubris of the look-at-me artist.

Caravaggio is probably Jarman’s most conventional film, a gorgeously-mounted biopic of the infamous painter built episodically around his well-known paintings. Jarman leaves the historical setting intact but inhabits it with Cockney oiks and peppers it with anachronistically modern details as much to show how hip he is as to tell us that the story has relevance to modern times. Familiar faces such as Nigel Terry, Tilda Swinton, Michael Gough and Sean Bean play the Italians (Dexter Fletcher would become a familiar face thanks to Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) but by the time Robbie Coltrane rolls up as Scipione Borghese this is all getting pretty tiresome .

Within Jarman’s body of work Caravaggio is a substantial effort but unless you’re a fan of the mid 80s Brit Art scene, for all its gorgeous production design, this is more likely to frustrate than persuade.

 

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