Jarman Shorts 1 reviews
Review by on 26 Sep 2008
Personally introduced by James Mackay (producer of many Jarman shorts, music videos and experimental features like THE LAST OF ENGLAND), and screened with a specially commissioned soundtrack by Coil, this, the first of two Festival programmes, spans the initial five years of Jarman’s imaginative attempts at experimental filmmaking using Super-8.
Shot on a simple NIZO480 handheld camera – described by Jarman as an “instrument to bring dreams to life” – and clearly influenced by the avant-garde tradition of Man Ray’s L’ETOILE DE MER and Cocteau’s UN CHIEN ANDALOU 1928, this showcase of Modern Silent films demonstrates the origins of Jarman’s visionary, painterly approach to cinema.
From the montage of static shots and quasi-documentary style of his first colour study STUDIO BANKSIDE, to the more staged and theatrical clouds of fine white dust emerging from Christopher Hobbs slow handclap in THE MAGICIAN, Jarman’s artist eye for detail is evident. Later shorts FIRE ISLAND and THE DEVILS AT ELGIN begin to explore the texture of the screen through prisms of hand-coloured gels and superimpositions – the projection of two different films, one on top of the other and then re-filming.
Using props to hand, friends as actors and their surroundings as sets, Jarman demonstrates the artistic freedom of Independent filmmaking and the handheld camera. A rare opportunity, not only for cinema buffs and fledgling filmmakers but for the Festival audience, to see a new cinematic language being formed.
Sarah Pottle, Festival Daily
Personally introduced by James Mackay (producer of many Jarman shorts, music videos and experimental features like THE LAST OF ENGLAND), and screened with a specially commissioned soundtrack by Coil, this, the first of two Festival programmes, spans the initial five years of Jarman’s imaginative attempts at experimental filmmaking using Super-8.Shot on a simple NIZO480 handheld camera – described by Jarman as an “instrument to bring dreams to life” – and clearly influenced by the avant-garde tradition of Man Ray’s L’ETOILE DE MER and Cocteau’s UN CHIEN ANDALOU 1928, this showcase of Modern Silent films demonstrates the origins of Jarman’s visionary, painterly approach to cinema.
From the montage of static shots and quasi-documentary style of his first colour study STUDIO BANKSIDE, to the more staged and theatrical clouds of fine white dust emerging from Christopher Hobbs slow handclap in THE MAGICIAN, Jarman’s artist eye for detail is evident. Later shorts FIRE ISLAND and THE DEVILS AT ELGIN begin to explore the texture of the screen through prisms of hand-coloured gels and superimpositions – the projection of two different films, one on top of the other and then re-filming.
Using props to hand, friends as actors and their surroundings as sets, Jarman demonstrates the artistic freedom of Independent filmmaking and the handheld camera. A rare opportunity, not only for cinema buffs and fledgling filmmakers but for the Festival audience, to see a new cinematic language being formed.
Sarah Pottle, Festival Daily
Film details
Jarman Shorts 1
DEREK JARMAN: REMEMBERED
Director: Derek Jarman
UK, 2008.
90 mins. English.
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