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Review

The late Derek Jarman has been fading from the public consciousness, a fact troubling to his former muse and frequent star, Tilda Swinton. She and filmmaker Isaac Julien help revive Jarman and his amazing work by revisiting his films, old haunts and interviews. An artist and activist who managed to create up until the very end of his life, when his body was wracked by AIDS (he succumbed in 1994), Jarman began his career in 1960s London. He broke ground during the 1970s, producing unabashedly queer films like 1976’s Sebastiane, 1977’s politically-infused Jubilee, the 1986 biopic Caravaggio, and, perhaps best known to US audiences, a 1991 adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s “Edward II.” Along the way, he also made films and videos for bands such as the Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths. Diagnosed with HIV in the mid-‘80s, Jarman used his work to express his anger and, in the case of 1993’s Blue, deteriorating health. Derek is a class act and an exhilarating one -- many of these richly colorful clips haven’t been seen on US screens in decades, and they are glorious to behold and revisit. Even if this is the first time you have heard his name, Derek will forever remain in your memory, just as Tilda and his contemporaries wished.

 -- Lawrence Ferber