Sebastiane

By: Raymond Murray
In-House Review - Jul 25 2012

Derek Jarman's sensual, lushly photographed, highly erotic (and homoerotic) vision of the legend of St. Sebastian is filled with beautiful images of male bodies and graphic scenes of sex and torture. The lives of few saints are as shrouded in mystery as that of the celebrated martyr Sebastian, whose arrow-pierced body has become one of the most familiar images in Christian iconography. In this film, he is perceived as a Christian sympathizer who, sent into exile by the Emperor Diocletian, becomes involved in a sadomasochistic intrigue which ultimately results in his death.

By: Amos Lassen

I understand that when Derek Jarman's "Sebastiane" was released in 1976 it caused quite uproar. It is not like a regular movie and is more of a fantasy that is soaked with homoerotic and sadomasochistic imagery which is played out against the beautiful Sardinian coast. The dialog is in Latin and it adds to the sense of mystery of the film. Hovering over the film is a sense of sexual desire and yearning. There is also a lot of bondage and torture. In fact, Leonardo Treviglio who plays Sebastiane, is dressed in a loin cloth and hanged by his wrists and flogged, burned, laid out spread-eagle under a burning sun and ultimately lanced with arrows. The lines between pleasure and pain are blurred as is the difference between lust and longing.
Derek Jarman is a visual artist and the film has more in common with Sebastiane's paintings than it does with his life. The film has to do more with sex than it does with history. The approach to homosexuality is interesting. No one is labeled or called homosexual and in the beginning sex seems to be depoliticized. There are acts and, as we know, acts are not, in themselves, political. The film is not predatory or accusative. Sebastiane is killed because of the lust of Severus who he refuses. But lust is not condemned in the film either-Anthony and Adrian are open lovers and there is a great deal of male nudity.
The movie is a lyrical love poem and it is beautiful to look at. The love/hate affair between Sebastiane and Severus is realistic as Jarman focuses on style over substance. Instead of a straightforward narrative, we have a contemplative poem of a homo-socio society where there are no visible women and men are allowed to be intimate with one another.
Again, this is not a movie that will appeal to everyone but what this movie did do was to open the doors to more open filmmaking in which audiences can see what they want.

By: Dmbnut

For a man who is so well respected as a filmmaker, this boring, childish, and laughable movie must not be a representation of his work. The writing was intolerable, the costume looked like the raided a junior high school's drama department, and there was no sense of character development or decipherable plot (despite being a "historical" feature.) Characters, at times, would just turn and talk to the camera to make sure that we could follow along - it didn't help. He even made 2 masked men wrestling in the water seem completely unsexy. Avoid at all costs.

By: Benny

I enjoyed the movie it is sort of like Caligula the movie. Same type of story line, though they do talk about people in that movie it is almost as if that is part of the movie "Caligula" but the edited version of it. It is nice you do see alot of naked or half naked men in the movie. I enjoy nudity in movies it catches my attention more. If you are a movie and a subtitled person like me then its worth getting!