Customer Reviews

Angelic Conversation [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I find doing reviews and giving stars to rate works of cinematic art very difficult because the standards that each of us reviewers apply are obviously quite different. If a viewer is expecting to see some sort of terrifying series of images (prompted by some of the cover notes) - in other words, a kind of Vincent-Pricean flick - they s/he is going to be perplexed by the pace, the imagery, the monologue the symbolism, and the haunting bittersweet ending, then s/he will be utterly lost. If one is homophobic, s/he will outright dismiss the value of this work without doing even the most cursory examination of the film's merits and structure.

This is cinematic art along lines of German Expressionism which is highly albeit consistently symbolic, allegorical, metaphorical...even mystical. But if a viewer is not familiar with the evolution of this cinematic style in its modern application, knows nothing about how the cinematographer creates art through whatever methods are available, who knows nothing about Aleister Crowley and his philosophy of Self-Realization through magical means,...indeed, who knows nothing about Shakespeare, about the concept of the Spiritual Twin, does not understand Jungian Archetypes, is dead to the palpable yearning for one's Heavenly Self as depicted in the slow-frame pacing, will be hard pressed to make any sense out of it. The perfect marriage of imagery, technique, monologue, and music reaching a crescendo of Perfect Reconciliation when the Two Twins cease fighting one another and then embrace is so ineffable as to bring tears to my eyes each and every time I see it. But I am intimately familiar with all of the above concepts and methodologies, and, hence, the film is easily accessible to me. And, with the majority of positive reviews, there are clearly many others who share a similar aesthetic.

A film such as this will never be on cable TV and the other purveyors of movie entertainment. Don't look to rent the video at your favorite Video/DVD outlet. If you like standard fare movies, as opposed to cinema, you won't like this because you won't get it. Furthermore, the image of two guys wrestling, groping and kissing will definitely freak many viewers out since they do not understand that these images are symbols of the attainment of True Self-Knowledge, the Twins Conjoined. They won't understand the eerie symbology of the preparatory anointment of the tattooed man which refers to the preparation of the body for the Enthronement of the Realized Self. They won't weep in blissful recognition of the Rising Sun on a male figure because they have not done the "wet work." They will fail to understand the seabathing sequence as a metaphor for Baptism. Etc., etc.

But I know that there is a greater market for such fare, who are fed up with the decline in culture and education, with the stupefaction that the standard media affords. This small but significant minority is truly still alive while the others are already lost to history.

This is not a movie for the masses. But to those prepared to view it, probably several times, they will be overwhelmed by the intrinsic harmony and balance all of the film elements and deeply, deeply moved...forever after.

The Angelic Conversation (Derek Jarman, 1985)

Avant-garde filmmaker (Blue, Stolen Apples for Karen Blixen) and music video director (The Smiths, The Pet Shop Boys) Derek Jarman had a wonderful way of taking the old and making it new again. Well, perhaps "old" is not the right word. Perhaps "established" is better. How many indie filmmakers are known for using A-list actors in their work? (How many are able to persuade them?) But Jarman's movies boast casts that wouldn't be out of place in Michael Bay or Steven Spielberg movies. Case in point: The Angelic Conversation, in which Dame Judi Dench, still a few years away from daming but already OBE and a multiple BAFTA award winner, recites Shakespeare sonnets. Talk about established. This, along with the wonderful music of Jarman's old pals Coil, is the soundtrack to one man's quest for love. And yeah, I'll admit the actual video bits here are, well, kind of pretentious. That goes hand-in-hand with avant-garde filmmaking, especially of the British variety (I mean, come on, Peter Greenaway?). But that doesn't make me enjoy it any less; the pretension is a part of the charm. Though, really, you could put Coil and Judi Dench reciting Shakespeare behind a blank screen and I'd still watch it. (Yes, I have the soundtrack.) Probably best for fans of Jarman, Dench, and Coil, but really, I'd suggest at least checking it out for just about anyone who's not allergic to indie filmmaking. ***

I wanted to see this film because I'd owned the soundtrack for some time; COIL is one of my favorite bands. Frankly,I was a surprised by my viewing experience (surprised, because I had only ever seen one Jarman film prior to this one-- WITTGENSTEIN, a film with an comparably linear narrative structure). My impression of THE ANGELIC CONVERSATION is that it was a good idea on paper, and probably very cheap to produce, and someone owed Jarman a favor, and it was really a nice weekend to go for a bit of jaunt on the Isle of Wight (or whatever remote Britannic locale supplied the uncertain backdrop of the film), etc.. If your idea of a good time is watching a bunch of men dressed in bed sheets dragging logs through a stream in slow motion, while listening to Dame Judi Dench gnomically intone some of Shakespeare's sonnets, you're in for a treat. If this isn't enough to crisp your biscuits, there are, alternately, several segments (one can't really call these free-floating images 'scenes') that take place in a cave, wherein several young men seem to be annointing another young man sitting on a throne. The symbolism is implicitly homoerotic, as is the entire subject matter of the film (most of Shakespeare's sonnets are presumed to have been written from the elder man to his young lover, Harry Wriothsley, Duke of Southampton). But what exactly all this men-bathing-men business is supposed to mean, other than a vague ocular parallel to orally articulated material, is a mystery to me. My advice is to drop some acid before viewing this film, and follow it up with Ken Russel's SALOME'S LAST DANCE.

A wondrous film, and as Amos Lassen suggests, demanding but not difficult, yet infinitely rewarding. Derek Jarman was an artist gifted with genius, and now 'Angelic Conversation' is available in the terrific 'Glitterbox' set. But Amos's review, which otherwise does say it all, is wrong in a couple of respects; it's not 'Judy' Dench, it's Judi. With an 'i'. And although Joan Rivers, on the Oscar Night red carpet, did once shriek "Dame Dench!" while trying to attract Dame Judi's attention, the correct form of address is, indeed, 'Dame Judi'. And not 'Dame Dench'. Just as one speaks of (or to) 'Sir Ian' and not 'Sir McKellen'. Ah, the formalities so beloved of we Brits! But at least England gave Derek Jarman to the world, which makes me very proud of my home country.

I have never been so bored with a movie in my whole life. It drags eternally, and you may even get dizzy by the way it's done. Only still photographs of nature and half naked male models moving staccato, no action, no acting, no dramatic conflict. Sometimes it looks like a dated, amateurish project improvised by clumsy cinema students. Poems are well declaimed (Judi Dench, I think) but that alone does not make up a movie. I really admired the formal beauty of Jarman's CARAVAGGIO, but here there isn't anything atractive. Tiring, pretentious and over intellectual, it's far from being of any interest at all. One star I think it's too many.

I just saw it after buying it used. i hated it. there is no dialogue except for a woman reading a poem and strange music. i only watched half the film and turned it off. i won't say what i really thought of this. maybe to someone it would be good but i didn't like it at all. i am sorry i bought it. i only bought it because it had a guy in it that i saw in another movie and loved.