39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chapeaux, Gentlemen, a Feast for the Eye, May 29, 2008
I remember seeing this film in theaters when it first came out. I was so struck by the shadowy drama and sparkling wit of the imagery that I dragged EVERYONE I KNEW to see it. They still have my fingermarks on their arms.
Jarman's film is not a biography in the strict sense. Rather, he uses Caravaggio's paintings and a loose chronology of events as a point of departure to present his own musings on art, love, sexuality and its politics. The photography is painterly in the best sense of the word and evokes the period acutely. The cast, a director's dream by any standard, is splendid. Tilda Swindon absolutely glows on screen, Sean Bean is as feral as a tomcat, and Nigel Terry is believably world-weary and laconic, a prisoner of his vision, his debauchery, and the unfolding destiny the intersection of the two character traits dictates.
Jarman makes excellent use of anachronistic elements in the film to point out the relevance of those issues to the present day. My favorite scene shows a Vatican functionary, wearing nothing but his nightcap, sitting in a porcelain bathtub and typing on a manual typerwriter...in the 15th century! The witticisms are unmistakeable and very ably presented. Ironically, they make the whole film seem even more convincingly Baroque.
Video was the last time this film was available, and I'm very glad that someone had the nerve to reissue it on DVD. It is a very long time coming.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Biofic of an artist, July 29, 2009
That's biographical fiction - although Jarman started with a solid core of historical truth about this brilliant brawler, the film contains at least as much speculation and interpolation as actual fact.
Much of it works well. The film's stark contrasts of light and dark echo Caravaggio's own innovation in chiaroscuro. Numerous anachronisms appear as well, including cars, calculators, and modern clothing. Like the film's contrasts, these reiterate the anachronisms tha Caravaggio put into his paintings. Although jarring at first, these blends of era add to the movie's quirky charm.
Male homosexuality appears repeatedly in Jarman's career, so it's no surprise that Jarman makes the most of the allegations about Caravaggio's orientation. In fact, that offers a major motivation for some of the most dramatic events near the end of this movie - events that form around Tilda Swinton in her first movie role. This brings me to something I found odd in this movie (I mean odd even by this movie's standards): Nigel Terry plays his Caravaggio with an understatement that doesn't always match the magnitude of the events around him. Perhaps a poker face would have suited the dangerous circles in which Caravaggio travelled; perhaps Caravaggio was meant to express himself through his art.
The result shouldn't be taken as genuine history. Still, it creates an enjoyable drama in homage to this brilliant but eccentric and enigmatic painter.
-- wiredweird
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing, August 11, 2005
Of all the Derek Jarman films I've yet come across, this is my favorite. I say this with reservation: Jarman is hard to like, not merely because his movies are stocked with gratuitous nudity and sex, not merely because he goes into overkill with lighting imagery (never thought I could say that about anyone), and not merely because he never had the money to use a proper set.
Those are reasons enough, I'll give. Most of the time, Jarman just seems to be in a different world. I hated what he did to "Edward II", but I must admit that the stills from the movie are themselves exquisite pieces of art. There's lots of moments that could be set aside from "Caravaggio", and appreciated alone. That's I think Jarman's greatest talent. Every scene is brimming with symbolism, light imagery, poetry and painstaking posing.
Jarman is a neat combination of underwhelming production and overwhelming camp. Often times his direction sets apart puerile categories of "good" and "evil". That's where the lighting imagery usually comes in. Worse yet, his movies are often boring.
In spite of these faults, Jarman still does things that I find worthwhile. Sincerity, for one. Even if he never really makes sense, or if he thinks that he's reaching some new art form, it's obvious that Jarman honestly cares for his work. His scripts are laden with outrageously vulgar love poetry, and his characters deliver them in dreamlike dazes, unperturbed and not really trying to shock.
People, similar, can be crass and sentimental in the same breath.
Typical Jarman, "Caravaggio" is bold, crass, sexual, and tragic. The surprise ending was a surprise strength in terms of complexing the plot and themes.
"Caravaggio" in particular was watchable for how Jarman would reinvent the original scene that a painting came from. The differences between the inspiration and the end result suggested all sorts of things about the artist: playfulness, cynicism, anguish or elation. This film has more humour than most of his other ones, with a main character - performed by game Nigel Terry - who blessedly can make fun of himself. That's a relief, given how dark the story turns out.
Sean Bean performed wonderfully, as did Tilda Swinton (a Jarman regular). Swinton carried her character with enigmatic innocence, while Bean gave the film its base of energy.
This movie is not for everyone, not even all art students. While the art direction is interesting, the explanations for certain paintings certainly worth considering also, Jarman's signature boldness offends many people. Violence, sexuality, and language give this film a high age rating.
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