Customer Reviews

Jubilee (The Criterion Collection)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Jubilee is a wildly beautiful - and entertaining - film which strikes a precarious, and compelling, balance between sheer anarchy and genuine beauty. I was so struck by it that I watched it three times in one week. Yet it remains an elusive work, constantly tantalizing with new connections and still more layers of meaning. The outstanding Criterion Collection DVD offers a wealth of supplemental features, making it an excellent introduction to both the film and director Derek Jarman.

The basic plot of this experimental fantasy is simple: Queen Elizabeth I has the historical alchemist John Dee summon the spirit Ariel and transport all of them 400 years into the future, where they find London a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The talented Jenny Runacre plays both Queen Elizabeth and the anarchic latter-day "queen" Bod, who leads an all-female biker gang.

Made in 1977, at the height of the Punk movement, Jubilee has misleadingly been called a "Punk movie." Despite its trappings (from clothing to casting several well-known singers), ultimately it seems more about Punk than of it. How Jarman uses then-rising star Adam Ant is revealing. With his sweetly boyish persona - made just a bit wild by the black leather and painted-on lower sideburns - Adam Ant as "Kid" is undeniably appealing. But throughout he is as passive offstage as he is frenzied onstage. And Kid, unable to connect with anyone, will do anything for his career. He signs with the grotesque Borgia Ginz, the multinational mogul who controls the entire planet's media - hence political, even religious - power structure. Ginz immediately rechristens Kid as "Scum. That's commercial. It's all [the audience] deserves." One of the film's most haunting images is of Kid lasciviously kissing his own image on a TV. How's that for a postmodern twist on the myth of Narcissus?

Beyond the Punk movement, Jarman turned to many diverse sources to flesh out his vision for Jubilee. It's powerful on its own terms, without any need for "footnoting," but the wide-ranging references create a fascinating texture. He uses film (notably Cocteau's Blood of a Poet, Godard's La Chinoise, Pasolini's Oedipus Rex, and Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange), literature (Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's 1984; also his pastiche Elizabethan dialogue is beautiful: "I cast for Ariel, pearl of fire, my only star...."), history and myth (suggested by character names, from the historical female ruler of ancient Britain, Bodicea - i.e., "Bod" - and the Borgias to mythical figures like Sphinx and Angel), and even dance club culture (characters named Amyl Nitrate and Crabs). He is also one of the most creatively playful of modern filmmakers, and that schoolboyish "let's put on a show" energy keeps his films, even with their density of themes, buoyant and wonderfully entertaining.

Jarman also brings great emotional resonance through his characters (most of whom he cast from friends and lovers). I was often surprised by how much I cared about these eccentric, and sometimes lethal, allegorical people. Although each viewer will bond with different characters, I was most moved by the "triangle" between the two teasingly incestuous brothers, Sphinx and Angel (who utters the classic line, "I didn't know I was dead till I was 15"), and the artist Viv (whom Jarman described, affectionately, as a "butch dyke"). Their tangled connections, although genuinely caring, never reach true equality: The two men, on one level, can be seen as using the woman as a way of enhancing their own (masculine, even incestuous) relationship. Still, they become all the more affecting at the film's climax (which I will not divulge).

There is so much more to Jubilee than I can suggest in the brief space here: It is visually gorgeous (Jarman is a master of composition and lighting; he began as a painter, and stage and film designer), makes fascinating use of music (from Punk to classical) and sound effects, offers a provocative series of ideas about history (as Amyl says, "History still fascinates me. It's so intangible. You can weave facts anywhere you like. Good guys can swap places with bad guys"), media manipulation and artistic narcissism and audience passivity, and, ultimately, the duality of beauty and anarchy, which are perhaps two sides of the same double mirror.

This is a highly unusual and artisticly revealing cinematic pleasure. If anyone has seen director Derek Jarman's films before, you probably know that he doesn't follow the conventions of film narrative. For punk fans it offers a view of the wasteland fantasy world that isn't too far off from the truth. Early glimpses of Adam Ant(the soon to be Mtv poster boy looking very young), Little Nell (Rocky Horror Picture Show), and Ian Charleson (Chariots of Fire). For any fan of the Sex Pistols' movie, "THe Great ROck and ROll Swindle"- this movie is perfect for you. IT contains lots of nudity- both male and female and has alot of questionable acts of violence. Not recommended for everyone- but definitely a rare treat.

Criterion Spine Number: 191

Derek Jarman's twisted psuedo-Rocky Horror is just the perfect treat for any fan of really twisted films.

Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre who also plays the character of Bod) wants to see into the future. With the aid of her court and the angel Ariel, she is transported 4 centuries into the future to get a gander of current life. What she sees is nothing less than shocking. Total anarchy: Buckingham Palace is a recording studio owned by insane media master Borgia Ginz (Orlando), the Church is a sex hall, police only help themselves and what you can grab, is yours.

The main focous of the movie, however is a group of five young women: the sexy and always turned on Crabs (Little Nell), the "schoolteacher" with a nack for singing "Rule Brittania" in punk fashon named Amyl Nitrate (Jordan), the pyromaniac fire bug Mad (Toyah Willcox), the sweet and romantic Chaos (Hermine Demoriane) and finally the Queen in her own little world: Bod (Jenny's second role in the film).

There is also some early music by: Adam Ant, Brian Eno, Wayne County and many others. The music fits the film perfectly and is quite fun all around.

Now, onto the DVD:

The image quality is great. Probably not the best dvd picture I've ever seen but none the less, it's wonderful. It's presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.66 and is enhanced for widescreen TVs.

The films original audio track is quite good as well. It's a Dolby Digital Mono track and surprisingly, there's no problems with it (I sometimes have problems with 1.0 tracks but not this time)

The special features are a bushell of fun: First there is the documentary which runs nearly 40 minutes and has a lot of information of the director and film. Toyah Willcox even shows up for an interview along with Jenny Runacre). We are also offered script pages with a series of notes. Continuity stills, sketches, the original (and almost as twisted as the movie) theatrical trailer, production pictures and finally, Jordan's complete dance (longer take than what is in the movie) which is quite interesting.

Jubilee is not a film for everyone or casual viewers of odd movies. Unless you really like twisted movies, then just rent it. But if you are ready for some odd, odd, odd fun...enjoy Jubilee.

Derek Jarman didn't set out to make a "punk film", he set out to make "a film about punk", and many people don't like his interpretations. As a disaffected ex-punk, I found his interpretations poignant and honest, to the point where I could see how it would enrage people. People, especially posh kids playing at being lower-class for a time, don't generally like brutal honesty.


One of Jarman's working titles for this film was _High Fashion: An Anarchic Comedy about Sex & Violence_, and while the subject matter and plot are disturbingly nihilistic and there's this intense overtone of depressiveness amongst the primary characters, the comical elements are rather apparent, though probably too dry or deadpan for some people on either side of the pond. Jarman also uses humour to make some clear points about youth's relationship with history and tradition, nationalism, homophobia, the modern state of the monarchy, and other socially relevant concepts that are still important today, no matter how much some people insist otherwise.


The Criterion DVD also contains many special features, including a cinematic trailer and scans and transcriptions from Derek Jarman's _Jubilee_ scrapbook, a documentary with interviews of people who were in the cast and crew, and loads and loads of promotional stills. The highlight of the "scrapbook" portion of the features, in my opinion, is the photo of Jarman wearing Vivienne Westwood's infamous, incredibly incoherent, and nauseatingly homophobic "Open Lettre (T-Shirt) to Derek Jarman", followed by a transcription of the text of the t-shirt -- this will single-handedly destroy any misconceptions one may have of the public face of "punk" ever being progressive or at least open-minded.

This is a wonderful film, and it's also greatly misunderstood. It came out in 1978 at the height of the punk movement in England, and it was labeled as a "punk" film. It is not a punk film; it is a Derek Jarman film. Since it is a Derek Jarman film, it's filled with poetry, sadness, brilliant imagery, and a deep tenderness in many of its scenes. It's also filled with homoerotic elements and some deeply poetic dialogue. The only thing the film doesn't have is punk. If it were a document of the punk movement, it would only be a historical artifact, like a news piece. It would be terribly dated now. But this film doesn't date at all. There's hardly any mention of punk in the film, and there's hardly any punk rock music in the film. In the documentary included in the DVD, the people who worked with Jarman on the film inform us that the punk movement/rockers hated the film (probably because most of them weren't in it, and Jarman didn't embrace the punk movement). Many of these people walked out on the film, and someone (I can't remember who) even wrote an "open letter" to Derek Jarman. Jarman ended up having a T-shirt printed up of it. There's a picture of him in the documentary wearing it. I must admit I like that (Jarman wearing the T-shirt, not the actual letter). There are a number of interesting performances, including Adam Ant (in his first film). Ian Charleson (Angel) is good as well in his first film. He was in Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, and Opera, and, like Jarman, died of AIDS in 1987. Richard O'Brien (John Dee) is very good here. He played Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Jenny Runacre, who plays Elizabeth I and Bod here, also played Jack Nicholson's wife in Antonioni's The Passenger. There's a real curious mix of professionals and non-professional here, and it works very well. I found this film remarkable, and I am very glad that Criterion has it in a special edition.

A fascinating cult movie. The Elizabethan Magus and astrologer John Dee (shown performing the sign of Osiris Risen on the cover) magically transports Queen Elizabeth I and some of her courtiers forwards in time three hundred years to witness the London of a far far Jubilee.

However, the Future London is in the throes of total anarchy, with sex and violence being the order of the day. This is classic Jarman and features a solid cast, which includes Punk goddess Toyah Wilcox, who I believe is now Mrs. Robert Fripp (King Crimson) - who also appeared (gasp... topless) in Jarman's superb version of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

This is still well up there in my Top Ten Quirky Movies, along with The Wicker Man, Derek Jarman's The Tempest and Rocky Horror, and is highly recommended.

This film deserves more attention. Underneath its surface of violence, unusual sex, and loud, harsh music there is a great deal of surprisingly intelligent philosophy and unconventional beauty. Don't expect anything like a conventional plot or narrative structure. Do expect that segments of it will be painful. But please, watch it anyway, for the strange beauty that leaks through even the most unpleasant scenes. And if you find yourself liking it a lot, go read Temporary Autonomous Zone by Hakim Bey and _really_ break your mind.

I had been warned how really rotten this film was by other Adam Ant fans; however, I tried to watch this film fairly and judge it for myself and found out that I loved it! It is a true late 1970s "art" film in my opinion. Poorly written, bad camera work, sets & costumes from the company's own stuff. The film's "storyline" is loose and hardly apparent, but that is part of the enjoyment I got. Basically, I see this as a bunch of London-based friends and scene makers getting together to play at making a, what would have been university-level (at the time,) class project. Don't expect something even as polished as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This was a "first" for many (most?) of those involved and it shows - and that is its charm.

i had a lot of trouble watching this, partly because it made no sense and partly because it wasn't interesting at all. a coherent storyline isn't really that essential for me, i enjoy david lynch. even though lynch rarely makes much sense his films are beautiful and hold your attention. technically jubilee was fair, visually it was okay. i ususally trust the criterion company with their releases but this is one of the few that i recommend against.

Jubilee? I never heard of that Jarman-movie before, but I loved Sebastiane, Edward II and Caravaggio, well, and I haven't been disappointed.

It's wild and beautiful, and some scenes (Jordan's interpretation of "Rule Britannia", the club-scene in Westminster-cathedral etc.etc. !!!) are simply miraculous.

See it, and you will find one of the important sources where the imagery of so many films of the 80's and 90's derive from, even if such a bizarre, tasteful punk-poetry like in "Jubilee" rarely has been attained since.

It's a highly elegic and even moral movie, Jarman sadly glances at our time, and one has to admit that many things have gone quite accurately in the direction Jarman predicted in 1978.

After having seen so many un-modern movies (i.e. neo-monumental, neo-melodramatic, neo-hyperrealistic films) in the last decade, watching "Jubilee" is like diving in fresh, cool water after a long walk in the desert.

By the way, Criterion did, as usual, a fine job; don't miss the excellent documentary!!!