Glitterbox: Derek Jarman x 4 | 
| Director: Derek Jarman
Actors: Tilda Swinton, Judi Dench, Sean Bean, Nigel Terry, Michael Gough
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
Category: DVD
List Price: $74.99
Buy New: $45.50
as of 3/22/2010 06:56 EDT details
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Seller: overman2000
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 80756
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 4
Running Time: 313 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.7 x 0.5
MPN: ZEIDZ1100D
UPC: 795975110037
EAN: 0795975110037
ASIN: B00167TTG2
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Zeitgeist Films Release Date: 06/24/2008
Amazon.com
Glitterbox, with its extra film, Glitterbug, compiled by Derek Jarman's friends following his death, is an especially personal tribute to this idiosyncratic director, writer, and artist. Renowned for his outspoken dedication and experimental portrayals of politically radical heroes, Jarman's films challenge the conventions of narrative filmmaking and expand narrow definitions of sexuality. This boxed set contains The Angelic Conversation (1985), Caravaggio (1986), Wittgenstein (1993), and Blue (1993), which, viewed together, clarify Jarman's preoccupation with the ways language and imagery intertwines or demand separation. Each film contains heavy theatricality, unabashed passion, poetic screenwriting, and a finely tuned color palette, lending the works extreme drama that is an acquired taste. In The Angelic Conversation, a young Morrissey-type searches longingly for love until he finds his possible angel in the form of another hunky sensitive guy. The super-8 footage is romanticized by Judi Dench's reading of certain Shakespearean sonnets that question life's meaning, over a moody, ambient soundtrack by Coil. Caravaggio is an eccentric portrayal of the artist, Michelangelo di Caravaggio (Nigel Terry), embroiled in a hot love triangle between figure model Ranuccio (Sean Bean), and Lena (Tilda Swinton). Far from a conventional biopic, the film capitalizes on Caravaggio's maniacal reputation, with lurid decadence and emotionally weighty scenes throughout. Wittgenstein, co-written by Terry Eagleton, also takes liberties with its depiction of this famed philosopher, played by Karl Johnson. Filmed entirely against a black backdrop, the movie focuses on the thinker's homosexual identity crisis, throughout childhood, then as he makes academic headway at Cambridge. Blue, filmed right before Jarman's death as an expression of his fears and shock at his loss of eyesight, is 76 minutes of blue screen, which stirringly comes alive as Tilda Swinton and Nigel Terry read from Jarman's journals his musings about the color, against a soundtrack of ticking clocks and more composed by Eno, Momus, and Simon Fisher-Turner. Extras on each disc, including multitudinous interviews with Jarman's friends, the man himself, and a short film called "The Clearing" (1994), in which Jarman silently acts, are plentiful and great. But the real extra gem here is Glitterbug, a fifty-minute compilation of Jarman's unused home film and video footage, set to Brian Eno music. Filmed on sets, in artist's studios, at parties, fashion shows, and on travel excursions, Glitterbug is a visual diary of Jarman's inspirations. Moreover, as reference material it establishes his aesthetic sensibilities, his tastes for the lavish, the punk, and for other humans fully dedicated to art. --Trinie Dalton
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
Wonderful collection of films... problematic packaging February 24, 2010
Stephen Dedalus (New York, USA)
This is a superb collection of films by arthouse director Derek Jarman. It contains his most accessible film (the wonderful CARAVAGGIO) and perhaps his most experimental (the aesthetic tone-poem THE ANGELIC CONVERSATION). Amazon.com's product review illustrates the generous amount of extras that Zeitgest has provided with these films and the booklet of essays is also a must for fans.
Unfortunately I must deduct a star from my rating due to the boxset's design. Zeitgest has decided to package the discs in tight cardboard pockets. While it saves space on your shelf and looks very nice, the DVDs themselves are susceptible to scratches every time you slide them out of their respective slots. While three of these titles are available for individual purchase, BLUE (Jarman's devastating meditation on his deteriorating health from AIDS) is exclusive to this set.
 Great visuals, pointless narrative January 19, 2010
J. C Clark (Overland Park, KS United States)
I guess the deliberately jarring and anachronistic visuals were there to demonstrate that Caravaggio was of no era but an artist for all time. No argument from me; the John the Baptist painting featured strongly is located here in KC, and is one of the jewels of our collection. An astounding and amazing painting, it just destroys everything else in the room. It is a work of stupendous genius and power.
Unfortunately, the version of it visible in the studio in this film is a tame and shallow copy. Just like the film, it is trying to be something it is not. The endless silly images undercut the seriousness of the story. At one point, as Tilda Swinton opens a large rectangular package. I said to my wife, "Maybe it's a computer."
When I read things like "a meditation on sex, art, power....blahblah" I know I'm in for it. I know that a "meditation" in film never says anything, it just tosses images around as if showing people lusting and misbehaving tells us something. But this film tells us nothing. Caravaggio was a jerk, who mistreated those who cared for him and chased those who didn't. The people around him were users and cheats and liars and deceivers. OK, yeah, well, that's not actually news. Nor is it interesting.
So, while there is lots of beauty, with languid and lush images filling the screen, this was one dull and irritating film. A self-indulgent director makes a movie about a self-indulgent painter, and the results are not worth the effort.
 Artistic license August 19, 2009
Kona (Emerald City)
12 out of 18 found this review helpful
Michelangelo Caravaggio was an important Italian painter who led a short, tumultuous life. He surrounded himself with earthy street people who became the models for his paintings.
If you're looking for a biopic about the life of Caravaggio, look elsewhere. This chaotic and bizarre interpretation of his life by avant-garde director Derek Jarman is like seeing art history on a bad acid trip. The story opens well enough around the year 1600, but I thought I was seeing things when I saw a man in a tuxedo. I scratched my head at the calculator, but the motorbike and truck were too much. The use of anachronistic images and odd sound effects (trains, crashing ocean waves) was too jarring and distracting for me. There was little dialogue, the range of accents included cockney and Irish, and the narration made no sense.
As a fan of Caravaggio's work, I did enjoy the scenes that showed models posing for his famous paintings, but the rest - a montage of unrelated scenes showing his depraved lifestyle - was just distasteful and speculative. I learned more about the director than the artist. Tilda Swinton made an impressive screen debut in the puzzling role of a street woman and a very young Sean Bean is interesting as her companion, but Nigel Terry was an off-putting Caravaggio. Not recommended.
Biofic of an artist July 29, 2009
wiredweird (Earth, or somewhere nearby)
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
caravaggio November 23, 2008
B. Loosbrock (Woodbury, MN)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
I had this movie on a video tape. Was pleased to see it come out on DVD finally.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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