• Caravaggio (Derek Jarman)

7/12/20 (Sun)

Jarman’s disjointed 1986 look at the tempestuous life of the revolutionary painter. Told in flashback as the painter is dying in exile, more or less in chronological order. Just enough is known about Caravaggio to create a broad framework while leaving details to the filmmaker’s fertile imagination. The painter notoriously employed street people, drunks and lower classes as his models for saints and religious paintings, and the film offers numerous tableaux where models are posing for famous paintings. He was not above selling his talents for money, but still maintained his striking lighting techniques and homoerotic subjects (the only examples shown here – where are the religious works?), which others are willing to overlook in recognition of his sheer talent. The painter’s sexual proclivities are all over the map: he hires a beautiful male model clearly with more than just drawing in mind, but when the model’s girlfriend comes along, he happily beds her as well, setting up a dramatic conflict.

The film hops from incident to incident, presumably the painter’s dying memories, and the director seems to be aiming to outdo his subject’s self-consciously posed canvases with carefully arranged melodramatic scenes of his own, largely featuring beautiful shirtless men. There are numerous anachronisms like motorcycles and typewriters that make no sense at all, coming off as affected. It’s been explained as the equivalent of Caravaggio’s use of anachronistic touches such as 17th-century clothing in his own paintings, but that sounds pretty bogus. (And what was the restaging of David’s much later painting of the dying Marat doing in there?) The story is too loosely portrayed to make much sense; the director seems partially to be trying to make a statement about patronage and politics, but it’s lost to the sensory overload. The imagery and camerawork are impressive, and the performances are excellent, especially Nigel Terry in the title role, Sean Bean as the male model, and Tilda Swinton in a terrific screen debut as the girlfriend. Plenty of violence and male bodies on display – the entire town seems to be gay or sexually open. Doesn’t really illuminate Caravaggio the painter so much as Jarman the exhibitionist. Worth watching if only for its visual splendor.