CARAVAGGIO
UK, 1986, 89 minutes, Colour.
Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, Michael Gough, Dexter Fletcher.
Directed by Derek Jarman.
Caravaggio is the work of Derek Jarman. Jarman was a significant figure in British film-making, especially in the '80s. Starting with his homosexual portrait of the saint Sebastian in Sebastiane, he went on to make a number of short films, using Super 8 and video techniques as well as features like Jubilee. After Caravaggio he went on to make such films as The Last of England, The Garden and his most celebrated, the adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II.
Jarman also uses a number of actors who appeared in many of his films, including Nigel Terry as Caravaggio, Tilda Swinton as Lena, Jack Burkett as the Pope. In this film Michael Gough appears as a cardinal, as does Robbie Coltrane, and Dexter Fletcher is the young Caravaggio. Sean Bean is his lover Ranuccio.
The film is a study of Caravaggio, emphasising some fictional aspects by including references, visual and sound, of the 20th century. The film is also a memoir, Caravaggio dying and attended by his mute servant Jerusaleme. Caravaggio remembers his past on the Roman streets, his being adopted by church figures and being educated and commissioned to paint, he remembers his clash with Ranuccio and Lena, his lover, and Lena's being taken in by Cardinal Borghese. He remembers Lena's death and the revelation that Ranuccio had killed her for love of Caravaggio. He then killed Ranuccio.
The film shows Caravaggio's paintings, his use of light and shade, of colours, of live models for his works of art. Many of his paintings are pictured as live tableaux.
The film can be seen as a chamber piece, not a Hollywood biopic or spectacular. It is a perception of Caravaggio, his personality, his art and his times.
1.The portrait of an artist, fact and fiction? Art and life?
2.Derek Jarman's work, his place in British film-making, his particular perspectives, visual styles, the gay perspective and interpretation?
3.Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries, Rome, the Vatican, the Vatican palaces? The contrast with the streets, the towns, the taverns? The art studios and their atmosphere?
4.Audience knowledge of Caravaggio and his art? His colour, light and shade, shadows, technique? His inspiration, religious and secular? Profane and sacred love? His life? The live tableaux? The models? The re-creation of the paintings? His themes? The musical score and its atmosphere?
5.The structure of the screenplay: Caravaggio's death, his memories, the recurring theme of his dying, his life and perspective, the voice-over commentary and its judgment on Caravaggio and his behaviour, his attitudes? The poetry? The images? The interpretation of his life?
6.The 20th century interpretation, the perspective of history, politics, the church, attitudes towards sexuality? The introduction of 20th century visuals and sounds, the motor bike, the cigarettes, the newspapers, the artist in his bath typing? The fact blending with fiction and interpretation?
7.Caravaggio and his character, his death, his eloquence, hallucinations? Jerusaleme and his fidelity and sympathy? The dead Caravaggio and the coins on his eyes?
8.The flashbacks to the young Caravaggio, Rome and the streets, the painting, the slums, selling his art, selling himself, the range of clients, sexuality, violence and mischief?
9.The portrait of the cardinal, Caravaggio ill, in hospital? The patronage of the church for the artists? Interviews, education of the artist? The portrait of Bacchus? Caravaggio and his work, the work conditions? The cardinal and his entourage, style, meals, manners? The sexual innuendo? The other members of the cardinal's entourage? The Vatican as a court? The church dignitaries and their interest in art?
10.The commissions, St Matthew, the painting, Ranuccio as a model of the killer? His relationship with Ranuccio, the knife fight and the clash, friendship? Lena and her relationship with Ranuccio? Caravaggio's tendered towards Lena? Their appearing as models for St Matthew's killer, Mary Magdalene? St John the Baptist and his execution? The painting, the violence, the bonds, sexual?
11.Vatican society, Cardinal Borghese, his worldliness, his mouthing statements about church practice? The attraction to Lena, taking her away? The party? The rivalry with Ranuccio? The reputation of Cardinal Borghese? The reputation of church dignitaries? The painting of profane love - the themes, models, profane love within the church structures?
12.Lena, with the cardinal, her pregnancy, the violence and pathos of her murder?
13.Suspicions in Rome, Cardinal Borghese, the politics? The alcoholic Caravaggio? Mourning Lena? The arrest? His being brought before the Pope - the sinister presentation of the Pope, his attitude towards art, sexuality, revolution and the status quo?
14.The portrait of Ranuccio, a man of the streets, in himself, posing for Caravaggio, his relationship with Lena, the knife and the fight with Caravaggio, his devotion to him, the death of Lena, his confession to the murder, his boasting? Caravaggio's violent killing of Ranuccio? Yet the influence on Caravaggio's life and his art?
15.The world of Rome in the 16th and 17th centuries, the contrasts between the sacred and the secular, profane and religious art? The kind of society which produced such personalities, artists and art?
