THE TEMPEST

UK, 1979, 87 minutes, Colour.
Heathcote Williams, Karl Johnson, Toyah Willcox, Peter Bull, Richard Warwick, Elisabeth Welch, Jack Burkett, David Meyer.
Directed by Derek Jarman.

The Tempest is one of the earliest of Derek Jarman's films. Interested in experimentation and art, he made a number of experimental films including The Angelic Conversation and The Last of England. He also made a number of feature films including the Latin-spoken Sebastiane, Edward II, Wittgenstein and The Garden. He also made the film Blue with a blue screen and voice-over. His own social preoccupations are always to the fore, anti the Establishment. As a gay director, all his films have overtly homosexual characters and sequences as well as subtext. This is true of The Tempest.

Jarman was a set designer and so the production design of his film is quite elaborate. The storm at sea, the contemporary palace for Prospero, the décor of the rooms. He is also strong on the musical score. He pares Shakespeare's text to almost its minimum, keeping some of the major speeches but having a great deal of silence. He also uses techniques of voice-over and whispering for the delivery of the speeches.

Heathcote Williams is an unkempt but rather severe Prospero. Toyah Willcox as Miranda looks far more contemporary than from several centuries earlier.

Karl Johnson is a middle-aged and enigmatic Ariel.

The film focuses on Prospero and the loss of his kingdom, his interest in science, his care for his daughter, creating the storm which would land Ferdinand on his shores so that he could marry Miranda. Miranda is older than one might have expected, lacks experience, although she seems to be infected with some of the modern attitudes of the 1970s. Caliban is leeringly monstrous. The film also shows the subplot of the power struggle in Milan as the duke and the other members of the entourage are stranded on the shores of the island. There is superfluous use of some comic scenes between drunken sailors, courtiers and Caliban.

The film is, in a way, a 1970s pageant version of Shakespeare's play. While the text of the play is minimal, the film does capture something of the spirit of Shakespeare's characters and the plot. It also gives an opportunity for Jarman to offer his gay subtext, especially in the use of nudity of several characters. At the end, a group of contemporary-looking sailors prance about and join Elisabeth Welch in a rather moving rendition of "Stormy Weather".

1. The impact of the film as a version of Shakespeare? Audience response to Shakespeare's later plays and their tone? Expectations of The Tempest, of Shakespeare's work, of the final plays of Shakespeare's career?

2. The history of Shakespeare on film? The interpretation and impression of Shakespeare? The transition from stage to screen? The use of the text, the reliance on the words of the poetry, the pruning of the text? The transition from words to visuals? The adequacy of the visuals for Shakespeare's poetry? The director's impression and interpretation - the validity of an interpretation?

3. The work of Derek Jarman and his style and point of view? The decor, the colour, light and shadow, satirical and camp aspects, overtones of punk, homosexual tone? Jarman's subjective interpretation of Shakespeare and its validity? A view point and interpretation of the play? The qualities of Jarman's cinematic style?

4. The title of the play and its use as a symbol? The storm at the beginning, political tempests, personal? Tempests in nature, the tempest as an instrument of Prospero: fear, death, rescue, resurrection, new hope and new beginnings?

5. Shakespeare's emphasis on dreams: the emphasis on sleep at the opening, Miranda's sleep, Ferdinand-'s sleep? Sleep and dreams? Memories and dreams? The trance into which Prospero put his enemies? The comments by Ariel and Prospero at the end? The whole story as if a dream? The reality and unreality of dream? Dream and fantasy?

6. The importance of colour throughout the film: the blue filter for the storm and the sea sequences giving them an air of reality and unreality at the same time? The dark and shadows of Prospero's castle? The transition to the light during the revels, the bright colours, the emphasis on gold? Light and shadow? From darkness to light?

7. The contribution of the musical score: the original music and its atmosphere, the use of classical music, the hornpipe for the sailors at the end, Elizabeth Welch and her singing of Stormy Weather - a contemporary tempest?

8. The impact of the storm and the shipwreck and the way that this was suggested, Ferdinand and his being set ashore by himself, naked through the waves and across the beach, to the castle? His being put to sleep? The role of Ariel in helping all those wrecked, drawing the villains to the castle and saving the king of Naples from death? Callaban and his getting the crew and taking control of those? Ferdinand and his arrival and llirandals fascination, joy at seeing another human being? From potential tragedy to joy?

9. The villains of the tempest: the explanation given by Prospero when they were in a trance? The King and his journey, his grief at Ferdinand's disappearance, his treatment of Prospero? The Cardinal and the role of the Church, his double dealing, counselling Prospero's brother to kill him? The Counsellor and his guiding the group? The brother and his ambitions? Their being lost, the King's grief, the assassination attempt and the backtracking, Ariel leading them to the castle, the trance, the truth about them? Their coming to life again and being forgiven? The king's joy? personal evil, political evil, social evil?

10. The role of the sprite on this kind of island? The background of the fairy? Tasks and their achievement? Service of Prospero? Ariel's memories and freedom? The ending and the rueful poem?

11. The contrast with Callaban as monster? Human shape yet grotesque? The grotesque mother? Evil and ugliness? Service? Revolt? The mannerisms of the acting of Callaban? His hopes for the revolt, his defeat? A servile evil character?

12. The transition from darkness to the colour and light of the wedding and the revels? The colour, decor, joy? The overtones of the wedding?

13. The significance of the sailors' arrival, their hornpipe, the camp style in which it was danced?

14. The taste and decision to introduce the singing of Stormy Weather? Elizabeth Welch, her presence, style and singing? As part of the revelry (the equivalent of Shakespearian song?), the time given to the song, the way that it was filmed? 18. The atmosphere trailing away for the ending: Ariel and Prospero, and their revelries, melancholy, the revels being over and all being dream?

15. How successful was Derek Jarman in adapting Shakespeare's text, visualising it in not much more than an hour and a half? His going to the core of the play, the core of Shakespeare's world, the social world, the personal world? Politics? The world of satire, superstition, spiritual? The interior world? The validity of the interpretation?