Derek Jarman

After school, Jarman studied history and art history at King's College. In 1963 he began studying art in Pop Art London. In the general mood of optimism from the mid-1960s onward, he began to openly confront his homosexuality. Jarman took over the set design for Ken Russell on the films "The Devils" (1971) and "Savage Messiah" (1972). Then he began making experimental films himself - initially in Super 8 format. Jarman presented his first feature film in 1976 with "Sebastiane", an openly homosexual film adaptation of the life of the early Christian martyr Sebastian - in Latin! This was followed by "Jubilee" (1978), a sarcastic allusion to the crown jubilee of Elizabeth II the year before. Jarman then turned to Shakespeare, which he filmed in the punk revue "The Tempest" (1979) and in the erotic-themed work "The Angelic Conversation" (1985). With "Caravaggio" (1986), Jarman approached the passions depicted in the Renaissance painter's paintings and which the director re-staged. At the end of 1986, Jarman learned of his HIV infection. The films "The Last of England" (1987) and "War Requiem" (1989) were made under the sign of the AIDS threat and the Falklands War, which deal with the themes of death and destruction. His films about the ambivalent historical figures of "Edward II" also deal with homosexual dramas. (1991) and "Wittgenstein" (1992). When Jarman slowly went blind, he made "Blue" in 1993, a film that only shows a blue screen and otherwise lives from its texts and sounds from the "off".