Derek Jarman's Medieval Modern

288 Pages·2018·10.317 MB·English

by  Robert Mills

ROBERT MILLS is Professor of Medieval Studies DEREK JARMAN’S ‘The Middle Ages have formed the paradise of
at University College London. Previous books my imagination,’ said the artist and filmmaker
include Suspended Animation: Pain, Pleasure DD Derek Jarman (1942–1994), who had a lifelong
and Punishment in Medieval Culture (2005) and appreciation of medieval culture.
EE
Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages (2015).
RR This is the first book to uncover a rich seam of
EE medievalism in Jarman’s art and shows the
KK Middle Ages as a frequent point of departure.
Taking in major features such as Caravaggio,
JJ
AA The Garden and The Last of England, as well as
some of the unrealised screenplays and short
RR
experimental films, Robert Mills proposes
MM
an expanded definition of medieval film that
AA includes not just works set
NN in or about the Middle Ages,
but also projects inspired
’’
SS more broadly by the period.
It considers Jarman’s engagement with
Jarman’s conception of the Middle Ages projects a vision of Anglo-Saxon poetry (notably The Wanderer);
the past inhabiting the present and shaping or even animating with works by fourteenth-century poets
such as Chaucer, Dante and Langland;
the future. Not simply a distant and superseded entity, his
with saints and mystics from Joan of Arc
‘medieval’ shares with medieval film in general the idea that
to Julian of Norwich; and with numerous
time does not operate in a safely linear fashion.
paintings, buildings and objects from this
so-called ‘middle’ time. Also covered are
For years the Middle Ages have formed the Jarman’s autobiographical writings and film
commentaries, notebooks and workbooks
paradise of my imagination, the archaic
and the home and garden he created in
half-smile on the Apostles’ lips at Chartres,
Dungeness. Taken together, they convey
the blisse that unlocks.
what might be termed a ‘medieval modern’
It is not William Morris’ Journeyman Eden, approach to life.
but something subterranean, like the
seaweed and coral that floats in the
arcades of a jewelled reliquary.
Derek Jarman, Modern Nature (1991)
ROBERT
MILLS
R O B E R T M I L L S
Cover image: Derek Jarman’s canonisation by the an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 1991. PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) and
Photographs © Gordon Rainsford. 668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester, NY 14620–2731 (US)
JACKET DESIGN: SIMON LOXLEY www.boydellandbrewer.com
Volume XIV
Derek Jarman’s Medieval Modern
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Derek Jarman’s
Medieval Modern
Robert Mills

D. S. BREWER
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© Robert Mills 2018
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval
system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Robert Mills to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2018
D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
ISBN 978 1 84384 493 8
D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence
or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites
referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content
on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
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For Johnny
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Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements xv
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction 1
1 Derek Jarman Gets Medieval 9
2 Always Contemporary 45
3 A Life in Ruins 91
4 The Wandering Jarman 137
Afterword 176
Notes 180
Bibliography 218
Filmography 235
Index 237
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Illustrations
Plates between pages 78 and 79 and pages 158 and 159
I Master of the Rohan Hours, The Office of the Dead,
c.1420. Rohan Hours, Bibliothèque nationale de France,
MS latin 9471, fol. 159r. Photo: BnF.
II Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512–16.
Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar. Photo: bpk/Jochen Remmer.
III Crucifixes. Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, dates
unknown. Photos: Keith Collins and Robert Mills.
Reproduced courtesy of The Estate of Derek Jarman.
IV Reliquary pendant, c.1200. British Museum, London.
Photo © The Trustees of the British Museum.
V Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Return of the Hunters,
1565. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Photo: bpk/
Hermann Buresch.
VI Derek Jarman, The Pleasure of Ruins, 1972. Private
collection. Photo: Abbott and Holder, London.
Reproduced courtesy of The Estate of Derek Jarman.
VII “Film Diary.” Studio Bankside, dir. Derek Jarman, 1972.
Film frames © LUMA Foundation. Featured in Derek
Jarman Super 8, published by Thames & Hudson.
Reproduced courtesy of James Mackay/LUMA Foundation.
VIII Destruction of Sodom. Miniature in Bible Picture
Book, early thirteenth century. Manchester, John
Rylands Library, MS French 5, fol. 19v. Photo © The
University of Manchester.
IX Geertgen tot Sint Jans, Nativity at Night, c.1490.
National Gallery, London. © The National Gallery,
London. Bought, 1925.
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List of Illustrations ix
X Derek Jarman’s studio at 13 Bankside. Photo from
Norma Skurka and Oberto Gili, Underground Interiors:
Decorating For Alternate Life Styles, 1972. Reproduced
courtesy of Oberto Gili.
XI The Syon Cope, c.1300–20. Victoria and Albert
Museum, London. Photo © Victoria and Albert
Museum, London.
XII Chest incorporating Gothic panelling. Prospect
Cottage, Dungeness. Photo: Robert Mills. Reproduced
courtesy of The Estate of Derek Jarman.
XIII Derek Jarman’s garden, 2014. Prospect Cottage,
Dungeness. Photo: Robert Mills.
XIV Gerald’s Film, dir. Derek Jarman, 1975. Film frames
© LUMA Foundation. Featured in Derek Jarman
Super 8, published by Thames & Hudson. Reproduced
courtesy of James Mackay/LUMA Foundation.
XV Corfe Film, dir. Derek Jarman, 1975. Film frames
© LUMA Foundation. Featured in Derek Jarman
Super 8, published by Thames & Hudson. Reproduced
courtesy of James Mackay/LUMA Foundation.
XVI Journey to Avebury, dir. Derek Jarman, 1972 or 1973.
Film frame © LUMA Foundation. Featured in Derek
Jarman Super 8, published by Thames & Hudson.
Reproduced courtesy of James Mackay/LUMA Foundation.
Figures
Fig. 1 Judge; prisoner; monk; churchmen circling a flaming
pyre. Pet Shop Boys, “It’s a Sin” video, dir. Derek
Jarman, 1987. Screenshots from DVD. 13
Fig. 2 Facial close-ups. La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, dir. Carl
Theodor Dreyer, 1928. Screenshots from DVD. 13
Fig. 3 Detail from tympanum of west porch, Saint Lazare
cathedral, Autun, Burgundy, c.1130–35. Photo: Robert
Mills. 22
Fig. 4 Derek Jarman’s tombstone, Old Romney churchyard,
Kent. Photo: Robert Mills. 22
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