The Last of England

3 April, 2025 - 14:00
ARCA
TICKETS

“The film is an attic; I’ve opened the doors. Think of the mead hall in Beowulf, with the swallow flying through... Think of that mead hall full of the junk of our history, of memory and so on; there’s a hurricane blowing outside, I opened the doors and the hurricane blows through; everything is blown around, it’s a cleansing, the whole film is a cleansing. I need a very firm anchor in that hurricane, the anchor is my inheritance, not my family inheritance, but a cultural one, which locates the film IN HOME.” (Derek Jarman)

 

In the presence of Simon Fisher Turner

The Last of England

Derek Jarman
,
UK, DE
,
1987
,
digital
,
colour
,
92'

Named after Ford Madox Brown’s iconic painting, Jarman’s bleakest vision is a violent howl against both the loss of traditional English culture and the Thatcher government’s creation of totalitarian anti-LGBTQI+ legislation. Jarman’s layered small-gauge images of a world in ruin are tied together by his own poetic narration, Christopher Hobbs’ audacious production design, Sandy Powell’s indelible costumes and Simon Fisher Turner’s hypnotic soundtrack of blended score (with contributions by Diamanda Galas, Mayo Thompson, Barry Adamson a.o.) and sound design, pre-empting their final collaboration on 1993’s Blue.