12 FILMS • Coming to the Criterion on February 1
A cinematic renegade who became an essential voice of protest against Thatcher-era repression, visionary British iconoclast Derek Jarman left behind a legacy of astonishing films that give defiant expression to gay desire, anguish, rage, and humanity. Ranging from lush, boldly conceived biographies of queer historical figures such as CARAVAGGIO and EDWARD II to searing, formally radical experimental works like THE LAST OF ENGLAN and BLUE, in which he confronted both the decline of Britain and his own mortality in the wake of an AIDS diagnosis, Jarman’s oeuvre is one of the most uncompromising and fearlessly personal in all of cinema.
