The Last of England (1987)

The last of England  (1987)

Director: Derek Jarman

Production design: Christopher Hobbs & Simon Turner

Produced by: James Mackaw & Don Bovd

Costume designer: Sandy Powell

Running time : 1hr 37 mins

Starring: Spring, Tilda Swinton, Gerrad McCarthur, John Pkillips, Spencer Leigh

"Derek Jarman's savage and provocative satate-of-nation address was perhaps his most ambitious project, with frank scenes of male sex. Nigel terry provides a lyrical voice-over, through the other players are mere pieces in Jarman's broadside against all he saw as wrong in 80s Britain. Derek Jarman's personal view of England depicted through images of violence, urban decay and home video footage of himself."

After watching another film by this director- 'Jubilee' it is apparent this is a sequel, as the two are strongly linked but express a different time in British history. It is a personal piece of film, which we felt was documentary styled to give an opinion-his opinion on society. Jarman creates a film out of juxtaposing and combining different types of imagery of arresting images, rock & roll, gay scenes, erotica, and home movies to create this vision of Britain, narrated by Nigel Terry. It was his portrayal of 1980s Great Britain who had been destroyed by greed, violence and environmental disasters such as fires. The film focuses on jumping from one scene to the next using vibrant colour and images of surrealistic stance which make no sense but do give out the desired impression of Britain that Jarman was seaking. The director himself, known as a painter and journal writer creates a nostalgia of his own memories running throughout his film, generating quieter moments amongst the bazaar chaos. The film progresses through visual imagery and journal pieces either written down or said. Despite this, the film has a narrative-showing a progression from the innocence of childhood, and footage of the 'perfect' family, to ranging WWII violence and terrorism. Jahrman told his life through this film which expressed the fear he felt being diagnoses with Aids in the mid 1980s and an underlying connection with death, and his opinion supporting the gay and lesbian movement. The film has strong links to Jubilee, with the Punks being present running wild over wasteland as they were in Jubilee and the imagery of dance an ballet to create a calming amongst the chaos. Both films also played with rewinding footage, increasing its speed and using flashing imagery and dramatic cut-points however the sequel appeared to be filmed with a hand-held camera as the footage was fuzzy and jumpy, which added to the decay and in his eyes ruin of Britain.

People have said this film is beautiful, mesmerising and art of a high state but in my personal opinion it was shocking, repulsive and it was insulting. As Jubilee made a mockery of the Queen we felt Jarman was doing the same to Britain but not in a mocking, comical way but one which repulsed us whilst viewing this film. Scenes such as an IRA Irish soldier having sex with a British gentleman (who instigated the encounter,) over the British flag was hard to watch and feel at ease. We found stills to show, yet another type of filming and camera style, but none of which was suited to melancholy as it was hard-hitting destructive film-making which was thought-provoking and 'avant-guard' and inspiring if the narrative was removed. But that is just our opinion!!!  What we did take from this film was the importance of sound, it was integral to the film. The narrative itself helped create a mood for the film, using quotes such as "Can't you feel... the days are getting shorter?" it envolves the audience, and has a philosophical tone. The use of natural sounds of gunshot, fure burning, shouting etc of the real footage, against tital silence genereated a mood,and had a defined impact-proving sound to be integral, and a link to our filming with out sytly being 'wind' whjch too is a natural sound and is a key element of our loction! As with 'Jubilee' to analyse the style of filming it is easier to show a clip from the film, which i have posted above in a new post.