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Caravaggio
Caravaggio (1986), Derek Jarman's portrait of the Italian Baroque artist, shows the painter at work with models drawn from Rome's homeless and prostitutes, and his relationship with two very different Ranuccio, played by Sean Bean, and Lena, played by Tilda Swinton. It is probably the closest Derek Jarman came to a mainstream film. And yet the film is a uniquely complex and lucid treatment of Jarman's major violence, history, homosexuality, and the relation between film and painting. In particular, according to Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, Caravaggio is unlike Jarman's other work in avoiding a sentimentalising of gay relationships and in making no neat distinction between the exercise and the suffering of violence.
Film-making involves a coercive power which, for Bersani and Dutoit, Jarman may, without admitting it to himself, have found deeply seductive. But in Caravaggio this power is renounced, and the result is Jarman's most profound, unsettling and astonishing reflection on sexuality and identity.
Film-making involves a coercive power which, for Bersani and Dutoit, Jarman may, without admitting it to himself, have found deeply seductive. But in Caravaggio this power is renounced, and the result is Jarman's most profound, unsettling and astonishing reflection on sexuality and identity.
96 pages, Paperback
First published May 27, 1999
About the author
Leo Bersani
37 books35 followersLeo Bersani is an American literary theorist and Professor Emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley. He also taught at Wellesley College and Rutgers University.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 11, 2021
Part of a British Film Institute series; the cover of the volume I read had a different still from Jarman’s movie.
The authors consider Jarman’s reading of his own movie to be banal and at times vulgar. In the authors' view, male intimacy, unless actually fighting or fucking, is basically considered chaste. Simple tenderness is automatically and exclusively chaste! Homosexuality apparently is never expressed during such moments; tenderness is not even an expression of desire.
I was confounded by these ridiculous assertions. There are many such forced conclusions and odd judgments; academics are a queer lot— so wrapped up in their own obfuscations their vision is obscured.
Hard to plow through, mercifully short. The best thing is the abundance of pictures, including Caravaggio’s works.
The authors consider Jarman’s reading of his own movie to be banal and at times vulgar. In the authors' view, male intimacy, unless actually fighting or fucking, is basically considered chaste. Simple tenderness is automatically and exclusively chaste! Homosexuality apparently is never expressed during such moments; tenderness is not even an expression of desire.
I was confounded by these ridiculous assertions. There are many such forced conclusions and odd judgments; academics are a queer lot— so wrapped up in their own obfuscations their vision is obscured.
Hard to plow through, mercifully short. The best thing is the abundance of pictures, including Caravaggio’s works.
December 24, 2011
A very good analysis of the political aesthetics of Derek Jarman's work as a whole as well as its ultimate expression in what the authors consider the director's best film. I've read many different interpretations of Jarman's work and this is one of the more lucid in its approach to Jarman's political aesthetics. Particularly useful is their discussion of homosexual desire in Jarman's films and how the approach to politics is different in Caravaggio and Edward II.
January 1, 2025
They use the word "ontological" too much. Like, we get it. The movie has metaphysical themes to consider. Let me just go rewatch it.
March 30, 2011
Caravaggio as a Study of the Artistry of Derek Jarman
Thsi book may be small in size but as is typical of BFI Modern Classics it is a solid scholarly account of a fascinating person in art history. Authors Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit title their inquiry into the mind and artistic films of Jarman CARAVAGGIO because it is their premise that Jarman came closest to presenting his full philosophy of art and sexuality in this film created in 1986 (Jarman was born in 1942 and died of AIDS in 1994). In a beautifully written an dwell illustrated little book - images from many of Jarman's films as well as paintings by Caravaggio - these two scholars examine the topics that made Derek Jarman such an important figure: violence, the study of history both as a field of exploration and the effects of history on today, homosexuality, and the seemingly direct relationship between Jarman's films and thee act of painting.
All the characters in Jarman's films are examined as symbols for his thoughts. The techniques of how Jarman directed his works are also studied and the depth of knowledge of both Bersani and Ulysse is rather astonishing. There are many photographs of Jarman on set, Jarman's actors in stills, and Jarman with images of Caravaggio's works. The strange and fascinating use Jarman made of including contemporary props and actions and costumes in his period pieces is thoroughly discussed: the concepts are fascinating. This is an excellent resource book for those interested in film, in art, in gender studies, and in excellent reportage. Highly Recommended.
Grady Harp
Thsi book may be small in size but as is typical of BFI Modern Classics it is a solid scholarly account of a fascinating person in art history. Authors Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit title their inquiry into the mind and artistic films of Jarman CARAVAGGIO because it is their premise that Jarman came closest to presenting his full philosophy of art and sexuality in this film created in 1986 (Jarman was born in 1942 and died of AIDS in 1994). In a beautifully written an dwell illustrated little book - images from many of Jarman's films as well as paintings by Caravaggio - these two scholars examine the topics that made Derek Jarman such an important figure: violence, the study of history both as a field of exploration and the effects of history on today, homosexuality, and the seemingly direct relationship between Jarman's films and thee act of painting.
All the characters in Jarman's films are examined as symbols for his thoughts. The techniques of how Jarman directed his works are also studied and the depth of knowledge of both Bersani and Ulysse is rather astonishing. There are many photographs of Jarman on set, Jarman's actors in stills, and Jarman with images of Caravaggio's works. The strange and fascinating use Jarman made of including contemporary props and actions and costumes in his period pieces is thoroughly discussed: the concepts are fascinating. This is an excellent resource book for those interested in film, in art, in gender studies, and in excellent reportage. Highly Recommended.
Grady Harp
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews