Rent Caravaggio (1986)
3.3 of 5 from 116 ratings
1h 29min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Derek Jarmam struggled for seven years to bring his portrait of the seventeenth-century Italian artist Michelangelo de Caravaggio (Nigel Terry / Dexter Fletcher) to the screen. The result was well worth the wait, and was greeted with critical acclaim: a freely dramatised portrait of the controversial artist and a powerful mediation on sexuality, criminality and art - a new refreshing take on the usual biopic. The film centres on an imagined love-triangle between Caravaggio, his friend and model Ranuccio (Sean Bean), and Ranuccio's low-life partner Lena (Tilda Swinton). Conjuring some of the artist's most famous paintings through elaborate and beautifully photographed tableaux vivants, those works are woven into the fabric of the story, providing a starting point for its characters and narrative episodes. - Actors:
- Noam Almaz, Dexter Fletcher, Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, Garry Cooper, Spencer Leigh, Tilda Swinton, Nigel Davenport, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gough, Dawn Archibald, Jack Birkett, Una Brandon-Jones, Imogen Claire, Sadie Corre, Lol Coxhill, Vernon Dobtcheff, Terry Downes, Jonathan Hyde, Emile Nicolaou
- Directors:
- Derek Jarman
- Producers:
- Sarah Radclyffe
- Writers:
- Derek Jarman, Nicholas Ward Jackson, Suso Cecchi D'Amico
- Studio:
- BFI Video
- Genres:
- Drama, Romance, Special Interest
- Collections:
- A World of Difference: A History of Gay Cinema, Drama Films & TV, Films & TV by topic, Fine Art Films: Gallery of Great Painters, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Tilda Swinton, Top 10 Golden Bear Winners, Top 100 BFI Films, Top Films
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 17/06/2019
- Run Time:
- 93 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.66:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Caravaggio in Docklands (1985, 15 mins): shot on VHS by director Ron Peck (Nighthawks), this footage was recorded at Limehouse Studios in east London where Derek was about to shoot 'Caravaggio'
- Kind Blasphemy: Nigel Terry on Derek Jarman and 'Caravaggio' (2007, 7 mins): the actor and star of Caravaggio shares his memories of meeting and working with Derek Jarman
- Tilda Swinton on 'Caravaggio' and Derek Jarman (2007, 9 mins)
- Italy of the Memory: Christopher Hobbs on 'Caravaggio' (2007, 8 mins): archive interview with the film's production designer
- Dexter Fletcher on 'Caravaggio' (2014, 10 mins): the actor and director recalls his first meeting with Derek Jarman
- Christopher Hobbs Remembers 'Caravaggio' (2018, 6 mins)
- Derek Jarman interviewed by Derek Malcolm (1986, 58 mins, audio only)
- 'Caravaggio' Score Recording Sessions (1986, 64 mins, audio only): extensive new selection of hauntingly beautiful audio outtakes
- Audio commentary with cinematographer Gabriel Beristain
- Assorted galleries: Derek Jarman's notebooks, storyboards and production designs
- Original theatrical trailer
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Reviews (1) of Caravaggio
Anachronism as Correction - Caravaggio review by griggs
Caravaggio feels like the sort of thing only Derek Jarman could get away with: take a violent old master, throw in electric bulbs, pocket calculators and motorbikes, and somehow make it feel less like a gimmick than a correction. On paper it sounds mental. On screen it just works.
Nigel Terry plays him on his deathbed, looking back over the tavern punch-ups, the rough trade, and the messy triangle with Sean Bean’s Ranuccio and Tilda Swinton’s Lena. Bean brings the swagger; Swinton, in her first film, already has that eerie certainty of someone who knows the camera belongs to her.
Jarman turns obvious limitations into style. Every frame looks lit from inside the paintings themselves: deep shadow, bruised gold, faces emerging from the dark. Less a biopic than a chain of living tableaux with a pulse. Gorgeous, faintly ridiculous, and unlike anything else.
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