Themes: Life in the Arts, Love Triangles, Tortured Genius
Main Cast: Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, Garry Cooper, Spencer Leigh, Tilda Swinton
Release Year: 1986
Country: UK
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Writer/director Derek Jarman injects his patented iconoclasm in this biography of Renaissance artist Michelangelo Merisa da Caravaggio. Nigel Terry plays the title role, whom (according to Jarman) essentially told his own life story in his paintings. Caravaggio travelled among thieves and prostitutes, many of whom were his models. He once killed a man, kept a deaf/mute child as a virtual slave, and squandered every penny he ever made. That we should care anything about so miserable and obscure a personality is a tribute to Jarman's filmmaking savvy--and the number of elements from his own well-publicized life that he injects into the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Derek Jarman's first 35mm film and one of his most mainstream works, this iconoclastic biopic explores the connections among sex, art, and money in the complicated life of 17th century painter Caravaggio. Deliberately injecting modern anachronisms into his portrait of Renaissance Italy, Jarman eschews traditional biography in favor of key moments in Caravaggio's relationships with his patrons and especially his models Ranuccio and Lena. Through Caravaggio's deathbed memories, Jarman reveals the impact of Caravaggio's taboo sexuality on his church-funded paintings, as hustlers and prostitutes portray saints for a system corrupted by financial imperative. Recreating Caravaggio's most famous works with live actors, and shooting in a style true to Caravaggio's chiaroscuro aesthetic, Jarman creates a seductive yet foreboding visual atmosphere surrounding Nigel Terry's brooding artist. Winner of the Silver Bear at the 1986 Berlin Film Festival, Caravaggio was a critical and art house success, ushering in Jarman's second period of feature filmmaking before his death from AIDS in 1994. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Michael Gough - Cardinal Del Monte; Nigel Davenport - Marchese Giustiniani; Robbie Coltrane - Scipione Borghese; Jonathan Hyde - Baglione; Dexter Fletcher - Young Caravaggio; Noam Almaz - Boy Caravaggio; Jack Birkett - The Pope; Una Brandon-Jones - Weeping Woman; Vernon Dobtcheff - Art Lover; Terry Downes - Bodyguard; John Rogan - Vatican Official; Zohra Segal - Jerualeme's Grandmother; Simon Turner - Fra Fillipo; Imogen Claire - Lady with the Jewels; Sadie Corré - Princess Collona
Credit
Sandy Powell - Costume Designer, Derek Jarman - Director, George Akers - Editor, Mary Phillips - Composer (Music Score), Simon Fisher Turner - Composer (Music Score), Christopher Hobbs - Production Designer, Gabriel Beristain - Cinematographer, Colin MacCabe - Producer, Sarah Radclyffe - Producer, Derek Jarman - Screenwriter
Jarman's film is involved with the love triangle of Caravaggio (Nigel Terry), Lena (Tilda Swinton) and Ranuccio (Sean Bean) and dwells upon Caravaggio's use of street people, drunks and prostitutes as models for his intense, usually religious paintings (see the article on the painter for examples). As with Caravaggio's own use of contemporary dress for his Biblical figures, Jarman depicts his Caravaggio in a bar lit with electric lights, or another character using an electronic calculator.
The film is notable for its texture and attention to detail, the intense performances and the idiosyncratic humor. By presenting Caravaggio as one of the founders of the chiaroscuro technique, it helped give expression to the legend that was beginning to form around him. Jarman's Caravaggio also suggests that his legend ultimately eclipsed his enormous talent.
