The Tempest
Actually, it seems that the complete name of the film, according to the artwork on the Blu-ray's cover, is "Derek Jarman's Adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest." And I shall begin by saying that if you are a Shakespeare fan, you may enjoy what veteran English director Derek Jarman did with the play. As for yours truly, after struggling with what has been described elsewhere as "quasi-Elizabethan linguistics," which could make it difficult to understand the plot, I can say that I enjoyed it thanks to the action and delightful cinematography, which slowly unveiled the whole thing for me. This is truly poetry in film, in every sense of the word.
Right from the beginning we meet Prospero, the magician (Heathcote Williams); his ready-to-marry-and-have-sex daughter Miranda (Toyah Willcox); and Caliban, the slave - annoying, I should add -- (Jack Birkett, in my favorite performance). The three of them live in a castle on an island, in exile, as dictated by Prospero's brother,...
Vintage Jarman
People who will watch or want this film on video by and large will be fans of its director--the iconolastic Derek Jarman (The Last of England, Sebastiane). It's slow, plodding dialogue, shoestring production values, and slow pacing is countered of course by Jarman's inventive and quirky take on the Bard's second foray into the land of fairies and supernatural beings (the other being A Midsummer's Night Dream). The film is not really accessible for those who like action, violence, sex, special effects or all four (which is a good percentage of the movie going public). Plus it's Shakespeare, an author who never really translates well to film regardless of the director (the exception being West Side Story--Leonard Bernstein's take on Romeo and Juliet). Sound quality is so-so even on this Blu Ray transfer, and the full frame doesn't add anything to an already difficult film to digest. Jarman has always been classified as an art-house director, and most of the well-known movie critics...
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