Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Search cinema listings

Browse cinemas A-Z

Search 20,000 reviews

 

Jarman's 'War Requiem' arrives on DVD

As Derek Jarman’s ‘War Requiem’ arrives on DVD, Dave Calhoun observes the domino effect

Opera is experiencing its time in the dark as a number of cinemas, including the Curzon Mayfair and the Gate, regularly screen transmissions of live performances at the Royal Opera House or New York’s Metropolitan Opera. The Curzon Mayfair even offers two ‘fabulous royal boxes’ for hire at the cost of £200. But when it comes to film versions of operas or other classical music texts, choice is limited to unadventurous films of theatrical productions, the odd high-profile adaptation such as Kenneth Branagh’s ‘The Magic Flute’ or the occasional flight of true imagination by artists trying to find a marriage between the two art forms, such as the series of films commissioned by opera director Peter Sellars in 2006 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth.

One film that falls firmly in the latter category and is released next week on DVD in a twentieth-anniversary special edition is Derek Jarman’s ‘War Requiem’. This is the filmmaker’s 1989 version of Benjamin Britten’s musical drama for an orchestra, a choir and three soloists which premiered in May 1962 at the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, the original having been destroyed during the war. Britten’s piece combined the Latin texts of the traditional Requiem Mass with the words of Wilfred Owen, the poet who died in the trenches in 1918.

Twenty-six years later, 46-year-old Jarman, working with producer Don Boyd and actors including Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton and Laurence Olivier set new images to a 1963 recording of Britten’s work. Jarman took the wars of the twentieth century as his inspiration, allowing him to combine literal expressions of Owen’s life and poems with poetic evocations of the experience of the Unknown Soldier and the grief of women left behind.  Swinton hauntingly expresses the latter in a long, silent take in which she responds to emotions heard in the music. Later in the film, dramatisation (all of which was filmed over 18 days in the disused Darenth Park Hospital in Kent) gives way to documentary as we watch a series of images of war from the trenches of World War I to Vietnam, edited by John Maybury.

As Swinton says in an interview on the DVD, ‘Jarman stacks up the dominos. There’s the art of Britten’s music, the art of Owen’s words and the art of his film. Then, with that real footage, all those dominos fall. I don’t know how it couldn’t be moving.’

It was Laurence Olivier’s last film: the 81-year-old appears at the beginning, playing an old soldier being pushed in a wheelchair by Swinton. He speaks Owen’s poetry to camera, then he stares into the lens, his eyes dewy with age or sadness or both, before the film journeys back to the war in which he’s served. Swinton remembers this with pride. ‘We were touched that he agreed to dress up as this old solider,’ she recalls. ‘I still pinch myself that he agreed to do it.’

War Requiem’ will be available on DVD from Nov 10. The film screens at Curzon Soho on Sun at 2pm with a Q+A afterwards with Don Boyd.

Author: Dave Calhoun



What do you think?
Post your comment now

*mandatory fields





Top Stories

Hippies who work for The Man

Hippies who work for The Man

To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within

Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies

Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies

Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe

Grant Heslov: interview

Grant Heslov: interview

Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'

The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'

The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'

Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’

Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?

Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?

Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer

Michael Jackson's This Is It: review

Michael Jackson's This Is It: review

Kenny Ortega's posthumous concert film is a rousing eulogy for one of pop's great enigmas

Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace

Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace

From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'

Lone Scherfig talks 'An Education'

Lone Scherfig talks 'An Education'

Danish director Lone Scherfig was an unlikely choice for a very English affair like 'An Education'. Cath Clarke meets her

How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life

How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life

Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'

Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam

Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam

In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations