Jubilee | |
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Directed by | Derek Jarman |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Peter Middleton |
Edited by |
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Music by | |
Distributed by | Cinegate Ltd. [3] |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £50,000 [4] or £200,000 [5] |
Jubilee is a 1978 British drama film directed by Derek Jarman. It stars Jenny Runacre, Ian Charleson, Nell Campbell, Hermine Demoriane and a host of punk rockers. The title refers to the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977. [6]
Numerous punk icons appear in the film including Adam Ant, Toyah, Jordan (a Malcolm McLaren protégé), Gene October and Jayne County. It features performances by Jayne County and Adam and the Ants. [7] There are also cameo appearances by the Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The film was scored by Brian Eno.
Queen Elizabeth I is transported forward in time to the film's present day by the occultist John Dee, who commands the spirit guide Ariel (a character from William Shakespeare's The Tempest ) to bring them there. Elizabeth arrives in the shattered Britain of the 1970s and moves through the social and physical decay of the city, observing the sporadic activities of a group of aimless nihilists – mostly young women, including Amyl Nitrate, Bod, Chaos, Crabs and Mad.
An early scene, set in a squat, introduces the audience to this group of characters and also to Sphinx and Angel, two incestuous bisexual brothers. Amyl Nitrate instructs a group of young women about history – in so doing, valorizing the violent criminal activity of Myra Hindley – before reminiscing about her time as a ballet dancer. Bod, a sex-hating anarchist, has just strangled and killed Queen Elizabeth II, stealing her crown in an arbitrary street robbery.
From there the group moves on to a café, where Crabs picks up a young musician called Kid, Mad tears up some postcards, and Bod attacks a waitress with a bottle of ketchup. Bod contacts impresario Borgia Ginz. On meeting Ginz, however, she is surprised to find Amyl performing a pastiche of "Rule Britannia". Sphinx and Angel establish a relationship with Viv, a young former artist, whom they take to meet Max, an ex-soldier. In exchange for sexual favours, Crabs takes Kid to see Ginz, who auditions Kid's band and signs them up under the name "Scum". Sphinx and Angel try to talk Kid out of this, but he just laughs at their lecturing. Ginz is branching out into property management and has purchased "abandoned" properties such as Westminster Cathedral and Buckingham Palace, which are transformed into musical venues.
Meanwhile, Mad, Bod, and Crabs asphyxiate Happy Days, one of Crabs' one-night stands, with red plastic sheeting. They proceed to break into the flat of androgynous rock star Lounge Lizard, whom Bod throttles to death. A fight breaks out between Kid and a policeman, at a disco session in Westminster Cathedral. After the gang all watch Kid's TV debut together, Viv and the three males pay a visit to Max's bingo hall, where violent police activity causes the death of Sphinx, Angel, and the Kid. Revenge attacks on the two police officers responsible follow. One of them is castrated to death by Mad and Amyl; the other, who has just started an affair with Crabs, is blown up on his doorstep with a petrol bomb by Bod.
Finally, Ginz takes the four women off to Dorset – "the only safe place to live these days" – an unreconstructed right wing aristocratic enclave, where he signs a recording contract with the gang. Interspersed with these displays of contemporary anarchic violence, Dee, Ariel, and Elizabeth try to interpret the signs of anarchic modernity around them, before they undertake a pastoral and nostalgic return to the sixteenth century at the film's end.
The film is heavily influenced by the 1970s punk aesthetic in its style and presentation. Shot in grainy colour, it is largely plotless and episodic. Location filming took advantage of London neighbourhoods that were economically depressed and/or still contained large amounts of rubble from the London Blitz. [8]
The film had many critics in British punk circles. Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood manufactured a T-shirt on which was printed an "open letter" to Jarman denouncing the film and his misrepresentations of punk. [9] Jarman, according to biographer Tony Peake, was critical of punk's fascination with fascism, while mocking its stupidity and petty violence. [10]
Jubilee is now considered a cult classic, [11] and was released by the Criterion Collection in 2003.
In November 2017, the film was adapted by Chris Goode as a play at Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre. Toyah Willcox, who played the role of Mad in the original film, performed the parts of Queen Elizabeth and Bod in this stage revival. [12]
Amyl nitrite is a chemical compound with the formula C5H11ONO. A variety of isomers are known, but they all feature an amyl group attached to the nitrite functional group. The alkyl group (the amyl in this case) is unreactive and the chemical and biological properties are mainly due to the nitrite group. Like other alkyl nitrites, amyl nitrite is bioactive in mammals, being a vasodilator, which is the basis of its use as a prescription medicine. As an inhalant, it also has a psychoactive effect, which has led to its recreational use, with its smell being described as that of old socks or dirty feet. It was first documented in 1844 and came into medical use in 1867.
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist.
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Toyah Ann Willcox is an English singer-songwriter, actress, and television presenter. In a career spanning more than 40 years, she has had eight top 40 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 stage plays and 10 feature films, and voiced and presented numerous television shows.
Wayne County & the Electric Chairs was a rock band that was part of the first wave of punk bands from the 1970s. The band was headed by Georgia-born singer Jayne County and became known for their campy, foul-mouthed ballads, glam punk inspired songs and image which was heavily influenced by Jackie Curtis and the Theatre of the Ridiculous.
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Ian Charleson was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. He is also well known for his portrayal of Rev. Charlie Andrews in the 1982 Oscar-winning film Gandhi.
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Pamela Rooke, was an English model and actress known for her work with Vivienne Westwood and the Sex boutique in the Kings Road area of London in the mid-1970s, and for attending many of the early Sex Pistols performances. Her style and dress sense—a bleached platinum-blonde bouffant hairdo with dark raccoon-like eye make-up—made her a highly visible icon of the London punk subculture. Along with Johnny Rotten, Soo Catwoman and Siouxsie Sioux, she is credited with creating the London punk look.
Karl Johnson is a Welsh actor, who has worked on stage, film and television. His notable roles to date include the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgenstein, and those of Cato the Younger in the television drama series Rome and of Twister Turrill in the BBC costume drama Lark Rise to Candleford.
Jenny Runacre is a South African actress. Her film appearances include The Passenger (1975), The Duellists (1977), Jubilee (1978), The Lady Vanishes (1979), and The Witches (1990).
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Adam Ant is a British post-punk, new wave artist. He was the lead singer of Adam & the Ants until their split in early 1982, by which time they had recorded three studio albums. Ant, however, would go solo, and release an additional five studio albums throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. After a gap of nearly 18 years, his sixth released solo studio album came out in early 2013. A planned follow-up album recorded the following year currently officially remains at developmental stage.
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