Jubilee
Criterion/Voyager (1977)
Comedy, Drama, Experimental/Avant-Garde/Art House, Queer Themes/Interest
In Collection
#1086
7*
Seen ItYes
(7/31/2017 Home)
037429176023
IMDB   6.2
100 mins UK / English
DVD  Region 1
Jack Birkett Borgia Ginz
Nell Campbell Crabs
Ian Charleson Angel
Hermine Demoriane Chaos
Karl Johnson Sphinx
Neil Kennedy Max
Jenny Runacre Queen Elizabeth I and Bod
Linda Spurrier Viv
Toyah Willcox Mad
Jayne County Lounge Lizard
Richard O'Brien John Dee
David Brandon Ariel
Helen Wellington-Lloyd Lady in Waiting
Adam Ant Kid
Claire Davenport First Customs Lady
Donald Dunham Policeman
Iris Fry Bingo lady
Quinn Hawkins Boy
Barney James Policeman
Lindsay Kemp Cabaret performer
Ulla Larson-Styles Waitress
Howard Malin Schmeitzer
Luciana Martínez Escort to Borgia
William Merrow Maurice
Gene October Happy Days
Prudence Walters Escort to Borgia
Joyce Windsor Bingo Lady
Steven Severin Himself
Slits Street girls
Duggie Fields Party-goer
Jenny Runacre Bod
Jordan Amyl Nitrite
Director/Choreographer
Derek Jarman
Producer Howard Malin
James Whaley
Writer/Composer Derek Jarman
James Whaley
Cinematography Peter Middleton
Music Brian Eno


Queen Elizabeth I visits late twentieth-century Britain to find a depressing landscape where life has changed since her time.
Edition Details
Edition The Criterion Collection
Release Date 2003
No. of Discs/Tapes 1
Personal Details
Purchase Date 7/29/2017
Location Personal Library
Owner Brookhaven Free Library
Store Amazon.com
Purchase Price $24.95
Condition New
Links + Review: Jim Clark (MUST READ, 2003)
+ Review: Gay Celluloid (2007, David Hall)
‡ Wikipedia: Theater of the Absurd
Jubilee at Core for Movies
TheMovieDb.org
IMDB

Notes
I knew this film would be difficult - abstract, advant-garde, reforming many of the conventional narrative conventions found in movies, as Jarman's films usually are· For my first-time viewing, I made the mistake of putting it on after a rather long difficult day· I had trouble concentrating, and may have even dozed off a couple of time· I realized then that a second viewing was a must·

It is now several months later· I've finally gotten around to viewing it again·

In the 1970s when Jarman made Jubilee I was a member of a small touring theatre troupe· Our specialty was "theater of the absurd" plays which were all the avant-garde fashion at the time· The troupe consisted of half-a-dozen or so actors, and simple lighting and stage props that could be carted around in a Volkswagen bus· We played at libraries, churches, private homes, and even a men's jail in New York City, often several times a week, over several years· Rarely did we have the foggiest notion of what the play was about· Our director's instructions were to read the lines as if their meaning was of the moment clear· Following each performance, we would have a discussion with the audience· And of course, the inevitable audience question - "What was that all about?" And our cheap reply - "What do you think?" What surprised me was that the audience often saw meaning (whether it was the same as that of the playwright I do not know) - and that we were often invited to return the next season·

While some may argue that Jubilee is not strictly "theatre of the absurd,"(to which I disagree), it is certainly of this tradition· Queen Elizabeth I orders her magician to show her the future· She time-travels four hundred years to Jarman's beloved England and does a walkabout· She finds a dystopian society in chaos and anarchy (see especially Jim Clark's Review in the Links section)· Elizabeth returns to her time, were we see her pondering as she walks along the shoreline - "And did those feet in ancient time, Walk upon England's mountains green …"

Jubilee also reminded me of Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film Clockwork Orange, one of my all-time favorite films· Although Clockwork has a more coherent narrative·

In his 1965 book, Absurd Drama, Esslin wrote (as quoted in Wikipedia): "The Theatre of the Absurd attacks the comfortable certainties of religious or political orthodoxy· It aims to shock its audience out of complacency, to bring it face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation as these writers see it· But the challenge behind this message is anything but one of despair· It is a challenge to accept the human condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, nobly, responsibly; precisely because there are no easy solutions to the mysteries of existence, because ultimately human is alone in a meaningless world· The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions, may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief· And that is why, in the last resort, the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation·"

Jubilee was released in 1977 during the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II· Queen Elizabeth II is the first cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, 13 times removed· That is, separated by 13 generations·

Jubilee is particularly significant now forty years later in our present era of Trumpism.