Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman was the most important independent filmaker in england during the 1980s. Using emblems and symbols in associative contexts,rather than conventional, cause-and-affect narrative, he created films noteworthy for their lyricism and poetic feeling and for their exploration of the gay experience. Jarman had an extraordinarily wide ranging career in many different fields Autobiographer, Diarist, Set Designer, Painter, Polemicist, Political Activist, Scriptwriter. Jarman studied at King's College, London and then at the Slade School of Art until 1967. He was lucky to break into designing for film and stage while still in his early twenties. In 1968 he designed set and costumes for the choreographer Frederick Ashton at Covent Garden and for John Gielgud's Don Giovanni at the Coliseum in London. He then worked for the unconventional film maker Ken Russell, designing The Devils in 1970, and Savage Messiah (1972). Later he was designer for Russell's production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in Florence in 1982. to be continued...