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Synopsis

The Tempest, the last of William Shakespeare’s great plays, was adapted for the screen for the first time by Derek Jarman in 1979. Among the most visionary of modern film artists, Jarman, who died of AIDS in 1994 at age 52, was one of the first directors – outside the pornography circuit – to present openly gay material in feature-length films.

Shot on location at the ancient and ghostly Stoneleigh Abbey, The Tempest tells the story of Prospero the magician, who lives with his nubile daughter on an enchanted island and punishes his enemies when they are shipwrecked there. It’s a study of sexual and political power in the guise of a fairy tale.

Jarman presents Shakespeare’s intricate comedy of magic and revenge in a form that is at once faithful to the spirit of the play and an original and dazzling spectacle mixing Hollywood pastiche, high camp, and gothic horror. His film recalls the innocent homoeroticism of Pasolini’s versions of classics, while its lush sense of décor and color is worthy of Minnelli.

The film’s master stroke is the finale, a wedding feast designed and choreographed as as full scale production number, with the veteran black comedy musical star Elisabeth Welch wafting her way through a chorus of hunky sailors as she belts out “Stormy Weather.” It’s one of the great scenes in British cinema. –Kino

Director

Original

Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman (January 31, 1942- February 19, 1994), British film director, artist, and writer.

Jarman’s first films were experimental super 8mm shorts, a form he never entirely abandoned, and later developed further (in his films Imagining October (1984), The Angelic Conversation (1985), The Last Of England (1987) and The Garden (1990)) as a parallel to his narrative work.

Jarman made his debut in “overground” narrative filmmaking with the groundbreaking Sebastiane (1976), arguably the first British film to feature positive images of gay sexuality, and the first (and to date, only) film entirely in Latin. He follwed this with the film many regard as his first masterpiece, Jubilee (shot 1977, released 1978), in which Queen Elizabeth I of England is transported forward in time to a desolate and brutal wasteland ruled by her twentieth century namesake. Jubilee was arguably the first UK punk movie, and amongst its cast featured punk groups and figures such as Wayne County… read more

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Cat

13May10

Probably my favourite portrayal of Ariel.

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Laura De Noves

31Mar10

This film can't be called an 'adaptation' really; I've never seen anything miss the point of an original work so completely. 'Inspired by' perhaps, but there's a pseudo-artistic sincerity which, unless <i>I'm</i> completely missing something, makes its pretty unbearable to watch, let alone enjoy.

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richmondhill

7Feb10

An eclectic magpie’s nest of a film: spry and light of foot, capturing a sense of lyrical magic with surprising ease. I disagree with the synopsis above about being a homosexual metaphor as this is one of the few films where Jarman doesn’t beat that drum so loudly. It’s more a humanist reading. One of the finer Shakespeare adaptations.

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THE TEMPEST (2010): REVIEW

By Twitchfilm.com on May 17, 2011
My “every third thought” may not have been on the grave while watching Julie Taymor’s The Tempest (2010); but, it was certainly on the exit. Despite some fantastic visual flourishes (which I’ve come to
read on Twitchfilm.com

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Reinventing the Bard

By DT on February 12, 2012

With Shakespeare’s play already forming firm foundations for the film’s substance, Jarman decides to take it up several notches by pitching an almost psychedelic angle to the text. Rather than a straightforward…  read review

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