Daily Movie Rec 7/7/2023

The Angelic Conversation (1985)

"How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made, by looking on thee in the living day, when in dead night thy fair imperfect shade, through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay? All days are nights to see till I see thee, and nights bright days when dreams do show thee me."

Directed by: Derek Jarman

Cinematography by: Jarman & James Mackay

Country: United Kingdom

Genre: Romance

Plot:

Intermittent Shakespeare sonnets are narrated over experimental montages symbolizing gay love.

Reasons to watch:

Slow-mo, moody dissolves, mournful young men, peculiar washed-out color palettes, artfully melodramatic low-budget imagery. In the six years between The Angelic Conversation and Jarman's previous feature in 1979, the avant-garde filmmaker began directing music videos, and the aesthetic influence of those early musical shorts is unmistakable in this capital-E Experimental film. Unadorned yet striking and entirely mesmerizing when it's at its best.

[I'm also realizing that had I had my current brain when I was in school as a teenager, I would have been a huge Shakespeare nerd. I never really understand what it means, but that shit rips.]

Where to watch:

The Criterion Channel/Kanopy