Blue

Anyone who sees the film”, said Jarman in 1993, “recognizes that red and yellow would not work. Yellow is the color of illness. And red is too disturbing and difficult. Blue always carries hope. It never become too maudlin.” With this in mind, a monochrome blue screen takes up the full 74 minutes of the film. In grappling with death in emphatic fashion, Jarman shows that he doesn’t need to prove the existence of his HIV infection within the frame. Instead, the focus lies the soundtrack and the voiceovers delivered by Derek Jarman, John Quentin, Nigel Terry and Tilda Swinton, on stories, poems and dialogues from Jarman’s life after his symptoms have started to appear. BLUE is a filmmaker’s legacy and contains the last words of a great visual narrator who has lost his sight – Jarman’s most personal film. (mg)