Blue (Derek Jarman)

A courageous personal testimony about his experiences with AIDS, 'Blue' is Derek Jarman's most radical and daring film and was hailed as a masterpiece when it premiered at the Venice Biennale. A blue screen provides the canvas for the visions of the audience, conjured up from the evocative words and music of the remarkably rich soundtrack by Simon Fisher-Turner. Jarman's own words are delivered by John Quentin, Nigel Terry, Tilda Swinton and Jarman himself. Quite without sentimentality, self pity or polemic, eloquently spare and vivid in its verbal imagery, and at times very funny, 'Blue' is a remarkable work by one of Britain's most extraordinary filmmakers.