Jubilee (1978)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Derek Jarman

Writer:

Derek Jarman (writer)

Release Date:

September 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Tagline:

Sex, drugs and punk rock. Add violence and time travel and you have Jubilee.

Plot:

Queen Elizabeth I travels to late twentieth-century Britain to discover a tawdry and depressing landscape...

Plot Keywords:

Punk | Penis | Bizarre | Naked Killer | Violence

Cast

Jenny Runacre	...	Queen Elizabeth I / Bod
Nell Campbell	...	Crabs (as Little Nell)
Toyah Willcox	...	Mad
Jordan	...	Amyl Nitrite
Hermine Demoriane	...	Chaos
Ian Charleson	...	Angel
Karl Johnson	...	Sphinx
Linda Spurrier	...	Viv
Neil Kennedy	...	Max
Jack Birkett	...	Borgia Ginz (as Orlando)
Wayne County	...	Lounge Lizard
Richard O'Brien	...	John Dee
David Brandon	...	Ariel (as David Haughton)
Helen Wellington-Lloyd	...	Lady in Waiting
Adam Ant	...	Kid

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | Hong Kong:III | New Zealand:R18 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Bermondsey, London, England, UK

Company:

Megalovision

Trivia:

Toyah Willcox chose the character of Mad while leafing through the script, finding that that character had the most lines.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: After the policemen shoot Angel and Sphinx dead, Sphinx's eyes blink before the camera cuts away.

Quotes:

Crabs: And the world's your oyster, so swallow it.

Movie Connections:

References The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Soundtrack:

Dover Beach

My 1st Jarman film

I am going to be bias about this film I am afraid. It is the film that got me interested in Jarman.

One evening in the early 1990's Channel 4 broadcast Jubilee and I watched, with the sound on my television down, transfixed by the images that I was seeing. As a young (12 or 13) gay man realising the unacceptability of my sexuality and having no one to discuss or share my feelings with, Jubilee stuck out and spoke to me. The homoerotic images were the 1st I had seen, and certain images remained with me until I was 18 (The 'orgy scene'with naked men and bishops dancing, the murder of the drag queen, Queen Elizabeth I walking along the shoreline with the godlike narration reciting poetry, Toya's pink hair!) and was able to discover what this film actually was. All I knew up until then was that it was called Jubilee.

Yes it is a messy movie made on a very low budget. Yes, the acting is appalling at times with many unknown untrained actors - but, like Jarmans other films it had an impact which seems to transcend these mere dramatic theatre critic type issues. If I had only come to view the film now, it may not have had such an impact. To me it is a brave work with a uniqueness and style like no other. I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen in Brighton last year - and its messiness actually seemed to befit the big screen - its over the top, cant performances worked so much more than on the small screen. Jordans 'Rule Britannia' in the Union Jacks dress (mimicked by Geri Halliwell 20 years later), Adam Ant's 'Plastic Surgery' are iconic moments in British film.

Jarmans least poetic and focused film, but still the only film to truly grab me as a child with its madcap, anarchic, brash energy and sexuality.