Caravaggio (1986)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Derek Jarman

Writers:

Nicholas Ward Jackson (story)
Derek Jarman (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

29 August 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Plot Keywords:

Drowning | Scene Based On Painting | One Word Title | Homoerotic Fight | Homosexual History

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Noam Almaz	...	Boy Caravaggio
Dawn Archibald	...	Pipo
Sean Bean	...	Ranuccio
Jack Birkett	...	The Pope
Sadie Corre	...	Princess Collona
Una Brandon-Jones	...	Weeping Woman
Imogen Claire	...	Lady with the Jewels
Robbie Coltrane	...	Scipione Borghese
Garry Cooper	...	Davide
Lol Coxhill	...	Old Priest
Nigel Davenport	...	Giustiniani
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	Art Lover
Terry Downes	...	Bodyguard
Dexter Fletcher	...	Young Caravaggio
Michael Gough	...	Cardinal Del Monte
Jonathan Hyde	...	Baglione
Spencer Leigh	...	Jerusaleme
Emile Nicolaou	...	Young Jerusaleme
Gene October	...	Model Peeling Fruit
Cindy Oswin	...	Lady Elizabeth
John Rogan	...	Vatican Official
Zohra Sehgal	...	Jerualeme's Grandmother
Tilda Swinton	...	Lena
Lucien Taylor	...	Boy with Guitar
Nigel Terry	...	Caravaggio
Simon Fisher-Turner	...	Fra Fillipo (as Simon Turner)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kevin Hull	...	Roman in toga (uncredited)
Chelita Secunda	...	(uncredited)
Cerith Wyn Evans	...	Altar boy (uncredited)

Directed by
Derek Jarman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Suso Cecchi d'Amico		uncredited
Nicholas Ward Jackson		story (as Nicholas Ward-Jackson)
Derek Jarman		writer

Produced by
Nicholas Ward Jackson	....	executive producer (as Nicholas Ward-Jackson)
Colin MacCabe	....	executive producer
James Mackay	....	development producer
Sarah Radclyffe	....	producer

Original Music by
Simon Fisher-Turner

Cinematography by
Gabriel Beristain

Film Editing by
George Akers

Casting by
Debbie McWilliams

Production Design by
Christopher Hobbs

Art Direction by
Michael Buchanan		(as Mike Buchanan)

Costume Design by
Sandy Powell

Makeup Department
Morag Ross	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jill Pack	....	executive in charge of production
Sarah Wilson	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pat Aldersley	....	third assistant director
Simon Moseley	....	second assistant director
Glynn Purcell	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Christopher Hobbs	....	painter
Annie La Paz	....	scenic artist
Lucy Morahan	....	scenic artist
Tim Youngman	....	property master

Sound Department
Peter Maxwell	....	dubbing mixer
Peter Maxwell	....	sound re-recording mixer
Billy McCarthy	....	sound recordist
George Richards	....	boom swinger
'Budge' Tremlett	....	dubbing editor
Steve Hancock	....	sound camera operator (uncredited)

Stunts
Jim Dowdall	....	stunt coordinator
Gareth Milne	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Noel Balbirnie	....	focus puller
Phil Bough	....	second assistant camera
Tony Haughey	....	grip
Mike Laye	....	still photographer
John Mathieson	....	clapper loader
Larry S. Prinz	....	gaffer
Steve Tickner	....	camera operator: second unit

Casting Department
Simon Fisher-Turner	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Annie Symons	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Alistair Bates	....	assistant editor
Nicola Black	....	assistant editor
Anuree De Silva	....	assistant editor
Matthew Whiteman	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Chi-Chi Nwanoku	....	musician: double bass
Mary Philips	....	music assistant
Richard Preston	....	music engineer

Other crew
Heather Storr	....	continuity

Thanks
Suso Cecchi d'Amico	....	thanks

Production Companies

• British Film Institute (BFI)

Distributors

• Cinevista (1986) (USA) (theatrical)
• Dolmen (2004) (Italy) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2007) (Australia) (DVD)
• Zeitgeist Films

Other Companies

• Berry Street Studios  music recorded at
• Film Lighting Services  lighting
• Frameline Productions  titles
• Good Eating Company  catering

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:18 | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | UK:18 | Hong Kong:IIB

Filming Locations:

Limehouse Studios, Limehouse, London, England, UK

Company:

British Film Institute (BFI)

Trivia:

Tilda Swinton's debut.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: (At 81:00) When Ranuccio confesses about his crime, there is a truck behind Caravaggio.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Jubilee: A Time Less Golden (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

EL NINO

Strange, artistic, memorable

This is not a mainstream movie. You may be very distracted by the presence of jokey 20th century anachronisms in this otherwise grave movie about the artistic genius, Caravaggio. 17th century merchants use hand-held calculators, modern instruments play at the parties, local scribes use typewriters, servants dress in modern dinner jackets. I sure don't know what it all means. I guess you can impute many meanings to it.

You may also be irritated by the director in his insistence that everyone is motivated by homoerotic impulses. This facet of the presentation is really more about Derek Jarman than Caravaggio.

Well, I'm not sure that the movie has much to say about Caravaggio at all. After all, Caravaggio shocked his era with his revisionist hagiography - saints with peasant faces, torn clothes and dirty fingernails - probably realistic but iconoclastic in its time, and contrary to a century of previous tradition. Moreover, Caravaggio almost invented the modern system of a consistently represented light source, showing the actual impact of light on his subjects. These key points are barely touched by the script.

But I think you probably should just let those irritations wash over you, and accept the movie for what it is. It uses the style and mood of his paintings to reflect his life, and it incorporates that precise aesthetic into the movie's own visuals. The movie looks like what Caravaggio's own moving pictures might have looked like if he could have created them in 1600.

Is it a good movie? Who knows? It's not so well remembered after a decade or so, but it exhibits a memorable gift for creating and sustaining a mood, and for breathing life into Caravaggio's canvases. It also speculates about the everyday life that must have circulated around the creation of those masterpieces.

I was willing to forgive a lot of artistic pretension and rhetorical dialogue for the superb visuals and atmosphere, and I took vivid memories away from the film. You may feel the same way.