EDWARD II (1992) | Dir: Derek Jarman | There are so many reasons to celebrate the late, great Derek Jarman, not the least of which is his last film, BLUE, an autobiographical film essay that he made while going blind from AIDS-related complications. We have Jarman to thank, in part at least, to bringing Tilda Swinton to the big screen. In this re-imagining of Edward II, Jarman blends historical settings and costumes with 1990s-era ACT-UP uniforms. There’s even a sequence with Annie Lennox crooning “Every Time We Say Goodbye.” It’s a blend of modern and traditional and it blew my young gay filmmaker tadpole mind as I sat there in the seats of the Angelica Theater and said to myself, “Is that allowed? Can he do that? Can I?” I love Jarman for breaking so many rules and then embracing so much that is traditional (don’t miss his journals about English gardens). He was a true artist in every sense.
