Zeitgeist Films will bring to Blu-ray two films directed by Derek Jarman:
Blue (1993) and
The Garden (1990). The two releases, which will be distributed by Kino Lorber, will be available for purchase on August 27.
The Garden
Description: Half waking dream and half fiery polemic, The Garden was born of director Jarman's rage over continued anti-gay discrimination and the sluggardly response to the AIDS crisis—he had been diagnosed HIV positive in 1988. Starring Tilda Swinton, this uniquely kaleidoscopic film shows the filmmaker's genius at its most coruscating, making space in its breadth of vision for an over-the-top Hollywood-style musical number, nightmare images of tar-and-feather queer persecution, and footage of the particularly menacing-looking nuclear power plant that overlooks Jarman's own garden, the point from which his film begins, and a cherished spot which he must keep to tending even as his body begins to betray him. Writhing with sorrow and anger, and yet so vividly alive to the loveliness of being, The Garden is a baleful and beautiful epistle from the brink of the beyond.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- NEW 2K REMASTER OVERSEEN BY PRODUCER JAMES MACKAY
- Audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan
- After the Garden - Richard Heslop remembers Derek Jarman's later days
- Anything Can Happen, Richard Heslop on working with Jarman
- David Lewis remembers The Garden
- James Mackay remembers The Garden
- The Other Great Masterpiece - John Maybury considers Jarman's enthusiasm for gardening
- Theatrical trailer
Blue
Description: In his final—and most daring—cinematic statement, Jarman the romantic meets Jarman the iconoclast in a lush soundscape pulsing against a purely blue screen. Laying bare his physical and spiritual state in a narration about his life, his struggle with AIDS and his encroaching blindness,
Blue is by turns poignant, amusing, poetic and philosophical.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- NEW 4K MASTER OVERSEEN BY PRODUCER JAMES MACKAY
- Bliss (1991, an audio recording of a concert that would become Blue)
- David Lewis remembers Blue
- Glitterbig (1994, a compilation of Derek Jarman's home movies, scored by Brian Eno)
- Hard to Imagine (John Maybury recalls Jarman's journey towards Blue)
- James Mackay remembers Blue
- Simon Fisher Turner remembers Blue
- Derek Jarman blue plaque unveiling in London