Sebastiane (Jarman, 1976): Riverside Studios Cinema, 7pm
This is part of the Deep Desires and Broken Dreams gay movies season at the Riverside (details here) and is one of the most original movies to have emerged from 70s British cinema. The highlight of the week and a film well worth catching at this very rare screening.
Time Out review:
'Not exactly typical of the British independent cinema, this not only tackles an avowedly 'difficult' subject (the relationship between sex and power, and the destructive force of unrequited passion), but does so within two equally 'difficult' frameworks: that of exclusively male sexuality, and that of the Catholic legend of the martyred saint, set nearly 1,700 years ago. Writer/director Derek Jarman sees Sebastian as a common Roman soldier, exiled to the back of beyond with a small platoon of bored colleagues, who gets selfishly absorbed in his own mysticism and then picked on by his emotionally crippled captain. It's filmed naturalistically, to the extent that the dialogue is in barracks-room Latin, and carries an extraordinary charge of conviction in the staging and acting; it falters only in the slightly awkward elements of parody and pastiche. One of a kind, it's compulsively interesting on many levels.'
Tony Rayns
Here is an extract.
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