Review of The Tempest (1979) by Art S — 06 Oct 2012
Derek Jarman's take on Shakespeare's final classic is pictorially beautiful (shot in Stoneleigh Abbey and dressed like Robespierre) but somewhat impenetrable. Of course, this might be the Bard's poetics but, as with Greenaway's later riff on this and the play, things are anything but direct and straightforward.
These films also share scads of full frontal male nudity (and here also in the buff, Toyah Willcox, last seen in Urgh! A Music War). The final musical send-off seems to echo Fassbinder's similar joy in genre-bending and is similarly a non sequitur (I'm thinking of 1978's In a Year of 13 Moons, I think.
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This review of The Tempest (1979) was written by Art S on 06 Oct 2012.
The Tempest has generally received mixed reviews.
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