Dancing Ledge

The filmmaker noted for Sebastiane and Edward II , among other works, discusses his life and art, detailing his sexual awakening, the libidinous excesses of the sixties, his experiences in gay culture, and more.

Originally published a decade ago in England under the title Queerlife, this brutally candid memoir by British artist and filmmaker Jarman offers a glimpse into the making of such controversial films as Sebastiane , The Tempest and Caravaggio. Writing in a diary format, Jarman jumps back and forth in time, discussing his acceptance of his homosexuality at age 16 (he was born in 1942) and his strong belief that a fully realized sexuality must drive art and politics. Interwoven with accounts of the financial and emotional hardships of a life devoted to filmmaking are explicit descriptions of sexual explorations conducted around the globe. Diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986 (this was dealt with more fully in an earlier memoir, At Your Own Risk ), Jarman advocates sexual caution but resists renouncing his past and continues to preserve gay history through his art. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reconstructed memoir of ``my Queerlife'' of the 1970's that's a companion volume to British filmmaker Jarman's At Your Own Risk (1992), which told of his first five decades as well as of his thoughts since testing HIV-positive five years ago. This new book seems to be a faintly updated reprint of diarylike entries published in Britain ten years ago. The leap-about entries recount the gay old pre-AIDS days, during which Jarman nonetheless detested the bourgeois qualities of early gay lib. Occasionally, he climbs off the financial rocks and tries to put together a better script for, and to begin the filming of, his long-delayed Caravaggio, and we get much about Caravaggio as a gay artist (as deduced from his paintings) as well as about Jarman's films-to-be, Sebastiane and Jubilee. Meanwhile, the author's script for The Tempest is funded and goes forward. Entries tend to be ordered more by theme than chronology (they can jump from 1953 to 1984) and feature comments on many famous gays, such as William Burroughs and Pier Paolo Pasolini, whom Jarman clearly sees as heroes (although he often takes issue with Pasolini's lifestyle and sometimes with his films). Retold are Jarman's days at Pinewood Studios when Ken Russell hires him to design The Devils, for which Jarman builds the biggest set since Cleopatra- -until the Hollywood mafia trims it to interiors only. Later, Jarman designs Russell's The Savage Messiah and is driven half-mad faking statues by sculptor Gaudier Brzeska. Many excellent pages, many grandly impolite (if less hostile than At Your Own Risk). (Eighty-eight b&w photographs, including shots of male nudes at low ebb) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Jarman is a painter, theater designer, and one of Britain's most renowned alternative filmmakers. This autobiography, which covers his life to age 40, was originally privately printed in 1984. Rather than straight narrative, it is written in a journal style that gives it an arresting immediacy. Jarman also offers a mini-history of gay life in London from the swinging Sixties to the grey Eighties. His artistic life gets more than equal space, tracing his development from artist to filmmaker. The creation of the three movies he made during this period ( Sebastiane, Jubilee , and The Tempest ) as well as the preproduction work for Caravaggio , dominates the book. Jarman writes in lucid, accessible, and evocative prose. His highly articulate musings on contemporary art and cinema (neither of which has his approval) are both thought-provoking and interesting. Recommended for film or art collections, and a definite asset to any collection on gay culture.
- Marianne Cawley Kingwood Branch Lib. , Kingwood, Tex.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.