Sunday Feature: Forever Blue

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Forever Blue

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Forever Blue

The fascinating story behind artist and film-maker Derek Jarman's final masterpiece, Blue.

Friends and collaborators join Tilda Swinton to tell the fascinating story behind artist and film-maker Derek Jarman's final masterpiece, Blue.

Derek Jarman’s final film Blue premiered at the Venice Biennale and shortly afterwards was broadcast in a pioneering simulcast on BBC Radio 3 and Channel 4 in September 1993.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary, actors Tilda Swinton and John Quentin, composer Simon Fisher Turner, and producer James Mackay tell the story of the development and making of this experimental film which had no images. Simply put, it was an Yves Klein International Blue background from start to finish, accompanied by music, narrators and sound fx.

At the BFI National Archive, curator Simon McCallum finds clues about Jarman’s process in his 1987 notebook for Blue, a beautifully painted photo album full of his own poetry, jottings, cuttings and found objects. The notebook shows how Blue began as a tribute to conceptual painter Yves Klein and his theory of the void. But over time, the project changed considerably as Jarman’s health deteriorated and he began to go blind.

Recorded with trusted friends and collaborators in early 1993, Blue became Jarman’s personal and profoundly poetic meditation on living and dying with AIDS - during a period of intense homophobia in the UK when HIV/AIDs sufferers were stigmatised and ostracised by the media, the government and society at large. Although Jarman became increasingly angry and politicised, Blue remained largely calm and meditative - a series of vignettes based on his hospital diaries, poetry and mythology linked to the colour blue, and expressions of grief after losing so many friends to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Jarman always struggled to find finance for his avant-garde, subversive, often controversial films and this was no difference. It was ultimately funded by Channel 4, BBC Radio 3, The Arts Council, Uplink (a Japanese company) and Brian Eno who lent them his studio.

With music by composer Simon FIsher Turner, the soundtrack also included pieces by Miranda Sex Garden, Coil, Vini Reilly, Momus, Brian Eno and Jan Latham Koenig. Sound design was by Marvin Black, and the associate director was David Lewis.

This year, actor Russell Tovey and director Neil Bartlett collaborated on a new stage production called Blue Now, which was performed in four venues across the UK. We hear their thoughts as they prepare backstage at Tate Modern.

Contributors:

Tilda Swinton credits her film career to Jarman. A close friend, she appeared in 9 of his films including Blue and played a key role in the improvised concerts to raise money / awareness for the project.
John Quentin was one of the two main narrators of Blue and also appeared in Jarman’s films Wittgenstein and Edward II.
James Mackay produced many of Jarman’s films including Blue, The Last of England, The Angelic Conversation and The Garden (and Blue). He also takes care of Jarman’s early Super 8 films for the Luma Foundation.
Simon Fisher Turner began as a runner for Jarman in the late 70s and ended up composing music for six of Jarman's films including Blue, and has performed it since in many live concerts - including Blue Now.
Toyah Willcox’s first acting role, aged 19, was in Jarman’s second film, Jubilee, and she went on to also make The Tempest with him.
Simon McCallum, Curator of Archive Projects at the British Film Institute.
Blue Now cast and crew: Russell Tovey, Jay Bernard, Joelle Taylor and Neil Bartlett.

For further reading - British Film Institute curator Simon McCallum reflects on Blue in this blog post here: https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/blue-derek-jarman-final-film

Producer: Victoria Ferran
Exec producer: Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 3

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