Jubilee

Dir: Derek Jarman

1978

**

When watching Derek Jarman’s Jubilee one can’t help but think of the ‘Open letter’ t-shirt designed by Vivienne Westwood. Taking umbrage to what Jarman suggested was a ‘punk’ film, Westwood wrote: “Jubilee - I had been to see it once and thought it the most boring and therefore disgusting film I had ever seen. I went to see it again for afterall, hadn't you pointed your nose in the right direction? Rather than I deal with spectacular crap as other film makers do, you had looked at something here & now of absolute relevance to anybody in England with a brain still left let's call it soul. I first tried very hard to listen to every word spoken in the flashbacks to Eliz. I. What were you saying? Eliz: 'This vision exceedeth by far all expectation. Such an abstract never before I spied.' And so she went on - fal de ray la lu lullay the day! And John Dee spoke 'poetry' according to Time Out (those old left overs from a radio programme, involving a panel of precocious Sixth formers, called "Cabbages & Kings", whose maturity concerns being rather left from a position of safety) though even now I can remember no distinguishing phrase from amongst the drone, only the words, ‘Down down down’ (right on)! And Ariel who flashed the sun in a mirror, & considered a diamond & had great contact lenses: 'Consider the world's diversity & worship it. By denying its multiplicity you deny your own true nature. Equality prevails not for god but for man's sake.' Consider that! What an insult to my VIRILITY! I am punk man! And as you use the valves you give to punks as a warning, am I supposed to see old Elizabeth's england as some state of grace? Well, I'd rather consider that all this grand stuff and looking at diamonds is something to do with a gay (which you are) boy's love of dressing up & playing at charades. (Does he have a cock between his legs or doesn't he? Kinda thing). As to the parts about the near future there were 2 good lines in it. Adam (kid): I don't care about the money I just don't wanna get ripped off.' (Funny) & Angel or Sphinx to Adam: 'Don't sign up', etc...Life is more exciting on the streets.' Accepted that no one would want any dealings with clichéd figment of your fantasies, Borgia Ginze, what did the streets have to offer? Well, they then pinched a car to go visit a nutter with a garden of plastic flowers. They then went to the roof of a tower block to give out the kind of simplistic speil Alf Garnet, or rather Mick Jones of the clash gives out. Is that your comment about the street? What Good - the low budget, independent, using friends, none-equity aspect. Good that the none-equity members weren't required to act but allowed P.T.O.' - 'to say their lines as if reading from a little book inside their head, because what happened by result of this acting, as against none acting ability was that the performances depended for strength upon how much humanity the people behind the role posessed. Thus Jordan & Helen were good whereas Jenny Runacre's mediocrity of spirit bludgeoned through. Albeit - these aspects of your approach & style were anarchical, I am not interested in however interestingly you say nothing. [The Rule Britania Eurovision Song Contest was good because you said something - nationalism is vile & Eliz II is a commercial con trick]. Just like E.I. An anarchist must say, 'Trust yourself'. It's the place to start. But self-indulgence is not the answer. You have to be brave & you are only a little. You have to cut the crap & not the cheese & chuck out - UGH - for instance, those Christian crucifixion fixations (sex is not frightening, honest) - "the pervasive reek of perverse & esoteric artinesss, the delight in degradation & decay simply for its beauties when stylized. An irresponsible movie. Don't remember punk this way" (all quoted from Chris Brazier in M. Maker). But I ain't insecure enough, nor enough of a voyeur to get off watching a gay boy jerk off through the titillation of his masochistic tremblings. You pointed your nose in the right direction than you wanted. It was even more boring than Uncle Tom Don Letts' even lower budget film.’

 While many punks won’t recognise Westwood as a voice that represents them or what they believe in, I can’t help but agree with most of what she said (the parts I understood at least). Jubilee is a very theatrical film, with a flimsy story that is far shallower than it makes out it is. The ‘punk’ element – or at least what it sees as ‘punk’ is pretty misleading. This is about as far from an authentic representation of punk as you could get, performed by people who I have to say I’ve always seen as non-punks who still, to this day, harp on about how punk they were back in the day. Toyah Willcox was never punk, she was pop, although, she sold herself out and is now very much daytime television, so you could argue that she is an example of what punk really became. Punk wasn’t the 3 foot mohican on a London postcard that many think it was, that sort of thing came with the infiltration of rebellious kids from privileged backgrounds. The film starts well, Queen Elizabeth I is transported through time to the 1970s by occultist John Dee (played by the disappointingly un-camp Richard O’Brien). There, she moves through the social and physical decay of London, observing the sporadic activities of a group of aimless nihilists: Amyl Nitrate, a Myra Hindley obsessive and the groups unofficial leader; Crabs, a nymphomaniac; Mad, a rather bloated Willcox, Sphinx and Angel (two incestuous bisexual brothers) and Bod, a sex-hating anarchist who once mugged Queen Elizabeth II for her crown. There isn’t much of a plot, Amyl performs a pastiche of ‘Rule Britannia’ which feels almost authentic (and has certainly been influential in later years – Spice Girls springing to mind), Bod attacks a waitress with a bottle of ketchup, the group visit a friend in the suburbs who shows them his plastic garden, they visit a transgender celebrity and murder him, Adam Ant appears as a fresh voice looking for a record contract, uttering the film’s best line ‘I’m not interested in money, I just don’t want to be ripped off’, a policeman gets blown up and Queen Elizabeth I goes back to the sixteenth century. I know Derek Jarman was a genius and I love most of his work but the best way I can describe Jubilee is like watching amateur dramatics with a punk stereotype as a visual theme. I liked some elements but overall I found it boring and a little pretentious, although I loved seeing parts of London now long gone.