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The Appropriate Tune - "Stormy Weather" by Elisabeth Welch
We talked a little about Cervantes last time, so let’s get to talking about the big leagues now: William Shakespeare. Starting out as an actor and playwright for the acting company Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later the King’s Men around the tender age of 21 (he was already married with three kids at this point too, in case you weren’t feeling inadequate enough), Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets were one of the creative pillars of England during its Renaissance period in the 15th and 16th centuries. As the centuries have worn on and his plays have been translated into more and more languages, William Shakespeare has come to define the art form of theater like no one else in history, especially you Sophocles. How many times has the ‘characters acting in Romeo & Juliet’ trope been used and reused in TV shows? How many times have you seen some character grab a skull and say ‘alas, poor Yorick’? You ask a person what a play looks like and there’s a good chance that what they envision is either similar to Shakespeare, or is just straight up Shakespeare. The same can’t be said for movies or music, or any other medium.
The Bard wrote around 39 dramatic works before his retirement in 1613; Some comedies, a couple of historical dramas and more than a few tragedies, a natural spread. The one that always stuck out in my mind more than the other though was ‘The Tempest’, mainly because Alan Moore incorporated it in the main mythology of his graphic novel series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Shakespeare’s last play before his retirement from the stage, and one full of magic and spirits besides, which when adapted sounds like a genre film to me. So I picked the wildest looking one, and now here we are.
Released in 1979, The Tempest was written and directed by Derek Jarman and produced by Guy Ford and Mordecai Schreiber through Boyd’s Company. On an isolated island somewhere in the Mediterranean there stands a lone castle, empty save for four people: Prospero (Heathcote Williams), his daughter Miranda (Toyah Willcox), his magical servant Ariel (Karl Johnson) and his slave Caliban (Jack Birkett). Once upon a time Prospero had been the Duke of Milan, but due to the machinations of his brother Antonio (Richard Warwick) the King of Naples (Peter Bull) had him and his daughter exiled to this distant land. That was twelve years ago, and now when a ship containing those who wronged him happens to pass by, the stage is finally set for his revenge. Using Ariel and the magicks he’s gathered over those long years he calls forth a mighty tempest to bring those villains, and the king’s son Ferdinand to the island, and so the story unfolds.
Looking at The Tempest, we can see the eye for the visual that made him a familiar face in the U.K. music scene in the 80s, directing videos for bands like The Smiths, Orange Juice and Pet Shop Boys. Prospero’s island home is not the beacon of pageantry that we associate with the Elizabethan age but a disheveled wreck, full of sorcery perhaps but moreso cobwebs. Not just the architecture but the people as well, Miranda’s shredded dress and knotted hair in particular acting as a twisted mockery of high fashion. As a period piece it’s nothing on the level of Gothic or The Draughtsman’s Contract, although Jarman would return to the concept several times over the course of his career, but it gets the point across and Jarman gives each character a distinctive look that helps define them to the audience.
Jarman was also more of a presence in the art house than he was the marquee, and that is reflected in his interpretation of Shakespeare, using techniques such as New Wave style thought narration for certain soliloquies, his use of anachronism and of course the visual aesthetic to give the story an added level of surrealism. Also nudity; Couple of boobs, some ass but mostly dicks, like if Jon Peters made his own version of Porkies. It’s not a big deal unless you’re a prude or a high school teacher looking for a Shakespeare play to show an English class, but it does feel like Jarman is throwing schlong on the screen because he can most of the time. The first couple of minutes of the movie has Ferdinand washing up on Prospero’s island with his dick flapping in the wind, but it’s like... the dude was on a boat when the tempest arrived. Was the storm so violent that it ripped the clothes from his body? Was he naked when he was washed overboard, or did he take the time while he was drowning in the ocean to remove his clothes? Someone’s thirsty and it ain’t the folks on the desert island.
Having never read the play then, I have to wonder if it’s really as dull as Derek Jarman makes it out to be. Having read my description you might believe that The Tempest is gearing up to be a mystical version of the Count of Monte Cristo as the former Duke of Milan takes his revenge on the conspirators, but even after waiting for a hour for the fuckers to even get to the castle that promised revenge never really happens. You think when Ferdinand is introduced and Miranda takes a shine to him that it’s leading to a kind of Romeo & Juliet romance where Prospero acts as the antagonistic force either condemning the marriage or manipulating them towards his own ends, but even though a ‘romance’ does happen it feels about as passionate as a children’s playdate, which is ironic because I’m pretty sure Juliet would be legally classified as a child in this day and age and yet that romance has a more solid foundation. You think something big is building up with Caliban, slave of Prospero and self-proclaimed rightful owner of the island after Prospero killed his diabolic mother Sycorax, openly declaring his hatred for his master and plotting his murder and usurpation, but most of his screentime is spent hanging around with a couple of drunks who are so obnoxious you want them to fall headfirst into a bear trap within the first couple minutes of screen time. Or even something between Ariel, former slave to Sycorax and now Prospero, who promises the spirit’s freedom with ever-extending goalposts. So many plot threads and potential conflicts that after a while are just resolved without any feeling of suspense or satisfaction. Thus The Tempest seems to confirm the stereotype of Shakespeare’s plays, that it’s just a bunch of silly people in costumes talking to each other for 2 hours, which doesn’t do anybody any favors.
The language barrier was also a big issue, and yes the same language separated over a couple centuries does make for a barrier. Perhaps that makes me come across as uncultured but honestly there were several parts in this film where I completely lost the thread of what these people were talking about. It doesn’t help that they’re constantly whispering or chewing scenery, which only compounds the struggle to understand the dialogue even when wearing headphones. The actors do a good job of bridging the gaps physically, as I said you understand exactly the kind of people these characters are just by looking at them, but the deeper context of the play was occasionally lost to me.
Speaking of personal issues, I hate the fact that Jarman utilizes the old filmmaking trick of slapping a blue light filter over the film, which was typically used to indicate night. Filming at night brings its own set of issues, if indeed the scenes in the original play were meant, but the blue filter does not signify night to me, it signifies blue. Were this just for one scene and later transitioned to standard color like the scenes inside the castle, but it’s for every single outdoors scene, which means a significant portion of the film is staring at a blue screen. A tedium which is only increased by the underlying problem of the story barreling towards an anti-climax. It doesn’t look good, it just looks like you couldn’t afford a lamp.
Those intrigued by Derek Jarman’s visual aesthetic and experimentation and or those who are interested in seeing a retelling of The Bard with a bit of a twist will likely find something to enjoy in his adaptation of The Tempest, and to be honest there’s a part of me that wishes to dig deeper, perhaps read the original play and see what Shakespeare intended in his own words. On the whole however I found myself needing to refocus my attention several times over the course of the film, and I think those who have less of a tolerance for esoteric underground cinema will find themselves feeling much of the time. Derek Jarman’s The Tempest does not get the recommendation, although given the choice between this and Tromeo & Juliet I’d rewatch this one in a heartbeat. Perhaps you will too when Halloween rolls around.
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