In the Shadow of the Sun
Derek Jarman, GB 1974/81; Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing: Derek Jarman; Music: Throbbing Gristle; with: Karl Bowen, Christopher Hobbs, Luciana Martinez, Gerald Incandela, Andrew Logan u. a. DCP (from Super 8), color, 54 minPreceded by:
T. G. Psychic Rally in Heaven Derek Jarman, GB 1981; Music: Throbbing Gristle. 16mm, color, 8 min
Pirate Tape Derek Jarman, GB 1982; Music: Psychic TV; with: William Burroughs, Peter Christopherson, James Grauerholtz, Tim Burke. 16mm, color, 16 min
As Jarman wearily noted, In the Shadow of the Sun's "first viewers wracked their brains for a meaning instead of relaxing into the ambient tapestry of random images." Using three Super 8 films he made in the early 1970s, Jarman "remixed" relatively conventional ingredients into an esoteric, thrillingly cosmic new work for which he commissioned a score by renowned industrial/experimental collective Throbbing Gristle.
Perhaps his most instinctive, personal, primal piece, this is a dazzling reverie of "magick" and alchemy, pulsating with compellingly dark energy and deploying many of the artist's favored motifs (flames, masks, mirrors) but now in an unfamiliar horror‑adjacent context. Flirting with nightmarish imagery ancient (Hell's gates) and modern (nuclear fallout), it is literally an "apocalyptic" experience: Jarman writes his own cinematic Book of Revelation – with strokes of fire. (N.Y.) Two later short works, T. G. Psychic Rally in Heaven and Pirate Tape, will be shown as pre-films.