The Punkest Of All Punk Rock Derek Jarmans Jubilee Movie

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The original British punk rock movement, in all its anger, fire, fury and anarchy only lasted three years, from 1977 to to 1979. To many it was best embodied in the work of The Sex Pistols, but for me it reached its peak in a movie, Derek Jarman's breathtakingly bleak film, Jubilee, from 1978. Several punk performers appear in the film, Toyah, Adam & The Ants, Siouxsie & The Banshees among them, but it is the films dark humour and disturbing sense of dystopia that stands out. The film has little plot, but it is framed in a time travel venture as Queen Elizabeth 1st (Jennie Runacre who also plays Bod in the film) along with her alchemist, John Dee (Richard O'Brien, travel from the 16th century to present day London. They find mostly burnt out ruins. Our own queen Elizabeth 2nd has been murdered in a mugging with the killers running round playing with her crown. Punk bands are launched but controlled by the very establishment that they claim to be challenging, mostly through wildly camp and extravagant agent, Borgia Gintz, (Jack Birkett), people are killed violently, including one man blown up on his own doorstep to a cry of 'No Future' and one character has a garden full of only plastic flowers. Sickened by the chaos, the first Queen Elizabeth retreats back to her own age. A visually bizarre film, entertaining, crazy, skewed and also somehow depressing. I guess that is why I love it. Video - Toyah - Thunder In The Mountains (Not in the film, but clips from it are too violent / vulgar for Mylot) Arthur Chappell