BFI
Channel 4 Television
Not part of a collection.
The Angelic Conversation
The Angelic Conversation is a lyrical, haunting film about a young man’s search for love in a dreamlike landscape. Its tone is set by the juxtaposition of slow moving homo-erotic images and opaque landscapes through which two men take a journey into their own desires. Offscreen, Dame Judi Dench recites a sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets that counterpoint the action. Jarman called it, “My most austere work, but also the closest to my heart.”
- Original title
- The Angelic Conversation
- Language
- EN
- Country
- GB
- Budget
- —
- Revenue
- —
CinemaSerf
May 30, 2022 · via TMDB
Paul Reynolds and Philip Williamson reminded me of silent film actors in this really quite poignant tale of homosexual longing, lust and pure love all complemented by a Shakesperian narrative consisting of fourteen of his sonnets read, emotively and vibrantly, by Judi Dench. The imagery is often quite disjointed and abstract: inanimate objects frequently imbued with animate traits - all as one man seeks his love, and also an assurance that he is pure enough to deserve and keep it. It lacks pace. At times this is more of a collage of loosely related scenes rather than a continuing storyline and it is certainly self-indulgent - not a criticism that could be laid unfairly at most Derek Jarman works, I find. That said, it is never boring. It won't be for everyone, indeed I'm not really sure it was for me - but it is more than cinematic wallpaper, and may well resonate more with those from the gay community of mid 1980s Thatcherite Britain than perhaps with many others. It is interesting, but I doubt I would watch it again
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Judi Dench
(voice)
James Mackay
Additional Director of Photography
Derek Jarman
Director of Photography
Derek Jarman
Director
Cerith Wyn Evans
Editor
James Mackay
Producer
John Balance
Original Music Composer
Peter Christopherson
Original Music Composer
Stephen Thrower
Original Music Composer
Peter Christopherson
Sound Editor
William Shakespeare
Author
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