Caravaggio

In his 1986 film, Caravaggio, Derek Jarman portrays Caravaggio as a victim of his own desires. In truth, Caravaggio spent years on the run as a murderer, which is the basis for the film. However, Jarman, extends sympathy towards Caravaggio, who is merely caught in a visious love triangle with his beautiful female model and a young homosexual apprentice who is obsessed with his master.

Derek Jarman shows how art and life cannot be seperated and that such high passions for things such as art can run deep in people's lives. It would be impossible to disjoin the two ideas, as they are centrally running themes in this film, and all of the main characters are connected, and indeed attracted, to Caravaggio because of his artistic influences.

If I understood this film to define both painting and the role of the artist, I think then that Jarman is suggesting that some of the most incredible painters, and the more succesful ones, were devoted to the point of obsession not just with their art but with everything they cared about. I think this is true of many of the 'masters' of painting, although whether or not it actually improves your work (or your state of mind) is quite enough matter altogether.




The film itself is very dark both in tone and appearance and this reflects the style of Caravaggios' pieces (as shown above). I think it is very similar to that of Caravaggio's paitings but obviously his paitings are more like a snap shot in time that you cannot create with a film.