A film by DEREK JARMAN

‘MESMERISING’ Rolling Stone

‘A JEWEL OF A FILM’ Channel4.com

Christopher Marlowe’s 16th Century play is radically adapted by Derek Jarman in one of his most powerful films. Using anachronistic imagery; modern dress, gay activists, battling riot police and Annie Lennox singing Cole Porter, the story of Britain’s only openly gay monarch and the persecution he suffered is given a contemporary resonance by Jarman, paralleling the injustice with prevailing modern-day homophobia.

King Edward II rejects his cold wife Queen Isabella and takes a male lover, the commoner Piers Gaveston upon whom he bestows gifts and power. The king’s behaviour enrages the sober, business-suited court officials and the spurned queen becomes a seething monster whose dresses and jewellery grow more outrageously lavish as her need for vengeance escalates and the plotting begins.

‘DEREK’S EDWARD’ – A documentary featuring interviews with producers Steve Clark-Hall and Antony Root, actor Steven Waddington, cinematographer Ian Wilson and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.