Caravaggio

🤩 Caravaggio, dir. Derek Jarman, 1986, UK, 93 min. (restored and remastered)
preceded by:
😀 Inside the Archive: In Conversation with Derek Jarman, dir. Maha Al-Badrawi, 2026, UK, 12 min.
Thursday, June 25, 2026, 12:30 PM, Castro Theatre
(The original plan to screen the remastered high-definition copy of the feature, preceded by a more recent short documentary, was thrown into a bit of chaos by a PG&E power outage on Castro Street. The screening was moved to the Roxie Theater, with an older, pre-restoration copy of the feature, and the short documentary was dropped for time. However, it is available on YouTube, review below.)

Caravaggio

Frameline blurb: Visually dazzling, deliciously queer, and lovingly restored and remastered by the BFI National Archive, Derek Jarman’s fictionalized look at the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is a gorgeous meditation on art and sexuality. With bold strokes of light and dark, capturing the contrast of beauty and violence, Jarman used the famed painter’s work as a visual blueprint for this filmic portrait — unconventional by biopic standards, but positively mainstream compared to the rest of Jarman’s oeuvre.

Told in nonlinear chapters with Jarman’s signature anachronistic style, Caravaggio depicts the artist (played by Nigel Terry as an adult and Dexter Fletcher as a youth) as a cultural rebel of 17th century Italy — fraternizing with male lovers, courtesans, and criminal outcasts while garnering painting commissions from the Church. Centering on a volatile, bisexual love triangle between Caravaggio and two of his models — a street fighter named Ranuccio (Sean Bean) and a prostitute named Lena (Tilda Swinton, in her feature film debut) — the film marked the first collaboration between the British auteur and his eternal muse Tilda Swinton.

One of the patron saints of 20th century queer cinema, Jarman has always been a key figure in the history of the Festival — with works by or specifically about him gracing Frameline screens in each of the five decades.

My take: As an exceptional piece of cinematic history about a monumental piece of art history, Caravaggio is obviously a must see for serious students of either flavor of history, but also a compelling watch for general audiences, although the unconventionality of the film style is not always a benefit. Rather than a whole picture, we get episodic glimpses of who Caravaggio was and how he lived and worked. Highly recommended.

• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •

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The feature was preceded by a short film:

😀 Inside the Archive: In Conversation with Derek Jarman, dir. Maha Al-Badrawi, 2026, UK, 12 min.

Inside the Archive:
In Conversation with
Derek Jarman
(photo: Sandy Powell)

Frameline blurb: In this short documentary, learn more about the work of artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman through a selection of unique items held by the BFI National Archive. Featuring insights from the experts who help to maintain the collections, go inside the archive and discover what these precious objects reveal about Jarman’s work and legacy.

Video produced with the support of the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.

My take: The short was removed from the Frameline screening of Caravaggio due to time constraints (see above), but it is available on YouTube (see below), so I watched it later at home.

It’s well done and mostly quite interesting, although my attention did wander a few times. Definitely a must see for serious Jarman fans and for anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of archiving an artist’s works, especially a filmmaker. Highly recommended for general audiences.

• IMDb: director • watch on YouTube • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •