Told in a segmented fashion, the film opens as Caravaggio dies from lead poisoning while in exile, with only his long-time, mute companion Jerusaleme, who was given by his family to the artist as a boy, by his side. Caravaggio thinks back to his life as a teenage street ruffian who hustles and paints. While taken ill and in the care of priests, young Caravaggio catches the eye of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte. The Cardinal nurtures Caravaggio's artistic and intellectual development but seems to molest him.
As an adult, Caravaggio still lives under the roof of, and paints with the funding of, del Monte. Caravaggio is shown employing street people, drunks and prostitutes as models for his intense, usually religious paintings. He is depicted as frequently brawling, gambling, getting drunk and is implied to sleep with both male and female models. In the art world, Caravaggio is regarded as vulgar and entitled for his Vatican connections.
One day, Ranuccio, a street fighter for pay, catches Caravaggio's eye as a subject and potential lover. Ranuccio also introduces Caravaggio to his girlfriend Lena, who also becomes an object of attraction and a model to the artist. When both Ranuccio and Lena are separately caught kissing Caravaggio, each displays jealousy over the artist's attentions. One day, Lena announces she is pregnant without stating who the father is and will become a mistress to the wealthy Scipione Borghese. Soon, she is found murdered by drowning. Ranuccio weeps as Caravaggio and Jerusaleme clean Lena's body. Caravaggio is shown painting Lena after she dies and mournfully writhing with her body. Ranuccio is arrested for Lena's murder, but he claims to be innocent. Caravaggio pulls strings and goes to the pope to free Ranuccio. When Ranuccio is freed, he tells Caravaggio he killed Lena so they could be together. In response, Caravaggio cuts Ranuccio's throat, killing him. Back on his deathbed, Caravaggio is shown having visions of himself as a boy and trying to refuse the last rites offered him by the priests.
The idea for a film on the life of the Italian painter Caravaggio was proposed to Jarman by the art dealer Nicholas Ward Jackson.[4] At the time, Jarman knew little about Caravaggio’s life, but was drawn to the painter’s radical reworking of Christian iconography, particularly his use of contemporary figures as sacred subjects, such as portraying a street prostitute as Mary Magdalene.[5]
While developing the project, Jarman drew parallels between Caravaggio and the Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. In his memoir Dancing Ledge, Jarman wrote: “Had Caravaggio been reincarnated in this century it would have been as a film-maker, Pasolini”.[6] During this period, Jarman also wrote an unproduced screenplay, P.P.P. in the Garden of Earthly Delights, an account of Pasolini’s death which shared similarities with the eventual approach taken in Caravaggio.[7]
Jarman wrote the first draft of the screenplay in Rome in 1978.[8] Over the following years he produced approximately sixteen subsequent drafts,[9] during which time he experienced considerable difficulty securing financing for the project. One draft, dated 1982, featured a metafictional framing device in which the filmmaker “Derek Jarman” is persuaded to make a pornographic film based on the life of Caravaggio.[10]
During the extended development period before the film was eventually financed by the British Film Institute, Jarman remained active across multiple artistic disciplines. He painted, directed music videos including Marianne Faithfull’s Broken English (1979), designed sets for Ken Russell’s stage production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (1982), published his memoir Dancing Ledge (1984), and returned to making Super 8 films.[11] He also completed two significant feature-length projects, Imagining October (1984) and The Angelic Conversation (1985).
Casting
Jarman auditioned actors in his flat, filming them on video as part of the casting process. He cast Nigel Terry in the title role, in part because of Terry’s resemblance to the only known painted portrait traditionally identified as Caravaggio.[12] The roles of Ranuccio and Lena were given to Sean Bean and Tilda Swinton respectively, both of whom were relative newcomers. Bean would later appear in Jarman’s War Requiem, while Caravaggio marked Swinton’s first feature film role; she would go on to collaborate extensively with Jarman until his death in 1994.
Jarman and composer Simon Fisher Turner, who also wrote the film’s score, searched for supporting performers and extras on the streets of London. By chance, Jarman encountered the secretary of the Circolo Gramsci, a society of Italian Communists, whose members subsequently assisted with casting.[13] The cook Jennifer Paterson was an extra.
Production design
The production designer was Christopher Hobbs who was also responsible for the copies of Caravaggio paintings seen in the film.[14] During pre-production, cinematographer Gabriel Beristain noticed that nearly all of Caravaggio’s pictures are lit from a light source from the left of the canvas; Hobbs resigned the sets accordingly to reflect this.[15]
In keeping with Caravaggio's use of contemporary dress for his Biblical figures, Jarman intentionally includes several anachronisms in the film that do not fit with Caravaggio's life in the 16th century. In one scene, Caravaggio is in a bar lit with electric lights. Another character is seen using an electronic calculator. Car horns are heard honking outside Caravaggio's studio, and in one scene, Caravaggio is seen leaning on a green truck. Cigarette smoking, a motorbike, and the use of a manual typewriter also featured in the film.[citation needed]
Filming
Caravaggio was shot in a large derelict warehouse at Limehouse Studios in London’s Docklands.[16] The production took place over a six-week shoot.[17]
In the same year, Jarman was shortlisted for the Turner Prize, the annual award for the artist judged to have made the greatest contribution to British art. In announcing the shortlist, the Tate Gallery cited “the outstanding visual qualities of his films,” with particular reference to Caravaggio.[19]
Home media
Caravaggio was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in July 2008. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as the trailer, a gallery of production designs and storyboards, feature commentary by Gabriel Berestain, an interview with Christopher Hobbs titled Italy of the Memory, and interviews with Tilda Swinton, Derek Jarman, Nigel Terry.[20]
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