About

"This film is dedicated here to all those who secretly work against the tyranny of marxists Fascists trade unionists maoists capitalists socialists etc who have conspired together during the [C]20th to destroy the diversity and holiness of each life in the name of materialism
art degraded imagination denied
war governed the nations
For William Blake."
Derek Jarman, BFI Jarman Collection I, Box 3, Jubilee Item 4c.

Made at the time of Queen Elizabeth II's 1977 Silver Jubilee celebrations, Jubilee is a satire of England's past and present that uses the nihilism embodied in the British punk movement to illustrate the social and political landscape of the United Kingdom. In 1977, the country was experiencing economic recession and ongoing violence as a result of the English occupation of Northern Ireland. Summoning the 'no future' attitude of the punk scene, Jubilee shows us a prophetic vision of a nation in chaos and decline.

Drawing from ideas from his earlier unproduced film The Angelic Conversation of John Dee, Jubilee opens with Queen Elizabeth I and her court astrologer and alchemist/necromancer John Dee transported by the angel Ariel from the Golden Elizabethan age to an economically and artistically desolate future. There Elizabeth finds her successor mugged and left for dead and a country consumed by anarchy. What follows is a series of vignettes that revel in anti-Royalism and anti-establishmentarianism: Buckingham Palace becomes a recording studio for musicians and a marauding gang of misfits go from one revolutionary act to another, spiralling out of control after the murder of a gay couple. One of the most compelling members of the group is Amyl Nitrate (fashion icon Jordan from Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's Kings Row boutique) who is writing a history of England and rehearsing to represent England at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Jarman's angry state of the union is also one of the most polarising films to document the punk scene. Originally titled Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense (Evil to Him Who Evil Does) and then High Fashion, Jubilee appalled British punks who interpreted the film as bourgeoisie and exploitive. Vivienne Westwood argued that Jarman had betrayed the scene, addressing him in an open letter written across a t-shirt as "Derek the Dull Little Middle-Class Wanker". Jarman maintained that the punk movement was comprised of "petit bourgeois art students" who had already betrayed themselves "in the business of reproducing fake street credibility" and their fascination with fascism, kept them at an uneasy proximity with conservative ideology.

R18+