‘Queer Edward II’ Review: A Terrific Doc Portal to the Early ’90s that Captures — and Liberates — Derek Jarman’s Trailblazing Spirit — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Theo Rollason directed "Queer Edward II," a documentary built entirely from behind-the-scenes footage shot by Seamus McGarvey — now a star cinematographer with credits on "Atonement" and "Die, My Love" — during Jarman's 1991 film "Edward II," footage that had sat undisturbed for 30-plus years before being discovered
- Rollason resisted the temptation to add retrospective interviews or talking heads, instead folding in contemporaneous magazine talk shows, arts programs, and ripped-from-the-headlines news reports about Britain's gay rights movement alongside McGarvey's rushes
- The doc intersperses shots of Jarman staging "Edward II"'s riot scene — for which members of gay-rights group Outrage served as extras — with real-life protest footage against the Conservative government's anti-gay legislation, layering the film's production into the era's political fabric
- Outrage-affiliated extras including the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence invaded the studio next door where Cliff Richard was recording, chanting demands that he come out as gay; Jarman's offhanded support for outing gay celebrities is flagged as the one aspect of his activism that dates him
- Jarman had been living with his HIV/AIDS diagnosis for over five years during production; he died roughly two years after "Edward II" was released, having completed two further features — and the 97-minute doc doubles as what the review calls an "aide-memoir" for today's LGBTQ activists
- Future stars glimpsed in the rushes include Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, singer Annie Lennox (performing Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" for the film in full), and Tilda Swinton as Queen Isabella
Why it matters: For cinephiles and queer-history archivists, the documentary recovers irreplaceable on-set footage of a filmmaker who died within years of "Edward II"'s release, capturing Jarman as a working artist in the thick of early-'90s British activist politics — and surfaces early-career glimpses of now-major figures including McGarvey, Swinton, Powell, and Lennox in a single 97-minute cut.
Ask SkimNews
