Sebastiane

Dir Derek Jarman/Paul Hunfress

A fairly short film, this somehow doesn't come off. Even with its 86 minutes, it seems to be a little long winded, and its Latin dialogue tends to remind one of that very funny scene in Life of Brian where Brian is given a Latin lesson by a pedantic centurion. The decision to shoot in Latin was taken to avoid the problems of English dialogue seeming incongruous: so now we have sub-titles instead, and even a reference to Cecil B. DeMille's epic Roman movies, which seems to undercut the whole thing.

As for the plot, well it's fairly straightforward, and not particularly enlightening or shocking; one wonders just what it did to earn the RFFR20 certificate. Jarman did his apprenticeship with Ken Russell, and Sebastiane seems to be a watered down follow up to that director's The Devils. Take it or leave it.

S.D.