Product Description

'For days now I have tried to start this diary, but the clatter of my existence has warned me off; the first mark on the page eludes me...'Derek Jarman's SMILING IN SLOW MOTION concludes the journey started in MODERN NATURE, these previously unpublished journals stretch from May 1991 until a fortnight before his death in February 1994. Part diary, part observation, part memoir, Jarman writes with his familiar honesty, wry humour and acuity. Friends, collaborators and enemies are catalogued as he races through his last year painting, film-making, gardening, and annoying his targets through his involvement in radical politics. Writing from his Charing Cross Road flat, on his visits to international film festivales, his world famous garden at Dungeness in Kent, and finally from hios bed in St Bartholomew's Hospital, Jarman illuminates an era which seems more ephemeral and out-of-grasp with each passing day. SMILING IN SLOW MOTION is not a document of illness, regret and resignation, but one of endeavour, remembrance and love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #267762 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Derek Jarman was one of the most interesting independent film makers of the last quarter of the 20th century. His latest volume of his diaries starts from where his previous volume, Modern Nature, left off, covering the period from May 1991 to February 1994, just a fortnight before his death from an AIDS-related illness. Fans will relish the accounts of back-stage in-fighting over low budgets and impossible timetables, and his acerbic comments on the gay scene. Jarman's zest for, and curiosity about life never diminished, and these last, previously unpublished, writings, penned from his flat in London, the wild and beautiful garden he fashioned in the shadow of Dungeness power station in Kent, and his hospital bed, are a testament to his courage and irreverence in the face of a horrifying illness. Jarman was a one-off, an iconoclast--Smiling in Slow Motion is an acute reminder of his absence. --Christopher Hart

About the Author
Derek Jarman's creativity spanned decades and genres - painter, theatre designer, director, film maker, writer and gardener.
From his first one-man show at the Lisson Gallery in 1969; set designs and costumes for the theatre and ballet (Jazz Calendar with Frederick Ashton at Covent Garden, Don Giovanni with John Gielgud at the London Coliseum, The Rake's Progress with Ken Russell at Teatro Communale, Florence); production design for Ken Russell's films The Devils and Savage Messiah; through his own films in super-8 before working on features: Sebastine (1976), Jubilee (1978), The Tempest (1979), The Angelic Conversation (1985), Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), War Requiem (1989), The Garden (1990), Edward II (1991), Wittgenstein (1993), and Blue (1993); to directing pop-videos and live performances for Pet Shop Boys and Suede.
His paintings - for which he was a Turner Prize nominee in 1986 - have been exhibited world-wide.
His garden surrounding the fisherman's cottage in Dungeness where he spent the last years of his life remains a site of awe and pilgrimage to fans and newcomers to Jarman's singular vision.
His publications include: Dancing Ledge (1984), Kicking the Pricks (1987), Modern Nature (1991), At Your Own Risk (1992), Chroma (1994), Derek Jarman's Garden (1995).

Customer Reviews

Bliss
I cried when I finished this book and not just because it signalled the end of Jarman's life, but because it was the end of a truly gorgeous piece of writing. I have been ekeing this book out for the last three months because I didn't want to finish it. The bits I love the most are the descriptions of life at Prospect Cottage, not because it is wildly exciting but because the sense of peace coming from Jarman's experiences there were really NEEDFUL to me. I loved everything about this book, his honesty, his sense of humour, his anger, his patience with his AIDS related illnesses, his passion for life and his unwillingness to surrender to anything that he didn't believe in. I feel his loss tremendously and that's amazing really from just reading this book.

A touching finale
I never had the fortune to meet Derek Jarman, but his eye on life and creativity is sorely missed. This is a touching finale to the journals past that document his life - and well worth your time. I couldn't wait to get into bed with Derek! He had such bounds of joy, even in the extremis he found himself in. One 'legitimate' reviewer criticised the book because its editor, Keith Collins (HB), and Derek's companion, left too many references to himself in it. But how are we to understand Jarman's feelings for this man if they are obliterated for reasons of coyness or what others may feel appropriate. Personally I could do with him around my house as he seems to be a dab hand at most things! Secondly, the lack of an Index caused ire! Well all I can say is that the person concerned obviously wanted a quick root to what he assumed was the 'dirt' on other well known personalities - but although Derek Jarman may not have disapproved of Outing, you will find none of it here! This is a book for the Ms/Mrs/Mr straight as well as otherwise, and I hope that Derek's high profile sexuality will not put other straight readers (of whom I am one) off. His descriptions of landscape are evocative; friends touching and his disease - seering but not quite bitter. His HB was loved and we should know it. Don't let this opportunity to take up residence in a fine mind slip you by.