Sebastiane

Rating:
Summary: SELF-INDULGENT
Review: Er, this movie is a classic and carries meaning on many levels, but I found it a bit self-indulgent and overbearing at times. Some of the scenes are just too idyllic in a silly "swords & sandals" type of way, while the poor Sebastian so obviously wants to be martyred that I soon lost my empathy with him. I was almost pleased when he got persecuted. And the captain who lusts after him is just too obviously of the sadist type that cannot distinguish his power lust from his desire. Some beautiful shots, though, and it is worth seeing. There is something awkward about the film, however, that makes it less than perfect. It is as if Jarman didn't keep enough distance between himself and his work, or he tried too hard to make a "European Art Film."

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: First, the subtitles are in English.

The dialogue is in classical latin.

If you are a Jarman fan, this work is fabulous.

Rating:
Summary: Expression is only the vehicle for content ...
Review: I felt deeply disappointed by the film, which is empty, irrelevant and self-indulgent.
A lot of scenes in the movie were well arranged, sometimes sensual, defiant or narcissistic. However those images are static, hardly fluid and unsuitable for the media of motion picture. The sentiment, so, maybe too, beautifully portrayed in one split second, died quickly into the next, because of director's incapability to let those images or characters evolve and grow. Above all there is no coherent message or even an idea in the movie, except the director's own erratic obsession of beauty, moments or desire. His self-centeredness is hardly engaging to me.
I can accept paintings to stress forms while defying meaning. But motion picture has one more dimension than paintings. Such waste of its expressiveness is a crime. After all, ideas are the most powerful and exciting, but not an idea of emptiness.

Rating:
Summary: A huge dissapointment
Review: I really wanted to like this movie. I like offbeat films, and I am a big fan of Brian Eno (who scored the music). When I read the blurb on the video box, I was intrigued. And while I found the beginning and a few odd details here and there to be interesting, I thought that the film lacked any plot of any kind, it teaches you little, if anything, about the historical St. Sebastiane, and I found myself wondering if the the film had any point at all. I am not gay, but I didn't mind the homoerotic visuals. As long as you have some sort of story to go along with them, they're OK. but this film had not story whatsoever.

Rating:
Summary: A dim light
Review: I would feel better about this film if it hadn't been supposedly based on the life of St. Sebastiane as the details in the film are so off. It is pretense to assume it is any bio of the saint. Instead of seeing the Sebastiane performing acts of kindness for imprisoned christians in Rome, we're off at the seashore, an outpost, where nothing deserving of sainthood happens (there are no miracles accorded Sebastiane anyway, but he was martyred in Rome). Presumably the location shoot was to save on the budget, in terms of sets, actors and costumes. But the film presumably wouldn't have been financed if it hadn't been for the "saint" angle. But film maker Jarman seems to be exploring his own agenda, as contrary to Roman military discipline, the soldiers at the outpost are barely clad, and often nude. Though visually stunning, the nudity and hot sun fall short of an erotic film, too. And if you're expecting anything graphic, this isn't the place to find it. What you do have is a hunky blond "captain" who is in lust with Sebastiane and makes the poor man miserable. Or does he? Because Sebastiane - and this is the S/M element - seems less than genuine in his expressed christianity (and was Sebastiane even a Christian or merely someone who helped Christians?) and more about taunting Captain Severus. It's like the two of them are in some inevitable duel to the finish, with Severus being teased and Sebastiane doing the teasing because he's incapable of anything more substantial. Instead of a rape, which would occur in most films at this point, there is the inevitable result, the sainted martyrdom, but it seems more about Sebastiane (who speaks as if he is "in love" with God rather than loving God) being cool and Severus having tried everything else and giving up in despair. Two minor points, one being the soldiers at one time hunting down and killing a pig, talking about pork as if they haven't had any for a long time, yet we've already seen they care for their own occupied pig pen, so that's a contradiction. Also, the more interesting couple might have been Anthony & Adrian but their burgeoning love affair is more background. So, I had high hopes for the film based upon the reviews here, but found it a disappointment for a variety of reasons.

Rating:
Summary: erotic & powerful
Review: if you're a fan of jarman, get this ; if you like art-house movies, get this ; if you're interested in male erotica, get this. i happened to be one of the above 3 groups of people and i love it. BTW, the quality of the vhs isn't that good as afterall it's a movie of some 15 years ago and I've heard that the dvd of Sebastiane will be released very soon.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary, complex, deeply-felt
Review: In Sebastiane (1976), British writer/directors Derek Jarman (this was his first feature) and Paul Humfress created a remarkable historical film and a landmark of gay cinema. It depicts the martyred fourth century Roman soldier, who was later both canonized as Saint Sebastian and revered as an enduring gay icon. The film strikingly balances a cinéma vérité depiction of the everyday life of common soldiers and a visionary exploration of one man's defiant growth in faith, even as it subtly questions the nature of that experience. Despite its microscopic budget, it is a remarkably well designed, shot, edited, scored (Brian Eno's first film music), and acted picture. The Kino DVD transfer is very good, especially considering that the picture was originally shot in 16mm, then blown up to 35mm.

The film takes some liberties with the historical/legendary Sebastian, who was never exiled to a remote outpost, and incredibly who was supposed not to have died from the arrows with which he was famously shot - how Emperor Diocletian ordered him killed, and how the film ends - but rather from a second execution when he was clubbed to death. Although the film works brilliantly on many levels - cinematic, psychological, spiritual, aesthetic, even political - what may strike you first is the vividness and authenticity of the ancient world it depicts. Despite an over-the-top prologue at the glitteringly decadent court of Diocletian, and its strategic use of famous Renaissance paintings of St. Sebastian (by Mantegna, Reni, etc.) in the final scene, this film feels like lived experience.

Shot on location in Sardinia, every well-worn costume and dusty prop seems genuine. The dialogue is in the rough "street Latin" of its day (with English subtitles), but rather than feeling gimmicky it helps capture the texture of these nine banished soldiers' daily life. Its realism is in striking contrast to big-budget "sword and sandal" epics, from the Silent Era to the recent Gladiator, which always look too manufactured. In fact, its stylistic roots are more in the hyper-real mythic films of Pasolini, like Oedipus Rex and Medea.

From stills, you might think that the cast was chosen for their sculpted bodies. But each of these actors, even those in supporting roles, fully inhabits their characters and brings them to life. In particular, Leonardo Treviglio (seen most recently in Julie Taymor's film Titus) gives an intensely restrained, brilliantly nuanced performance in the title role. The constant ribbing and roughhousing among these nine men provides not only verisimilitude, but energy and unpretentiousness.

That is especially important, because the film deals with some dauntingly complex themes, as important now as 1,700 years ago, including the meaning of spirituality, the place of sexuality in life, and the contradictory nature of reality. The film's wild streak of humor, and its breathtaking visual design, help to keep this profoundly serious work from overdosing on "heaviosity."

The thematic core, as expected in a work about a man on the road to sainthood, is spirituality; and few films, including self-styled "religious movies," let one feel so deeply the growing importance of faith to an individual. Even some of the translated dialogue is beautiful, as when Sebastian, gazing at his and the sky's reflection in a pool of water, says that divinity is "That beauty that made all colors different.... The heavens and earth are united in gold." But while that vision of faith is powerful, it also has many layers, some of which are provocatively ambiguous. For some viewers, a central question will be: Is Sebastian a true Christian or is he a syncretist grafting his personal version of the new religion onto much older, Greco-Roman roots? The film offers different possible answers, not as a dodge, but because the film realizes how multi-faceted religious experience is, growing out of social, personal, and spiritual contexts.

It is also a landmark in the history of gay-themed films. Not only is this an authentic-seeming depiction of the ancient world, it is one in which a person's sexual orientation is not at all an issue. The guys jibe each other equally about their interest in Vestal Virgins, famous female prostitutes, and other men. In addition to this still-refreshing "backgrounding" of sexual orientation, the film depicts some of the most genuinely sweet and loving moments of any gay-themed film up to that time, especially in the budding relationship of the minor characters Adrian (whom the men tease about being a virgin) and Anthony.

And Sebastian's sadistically lovelorn nemesis, Captain Severus, is much more than a traditional "homosexual heavy," like the diabolical Claggart in Billy Budd. Severus (played by Barney James) has psychological depth, and seems to be equally divided between raw lust and genuine love for Sebastian. The film also takes a complex approach to him. For instance, the most visually beautiful and tender images of men are entirely from Severus's POV. And during the pivotal seduction scene near the end, Severus is shown as both monstrously brutal and beautiful, his hair ringed with golden light. That is exactly how Sebastian describes his vision of God, earlier in the film.

This is an exceptional film, deeply-felt, beautiful, and complex.

Rating:
Summary: sebastiane
Review: My copy of the Kino DVD is full screen and not letterboxed as advertised. Several seconds have been deleted from the perhaps too long slow motion sequence with frolicking bathers - but these seconds are important and Jarman captured a natural and realistic event knowing full well what he was doing . I acquired the DVD to replace my old VHS version and while it is superior in many ways, I will keep the video as the true version and the one I saw originally on the movie screen.

Rating:
Summary: A first effort
Review: Sebastiane was a useful film to view only in as much as it traces where Derek Jarman started as a film maker, marking his film making adolescence. Like many a first film or book it is painfully self-conscious in design (Latin dialogue for no apparent reason, grainy colour distorted visuals, hand-held camera work, little attention to continuity), it is contrived and obsessive; the title itself gives this away. Jarman's later works Carravaggio, Wittgenstein, Edward II are polished diamonds, Sebastiane the raw product. It struck me as the film he had to make in order to get it out of his system and move onto more thoughtful things, rather like most adolescent poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Exploring the boundaries between painting and film
Review: The martyrdom of Saint Sebastiane is one of the most famous subjects of painting, and also rife with sadomasochistic themes (as are so many subjects from Christian iconography.) Jarman's adaptation of the material is, despite other reviews posted at this site, quite reverential. Jarman overstates his ridicule of organized religion, but this is understandable in light of the advent, at that time, of a new disease called AIDS. Skip over Edward II and advance straight to The Garden, which is Jarman's masterwork (and also a "de profundis" cry for help.)