If you’re past a certain age, there’s a good chance you might remember when local TV stations would broadcast old movies on Sundays, which were often quite obscure and sometimes rather unsettling. First and foremost, we’ve somewhat recently revived the Sunday Afternoon Movie series on Forestpunk. Our purpose for posting In the Shadow of the Sun is threefold. But if you’re open to some dream logic, some cinematic poetry, or just to view an interesting installation in the history of avant-garde cinema, In The Shadow Of The Sun is very much worth an hour of your time. If you’re looking for a concrete narrative or plot, you’d probably be better off watching literally anything else. How much you enjoy In The Shadow of the Sun – or take away anything at all, really – depends on how much you need your cinema to make sense. Maybe this is all some Leautremont-like transgressive surreality? William S. Or maybe it’s all just imagination, as suggested by the fingers on the typewriter. Or maybe it’s the other way around, with the ultraviolence being the manifestations of a sun-stricken imagination, crumbling in on itself due to exposure to the elements.ĭerek Jarman’s In the Shadow of the Sun isn’t forthcoming with any easy answers. The suggestion of violence, mixed with the eerie atmosphere of Throbbing Gristle‘s electronic soundtrack (which i’m including in the guidebook of the best Dark Ambient albums i’ve been working on the past few years), make us wonder if the superimpositions are the fevered imaginings of some Thrill Kill Kult. The presence of blood is often one of the first signs that you’re watching a horror movie. It’s hard to tell what they’re doing, but the proliferation of prone figures, unmoving on the ground, and the occasional appearance of blood give the actors a slightly ominous air. These ghostly pastoral images run throughout nearly the entire film, contrasting with the human figures, who are often masked and robed. Both were shot on Super 8, hand-colored, and then converted into 16mm. In the Shadow of the Sun is comprised entirely of home videos of Jarman’s friends shot between 19 superimposed with footage of a car trip to Avebury from 1980. What is going on here? Are we in danger? In paradise? Is this a dream? A memory?ĭerek Jarman’s In the Shadow of the Sun isn’t forthcoming with any easy answers. Primitive oscillators, atonal slide guitar, aimless vibraphone unsettle, pull the rug out from under yr feet, make the ground go soft. Dissolve to a forest floor in time-lapsed decay, withering and erupting into flame. Sunday Afternoon Movie: In the Shadow of the Sun (Derek Jarman, 1981)ĭerek Jarman’s In the Shadow of the Sun is part home movie, part fever dream a fantasy and a reverie and a technicolour nightmare, made more surreal, menacing, and beautiful with an electronic soundtrack by Throbbing Gristle.Ī shadowed figure bends down to photograph an indistinct shape on the ground, against a grim industrial backdrop.
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