Jubilee

Jubilee released in 1978, was directed by Derek Jarman, an art student with ties to the 70s art punk scene. The film starred many famous names of the English Punk scene at that time, including Adam Ant (Adam and the Ants), Jordan, Toyah, Siouxsie Sioux, the oi band Chelsea, Jayne County, and the Slits. The film also starred Richard O'Brian who would become famous for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as well as Little Nell (or Nell Campbell) who is also in Rocky Horror Picture Show. This film, is complex piece of art, more than it is an actual film, and lacks a coherent plot, but is episodic and chaotic, jumping from one theme, or idea to the next, without a smooth story to tie things together. The film was protested by by Vivienne Westwood because of it's misrepresentation of punks, however Derek Jarman uses it to be critical of the punk scene, and mocking it for it's fascination with fascism and fascist imaginary and the violence that seemed to plague the British Punk scene of the time. What I mean by punk's fascination with fascism and fascist imagery is exemplified by Sid Vicious wearing a swastika t-shirt, and Siouxsie Sioux wearing a nazi armband, even though neither are fascist or believe in it, but they adopted it as a way to scare "normal" people, which is the point of Jarman mocking it and calling it out for it's stupidity, this also applies to how some of the oi bands were starting to align with the National Front (National Socialist Front, also known as the Nazi Party). This film like I said is chaotic and complex and as all art is open to interpretation of course. There have been multiple interpretations of what exactly the film is going on about, but I will share mine, I suppose as it is mine to share. To me the film portrays a collapsed society, where the bored generation, the generation of kids raised on the telly and poverty, and given no hope for the future (a very common theme of punk bands of the time, and still a theme it seems). The character Borjia Ginz represents capitalism, as he buys and sells, and profits off of everything, and is a big part of why the world has collapsed, he buys and sells art, and nations, and has bought both fascism and communism, and in the film we see capitalism buying out punk rock, turning it into the same shit that it was rebelling against. The film shows the female punks killing pop stars because there are no idols anymore, there are no heroes, but in the end they sell out and are bought out and profited from by Borjia Ginz, as they hang out in his palace with Hitler, because capitalism is fascism, and capitalism seems to buy up everything. This represents punk being sold out to the corporations, which was a big thing then, as it is now. In the words of Malcolm Maclaren, "cash from chaos", which is really a theme of this film. There is also this element of empowered women, and soft men, two of the main men in the film are two bisexual brothers, and another of the main men is Adam Ant who plays Kid, who is this soft, gentle shy character (much like his real life self). These men, are kind and sweet, and lovable. The women on the other hand are hard, violent and aggressive, because they live in a society where they no longer allow themselves to be subservient to men, and they are empowered and creating their new future...but then in the end, they ended up selling out to the capitalist system (which again goes back to Derek Jarman's critique of punk). The title of the film is a call out to the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, where the Sex Pistols famously played on a boat on the Thames because they were banned from playing on the land. In 1977 England was suffering under a depression, where millions were on the Dole Que, and Margaret Thatcher was reigning with an iron fist, and destroying the British economy in much the same way that Ronald Reagan would the US economy starting a few years later. In Brixton poor black people were rioting in the streets, and poor white kids were rebelling in their own way, as Thatcher waged her war on the poor. All the while an insane amount of money was being spent on the Queen's Jubilee, which is insulting to the poor, that this figurehead whose lavish lifestyle was being supported by taxes of the people, and this disgusting amount of money was being spent on her celebration while people were starving on the streets. That is a part of what set up the theme of this film, the disgust at the show of money by the royal family while so many were starving. One thing to remember about the punk scene of the England at the time, is that it was a very divided scene, the crowd that followed the Sex Pistols hated those that followed the Clash, then there were the art punks like Adam and the Ants and the other similar bands that would later become new-wave or new romantic bands, then of course there was the anarcho-punk bands that would follow the footsteps of Crass, and of course their were the working class oi bands... there was not an element of unity between the punks, and different scenes thought of themselves as "real" punks and the others posuers, which sadly is still a thing that has seemed to continue into today's punk scenes. From a technical perspective, this film, is shot on Super 8 film, giving it a grainy look, which is an intentional move, to help create the gritty mood of the film. The film is a work of art, and everything in it making artistic statements, whether it be the interesting visual art of the way that the movie was filmed, or the poetry, and the political diatribes of the characters. The film almost suffers from being too artistic, which some critics have taken it to be pompous and not being approachable by non-artists. The film to me is beautiful, the visual and auditory art is amazing. The film also has many complex themes, and I like that upon subsequent viewings I continue to see more and more new things in the film. The film has become a cult classic, which seems to be how many art-house films become famous, and has even been released as part of the Criterion Collection. However Adam Ant in his auto-biography stated that this film hurt his acting career, because when filmakers see that he was in Jubilee they refuse to work with him, because of how bad many critics saw the film to be. Would I recommend this film? Yes, this is one of my favourite films of all time, however I honestly don't think most viewers would like this film. I do feel like this film would be more appreciated by those who find interest in chaotic art films. This film is definitely not for everyone, but it is definitely one of my favourite films.