Derek Jarman trio

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Three outstanding films by Derek Jarman were released as a trio by the BFI last month. The earliest is The Angelic Conversation (1985), an artistic and intense rendering of 14 Shakespeare sonnets. Written to an unnamed young man often referred to as the Fair Youth, they are read by Judi Dench over a dreamlike haze of homoerotic images. The ambient passion they convey is hard to describe: sublime visual themes filtered through layers of distortion and echoic near-repetitions, like music. The film's lack of narrative makes it a hard watch, but it's a rewarding and emotionally powerful 80 minutes.

One of Jarman's several biopics, Caravaggio (1986) has by contrast a dramatic story to tell. It also has, somewhere near its origin, a simple question: when making a film about a painter, why not create every shot in the style of that painter's imagery? Of course, to be important this question requires that the director actually manage to pull the images off, a stunning feat in the case of Caravaggio. Jarman is so assured in his use of extreme light and shadow, along with primary colours and lots of perfectly arranged flesh, that you're almost able to forget how stylised the production is. Such suspension of disbelief, the viewer's will to fill in the shadows, is supported by first rate performances from a cast including Nigel Terry, Sean Bean and Tilda Swinton in her first film role. As a meditation on art, love, corruption and the power of looking, it is a memorable classic.

There is nothing to fault Wittgenstein (1993) either: a witty and sensitive biopic of the gay philosopher, scripted by literary theorist Terry Eagleton. It is entirely shot in the studio, despite scenes taking place in different environments and different countries. The effect is to create an atmosphere of poetic doubt suited to, and inspired by, Wittgenstein's theories of language. Both fun and intellectually inspiring. [RJ Thomson]