BLUE (Derek Jarman, 1993)
Shortly before he died of Aids, Derek Jarman asked three actors – Tilda Swinton, Nigel Terry and John Quentin – to help him narrate a 73-minute docu-essay about his physical condition and musings on life. As the onscreen image is simply the colour blue and nothing else (Jarman’s partial sight loss meant his eyes experienced the world in various shades of blue), the floating voices possess extra poetic weight – especially as Jarman’s words are enunciated softly and sombrely, against a backdrop of Simon Fisher Turner’s score and occasional hospital sounds. Fast-forward three-and-a-half minutes into this clip for some particularly effective whispering and mouthy breathing.
