Jubilee (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

I had been warned how really rotten this film was by other Adam Ant fans; however, I tried to watch this film fairly and judge it for myself and found out that I loved it! It is a true late 1970s "art" film in my opinion. Poorly written, bad camera work, sets & costumes from the company's own stuff. The film's "storyline" is loose and hardly apparent, but that is part of the enjoyment I got. Basically, I see this as a bunch of London-based friends and scene makers getting together to play at making a, what would have been university-level (at the time,) class project. Don't expect something even as polished as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This was a "first" for many (most?) of those involved and it shows - and that is its charm.

Nice print

Dark and daring. An amazing film that should be cherished. This film helped me understand English subculture in ways that the music it produced never did. The film captures a moment, a culture, and a feeling so well in such an extreme, surreal way.

If i could give this movie zero stars, i would. The story (or lack thereof) sounded interesting in principle, but this movie has absolutely nothing of intrest to say to the viewer and fails in every respect. Forget the reviewers who tell you to purchase this if at least for the punk legends who act in it, who cares if Adam Ant is in it when youre just going to be bored to tears the whole way through? The film is amateurish beyond belief and i can honsetly say the acting is the worst ive seen in any film, ever.This is the first time Criterion has let me down, and what a gargantuan let down this movie was. I wonder what on earth they were thinking when they decided to unleash this stinker of a movie on the public. At the risk of sounding like a fascist, I dare say it would have been a much better move to bury every print of this movie in the same landfill they used for the E.T. Atari game back in the 80s than release it on DVD. Let's play pretend for a second and say the actors in this film could actually act - even then every character is so annoying and not one bit likable that the movie would STILL stink. One good thing can be said about it though - The bad acting mixed with the horrible dialogue mixed with the incredibly stupid looking "angel" that shows Queen Elizabeth the future will bring a generous laugh to anyone, that is untill you realize you paid for this $hit. Then you'll probably cry.Dont waste your money on this, even if youre a fan of punk rock and/or Adam Ant as i am. This is genuinely garbage. My copy of Jubilee is going straight to an auction site.bye.

Jubilee is one of those "art" films that needs to be "understood" by the director's intentions. I suspect that many people like this film because they "get off" on the violence perpetrated by the female "gang," most of it seemingly completely senseless. Ostensibly a look at the punk culture in London at the time, Derek Jarman, according to Alex Davidson on the BFI website, was making a commentary "against the nonsense of monarchy and the moral corruption of big business-obsessed Britain," yet the alternative was punk's "fascination with fascism," and he "mocks the stupidity and petty violence of its followers." It made little sense to me that in the final sequences of the film we are supposed to "cheer" the girl gang killing police when they themselves had previously killed for no apparent reason but petty annoyances and had gotten away with it. There is some "philosophizing" about modern urban life that makes little sense at the film's end, but then again the general anarchy of the film and that of the actions of the characters probably says enough about the "point" that Jarman was trying to get across.

Oh, nihilism. Oh, commercialism. Oh, decaying, unemployed England with your punk youth scurrying around like 'Clockwork' rats taking aim at everyone who, while watching television, forgot to live their lives. Layers of English history exploded and refracted through language and what may be a McGuffin of a a stolen gem, orgiastic sexuality, homosexuality, capitalist flirtation with Nazism and Hitler himself, overexposed film drenched with smears of glorious, faded color. A broken Churchill coffee mug. Murder for sport and depravity for its own sake. Vigilante police. Failed socialism. A rogues gallery of icons - Amyl Nitrate, Siouxie, the Slits, Toyah, Jayne County. Adam Ant, like a cross between Matt Dillon and Sting. Time traveling Queen Elizabeth on the eyes of the angel Ariel sees what England has become in the late 1970s. How fraudulent thou art in the corpse of your Jubilee. Jarman surmises, "Now is the time of departure. The last streamer that ties us to what is known, parts. We drift into a sea of storms." You can practically smell the rot and nothing and no one is worth saving. Even the garden is plastic.

Toyah!

I find it easy to overlook the fact that a film like Pasolini's - 'Salo' is hard to watch. That is because 'Salo' is one of the most rewarding and deeply effecting films ever made - but Jubilee does not contain these rewards for me. I sat and tried to watch this film with an open mind - and saw some very good things about it - Jarman is without a doubt an exceptional talent - but as a whole I simply did not enjoy this film.

canevas brodé sur les agissements d'un groupe de ultra punkettes sous la couronne britannique et voulant de fait atteindre l'establishment qu'elles renversent sous la forme de la reine au pouvoir rendant un mode de vie anarchique émergeant, ceci sous l'œil anachronique d'une reine Elizabeth Ière traversant son époque pour atterrir à l'actualité des seventies anglaises et repartira en fin de film dans son époque. Film entre underground et comics pour l'intrigue. A marqué une génération fin seventies.

It'xs alovely film, very funny and Cliff Curtis has a wonderful singing voice.

Unfortunately I was unaware that it was unable to be viewed here in Australia because of its classification. So I have been unable to view it