Joseph
Summers wasn’t born when Derek Jarman’s film, The Last of England, was premiered
at Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1987. Once the Berlin-based artist,
musician and instrument builder saw Jarman’s impressionistic guerrilla-style
portrait of Margaret Thatcher’s broken Britain, however, he was struck by how
pertinent it seemed to today. Jarman’s backdrop of burning buildings, masked
men with guns and young men seeking respite in the rubble gave way to one of the
film’s most memorable scenes, in which regular Jarman collaborator Tilda
Swinton claws at the wedding dress she’s wearing while rubbish burns beside
her.
All
of this inspired Summers to compose a new live soundtrack for Jarman’s film
following a commission from the Bristol-based Palace International Film
Festival of queer cinema. Performed by Summers with his brother Thomas and
fellow composer/musician Rosa Irwin-Clark, this aural reimagining of The Last
of England can be heard accompanying a screening in Glasgow tomorrow.
“It
seems so timely,” Summers says of the film. “When we’ve done it before, the
feedback has always been people saying it could have been made right now, and
it’s almost like prophecy in a way. It really seems to predict the future. It’s
so stripped back, and for me feels really punkish, the way it puts people in
situations in really evocative locations and lets the narrative emerge.”
Jarman
made The Last of England in the throes of Thatcher’s second term as Prime
Minister, following his more formally realised feature, Caravaggio. The grainy
Super 8 footage of this new film depicted a stark dystopian landscape where wordless
scenes projected hallucinatory images of an increasingly totalitarian state
that reflected what was happening in the real world beyond.
This
included the notorious Section 28 clause of the Local Government Act, designed
to ‘not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the
intention of promoting homosexuality’, which was about to become law. The rise
of AIDS saw its casualties demonised, with Jarman himself diagnosed the year
before. A post-Falklands War jingoism encouraged delusions of empire, and
Northern Ireland remained a tinderbox that exploded on a daily basis.
The
Last of England takes its title from a 19th century painting by Ford
Maddox Brown, which depicted a young couple departing with their baby for a new
life in Australia. In its defiantly DIY way, the film is a brutal but beautiful
visual tone-poem which defines its volatile and turbulent era.
“By referencing
the painting, it feels like Jarman was taking something from the distant past
and making it relevant to him,” says Summers. “Thirty years on, the film is
from the past, but it’s become this really painful expression of what’s going
on now.”
Summers’
score sees the trio use violin, guitar, bass and amplified objects alongside
some of the composer’s home-made flutes to create a loose-knit arrangement that
draws from British folk music to create a sound as personal as the film.
“It’s
not a traditional score,” says Summers. “There’s no actual notation. It’s
essentially a guide for improvisation, that tells people how to play rather
than what to play. It takes some ideas from the visuals on screen, and tries to
translate that into sound.”
The
film’s original soundtrack was composed in part by Simon Fisher-Turner, and
featured a string section that included fellow composers Jocelyn Pook and Sally
Herbert. There were original works too by former Magazine bassist turned noir
sound-scaper Barry Adamson, mercurial singer Diamanda Galas and one-time
in-house producer at Rough Trade Records and founder of 1960s pre-punks, The
Red Crayola, Mayo Thompson, an associate producer on the film.
The
only music from the original soundtrack left in Summers’ presentation is
Marianne Faithfull’s mournful version of The Skye Boat Song. The track doesn’t
appear on the film’s soundtrack album, and remains unreleased.
“It’s
such a beautiful rendition,” says Summers, “and it’s a really incredible
soundtrack, but I don’t want to be influenced by it. If I took too much on
board then what we did would end up being a response to the score rather than
the film. But The Skye Boat Song is too perfect, and it would be a crime to separate
it. It also functions as a nice thread that attaches us to the original in a
good way.”
Summers
and co aren’t alone in recognising the prescience of Jarman’s film. An
exhibition, also called The Last of England, is currently running at Void
gallery in Derry, and showcases Jarman’s films and paintings. A much bigger
exhibition, Protest!, is a major retrospective of Jarman’s work currently
running at the Irish Museum of Modern Art to mark the 25th
anniversary of his death. The exhibition transfers to Manchester in 2020.
“The
Last of England is a film that people care about quite deeply,” says Summers,
“and we have to reassure people that by doing what we’re doing, we care as
well. It’s not an easy film, and because the visual imagery is so striking,
it’s open to interpretation. There’s no one definitive version of what we do.”
With
a UK General Election looming on the back of the ongoing chaos of Brexit,
Summers again stresses the film’s foresight.
“Essentially
it only gets more poignant as time goes on,” he says. “Every time we think
we’ve reached rock bottom, it goes further. When we showed the film in March we
were on a precipice. Now we are where we are, and The Last of England keeps on
getting more relevant every day.”
The
Last of England is screened with a live soundtrack by Joseph Summers, Rosa
Irwin-Clark and Thomas Summers at the CCA, Glasgow tomorrow at 8.30pm.
The Herald, November 23rd 2019
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