After adoring Derek Jarman's
Caravaggio, I was disappointed to find myself less patient with his
War Requiem, a feature-length film without dialogue set to Benjamin Britten's
War Requiem. Honestly, in theory this is a cool idea. I've
loved similar concepts on occasion, including an incredible version of
The Passion of Joan of Arc set to Richard Einhorn's
Voices of Light which I was grateful to be able to hear performed live by the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park back when I lived in Orlando. But anyway... Jarman's film is hyper theatrical in ways I didn't totally understand, and because there's no dialogue it often felt indulgent and distant. There
is a very smart interpretation of the sacrifice of Abraham – but it's in the original Britten text, so it was a kind of literalization of the music. I don't know. This is cool in parts, but it left me rather cold.
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