01
The Last of England
Why this pick
Jarman extends the Super-8, hand-worked-image sensibility into a fractured visual elegy: layered, rhythmic, and closer to an immersive atmosphere than conventional narrative.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1981 0h 54m GBR
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
In the Shadow of the Sun
Fantasy
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved In the Shadow of the Sun, try these.
01
02
The Garden
Why this pick
Its dream tableaux, saturated colour, devotional imagery, and associative editing continue Jarman’s alchemical approach to turning personal vision into a hypnotic moving-image environment.
03
Meshes of the Afternoon
Why this pick
This foundational avant-garde dream film transforms repeated objects, gestures, and spaces into a compact visual spell, prioritising mood and inner association over explanation.
04
Dog Star Man
Why this pick
Brakhage’s dense superimpositions and direct engagement with film as light, colour, and matter make it an especially strong match for Jarman’s material, alchemical experimentation.
05
Decasia
Why this pick
Using decaying archival film as its subject and texture, Morrison creates a meditative abstraction where physical celluloid deterioration becomes luminous, musical visual experience.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Derek Jarman’s interest with alchemical processes as a metaphor for reprocessing Super-8 film. Jarman once described film’s union of light and matter as “an alchemical conjunction” and experimented throughout his career with creating dream symbolism through the superimposition of image and action. Originally called English Apocalypse, the film’s final title is derived from a 17th Century alchemical text that used the phrase as a synonym for the philosopher’s stone – the highly sought substance that turns base metals into gold and silver. The film was intended as a step toward the idea of an ambient video, that like its musical counterpart, was designed to enhance an environment.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Karl Bowen
Graham Dowie
