Retrospective: The Tempest (1979) (Patreon)

Nobody could stretch ten quid like Derek Jarman. He makes three rooms of one squalid abbey feel like fifty. His Tempest is unbound by space or time; Brian Hodgson's soundtrack ensures that it stays that way. Prospero's island under Jarman's spell is a Jacobean masque, a European arthouse porno, and a 40s MGM musical where Elisabeth Welch can float in singing "Stormy Weather." Shakespearean films will not be this unhinged again for 20 years.

Prospero (Heathcote Williams in a lightning strike of inspired casting) is here not a demiurge who ultimately sees the error of his ways but a rat in a cage of his own making. He is worn out and disorientated by his own magic. Ariel (Karl Johnson) sneaks up on him early in the film, indicating that Prospero is losing control of his slaves (tragically, Jarman jettisons any post-colonial readings of The Tempest). In a rare case of a Shakespearean movie improving on its source material, Prospero here only tells Miranda the truth about their past after Ferdinand arrives on their island, a sign he's only sharing the story under duress. Prospero is a tired impresario, the Shakespeare of the 1610s. He doesn't formally surrender his magic at the end of the film; he doesn't have to. These porny revels now have ended.