The Angelic Conversation

saint judas fonda

At one point the plight that subservient bottoms go through is compared to jesus holding up the cross and honestly? That's what I call gay representation.

Alice Stoehr3.5

Reminiscent of Jarman's music videos for The Smiths or The Pet Shop Boys; comparable to earlier work by the likes of Jean Genet or Kenneth Anger. Like being submerged into someone's private erotic fantasies. Like an incantation at an occult ceremony to resurrect the spirits of poetry, England, and Shakespeare. Symbols manifest themselves onscreen: orbs, torches, shells, sponges, flames, and naked flesh. Every now and then the voice of Judi Dench materializes amidst Coil's thick soundtrack, reciting the sonnets as if wringing nectar from a rag. The images are color-sapped, flickering, and they make The Angelic Conversation into an avant-pornographic reverie, a little dose of bliss.

Stephen Gillespie3.0

Completely obscure and obtuse yet oddly intimate. This is on the far end of artsy, and is hard to engage with. However, there is still mesmeric beauty here and the sense of deep and personal meaning. An easy film to respect, a hard film to actually love, but the combination of yearning and passionate imagery with Judi Dench reading Shakespearean sonnets does resonate.The film is made up of two men meeting, a simple story made fantastical through filmic methods. This mythologises connection and interaction, it turns what could be everyday into something folkloric. Every strange cinematic gesture or flourish may not work for the viewer but certainly carries the weight of intent. This is so clearly personal and heartfelt that it is hard to take against it, even if it is truly difficult to engage with.