Jarman cheekily saying “we couldn’t afford costumes” when questioned about the amount of nudity in this, ahh that’s history
Rome, AD 303. Emperor Diocletian demotes his favourite, Sebastian, from captain of the palace guard to the rank of common soldier and banishes him to a remote coastal outpost where his fellow soldiers, weakened by their desires, turn to homosexual activities to satisfy their needs. Sebastian becomes the target of lust for the officer Severus, but repeatedly rejects the man's advances. Castigated for his Christian faith, he is tortured, humiliated and ultimately killed.
Sebastiane is showing in 1 cinema in New York City - next screening Wednesday 14 October at 21:45 at The Paris Theater.
Next screenings: Wednesday 14 October.
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Jarman cheekily saying “we couldn’t afford costumes” when questioned about the amount of nudity in this, ahh that’s history
I'm on my faggot shit tonight idc
The scene of the gladiators romping in the water is arresting not just for its sensational eroticism - the kind of sensuous luxuriation in male beauty almost non-existent in the entirety of cinema - but for its formal brilliance and simple, painterly evocation of the film's themes of a carnal and spiritual impasse. It's become obvious now as, I would say, the emblematic reference point for Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake. That film pushes well past Sebastiane's homoeroticism into the kind of outright, dangerous lust so primal in Severus. Where Sebastiane dies symbolically from piercing arrow, Franck and Michel's relationship is like the natural, contemporised extension where desire is fulfilled but the psychopathy of carnality remains, to our knowledge, unfulfilled.Stunning, too, is the unrequited desire of Justin for Sebastiane. Justin cannot understand Sebastiane's martyrdom and his brutalisation and loss is haunting. Just as Sebastiane is silhouetted against the sky, celestial and godlike, so too does his shadow allow us to see the mossy, human depths of the rock pool. It's mind-boggling how all-consuming a composition like that is.Just an incredible, landmark film. I feel so lucky to have seen it for the first time in 2K restoration on a cinema screen.
Rome in AD 303 serves as the backdrop for the demoted guard Sebastian, who is banished to a remote outpost where he faces unwanted advances and martyrdom for his Christian faith.
Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress directed the film in 1976, marking a foundational work of British queer cinema.
