The Dis/Order of Things : Jarman's Caravaggio and the Criminal Hero

Openly conceived as a self-portrait and meant to re-order and shape his vision of the artist in society, Caravaggio was probably one of the most strenuously pursued project in Jarman’s life. The film in itself, though conceived in 1978, was screened only in 1986, and just a few months after, the artist was diagnosed HIV-positive. Built as it was on the profile of the artist as a criminal hero, it clashed with the atmosphere of cultural regression of Thatcher’s England. The film was also an Italian co-production, it followed the Italian experience of Sebastiane, and it was strongly linked to Jarman’s relation to Pasolini’s poetics. Consciously focused on the image of the artist as an outlaw constantly defying the social order, Caravaggio raises problems concerning art and censorship at several level, mediating Jarman’s political commitment that will emerge in the following years.