In the Shadow of the Sun
Derek Jarman, UK, 1980, 54 min
A DEREK JARMAN film with music by Throbbing Gristle. DEREK JARMAN used some of his 70s home movie footage to produce this wonderful piece of exploitational avantgarde cinema.
Actually the original material has been slowed down to a speed of 3-6 frames, then JARMAN added colour effects and the pulsating, menacing score by Industrial supergroup Throbbing Gristle. The result is a piece of art not to dissimilar to JARMAN’s painting work in using found footage as elements of memory and mind that resemble ideas reflected in the Cabala and in C.G. Jung’s writings about an archetypical past that is hidden in everyone of us. The first In the Shadow of the Sun (1974-80), was originally put together by JARMAN himself in 1974 from re-shot Super-8 material including footage from Tarot (aka the Magician, 1972) and A Journey to Avebury (1971), amongst several others.
The film was eventually blown-up to 35mm and premiered at the 1981 Berlin Film Festival. The focus on ritual, mysticism and obscure alchemical symbolism links it with the work of Anger. However, JARMAN’s preference for the work of Carl Jung and the “white” magician John Dee, is quite distinct from Anger’s invocations of the “black” magician A. Crowley.
