Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

framptonhollis Derek Jarman's feature film debut is an impressive effort that is as steamy and homoerotic as a biblical tragedy can get. Filmed entirely in what is referred to as "vulgar Latin", 'Sebastiane' inserts into the classic Bible story heavy overtones of homosexual love and lust, something not too shocking for a filmmaker like Jarman to do considering the rest of his career. The opening sequence is definitely the highlight for me. It's definitely the strangest moment in the film; it is very Felliniesque and has an eye-popping and colorful quality that is not returned to later in the film. It is broadly bizarre stuff, but very funny and mildly humorous. And, speaking of humour, I will have to bring myself to comment upon how unexpectedly funny this film is. It's awfully sad, too, of course, by the end it is a straight-up tragedy, but throughout there are funny moments. Much of them come through the ribald and over-the-top senses of humour some of the characters possess and express w/great enthusiasm and energy. Some scenes made me genuinely laugh out loud, helping add to the watchability of this really slow and, for the majority of its runtime, somewhat uneventful film. The film is at its strongest in its earlier and later sections. During the middle of the movie, it is still well crafted and still carries many great elements, but it's also occasionally somewhat boring and I was only half-paying attention during a few scenes. However, the film is soon able to pick up speed, and by the end it has had an actual emotional impact. It is beautifully shot, too, despite its shoestring budget essentially all technical aspects of the film are gorgeously done, the cinematography and score especially. The score is by none other than Brain Eno, and his synth-heavy sounds here contrast w/the historical setting brilliantly, adding even more atmosphere to a film already heavy on atmosphere.

Aulic Exclusiva A clever re-telling of the pious legend of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, favourite homo-erotic subject of Italian Renaissance painters.A small detachment of Roman soldiers guard a tower in some desert setting, under the command of one officer. Boredom and lust simmer under the desert sun, especially as the officer, Severus (hahaha) develops an obsessive, wine-soaked craving for the strange, un-soldierly Sebastianus, who refuses to be had.Under the mask of Christian chastity, Sebastianus is playing a searing game of Sado-masochism, in which his "chaste" refusal only exacerbates Severus' desire to the point of madness.The physical tortures to which the thus-maddened Severus subjects the more than willing Sebastianus turn, in the end, into a hot snuff story.This little incident is told in a manner emblematic of the 1970s. Any of these images could have happened on the beach at Fire Island... They remind one of Fellini's Casanova, Hair, Oh, Calcutta, the Gore Vidal Caligula, Jesus Christ, Superstar and other flower-child epics, complete with skinny, scruffy men in lusty Afros dancing in the buff. All that's missing is the poppers.The Roman soldiers are rather laughably British-looking (they resemble the Bee-Gees) except the Sebastianus, Leonardo Treviglio, who looks comically Italian. He has the skinniest legs of all.The language of the film is college-professor Latin, stiffly rehearsed by the actors in any number of classroom-variety pronunciations. Treviglio's is a kind of French-flavoured, softly-inflected Italian Latin. Very seductive.The form Sebastiane, by-the-by, is the name Sebastianus in the Vocative case, the case used to call or invoke. Thus the title of the film would be translated, Oh, Sebastian!—shadows of Oh, Calcutta!An enjoyable, sexy period piece.

rava-1 While not his strongest film, Sebastiane is classic Derek Jarman. The movie captures the potential for violence and lust in a small group of exiled young soldiers. As with all Jarman, the visuals here are more important than any dialog, and they wash over the viewer in waves of longing and fear-inducing power. The film meditates on intersections of longing, desire, faith and obsession, especially as they play out between Severus and Sebastiane.Sebastiane's "obsessive" Christian faith rivals the lustful obsession of Serverus for this unattainable man. The movie doesn't flinch from showing how brutal desire can be; it is a hard master for both Serverus and Sabastiane. What I came away from the film with is the powerful question: What horrors and debasements will we all put ourselves through for the object of our lust?

John Firth It's a while since I watched this, and what little I do remember is odd, to say the least (it is a Jarman film), so I won't try to go into detail, as I'd probably mis-remember something. All I will say is that it's a definite indicator as to which way Jarman went. Certainly not one for homophobes.Visually striking (as is typical of Jarman), this film is best known for being the first film to be filmed entirely in Latin (The Holy Office (from Spain) in 1975 had some dialogue in Latin, but also Hebrew), and also for being Jarman's debut feature (he had worked on three pictures beforehand, including Ken Russell's The Devils, but this was his first directing job). As with most of Jarman's work, Sebastiane is very arthouse, and will rarely be played on television (Channel 4 here in the UK last played it a few years ago in a Jarman season). Next time it's on, do as I intend to do, and watch it.