At Your Own Risk - Couverture rigide

Jarman, Derek

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0879514736 ISBN 13 : 9780879514730

Editeur : Allen Lane, 1993

Synopsis

One of the most controversial filmmakers of our time (Caravaggio, The Last of England, Edward II), and outspoken crusader for gay civil rights in Britain, Derek Jarman was diagnosed HIV positive in December of 1986. At Your Own risk is Derek's distillation of his philosophy of life and an impassioned and witty guide to gay sexuality from the repressed 40s through the libidinous 60s to the Aids-chilled present. Derek confronts his death, describing the reality of being HIV positive. Of a walk home after a sexual encounter on Hampstead Heath, he writes: "Why are you doing this, Derek? You shouldn't be standing under these cold stars. You shouldn't have the stamina to do this.' The answer is that I didn't have the stamina, but throwing my arms around a stranger is an act of defiance that keeps me alive." At Your Own Risk is an act of defiance - a defiant statement against a society that vacillates between indifference and moral censure on the issue of Aids and a defiant celebration of gay sexuality. At Your Own Risk argues that if you are HIV positive you can only remain frightened for so long and that there comes a point at which fear gives way to acceptance - a point after which you have to start living again.

A propos du livre

Biographie de l'auteur

Derek Jarman's creativity spanned decades and genres - painter, theatre designer, director, film maker, writer and gardener.

From his first one-man show at the Lisson Gallery in 1969; set designs and costumes for the theatre and ballet (Jazz Calendar with Frederick Ashton at Covent Garden, Don Giovanni with John Gielgud at the London Coliseum, The Rake's Progress with Ken Russell at Teatro Communale, Florence); production design for Ken Russell's films The Devils and Savage Messiah; through his own films in super-8 before working on features: Sebastine (1976), Jubilee (1978), The Tempest (1979), The Angelic Conversation (1985), Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), War Requiem (1989), The Garden (1990), Edward II (1991), Wittgenstein (1993), and Blue (1993); to directing pop-videos and live performances for Pet Shop Boys and Suede.

His paintings - for which he was a Turner Prize nominee in 1986 - have been exhibited world-wide.

His publications include: Dancing Ledge (1984), Kicking the Pricks (1987), Modern Nature (1991), At Your Own Risk (1992), Chroma (1994), Derek Jarman's Garden (1995).

Jarman died in 1994 of an AIDS-related illness, aged 52. His garden surrounding the fisherman's cottage in Dungeness where he spent the last years of his life remains a site of awe and pilgrimage for fans and newcomers to Jarman's singular vision.

Quatrième de couverture

Impassioned, witty and polemical, AT YOUR OWN RISK is Derek Jarman's defiant celebration of gay sexuality.

"If there is such a thing as the literary equivalent of an incendiary bomb, then this is it...His semtex-packed sentences are welcome thunderflashes of dissent in the grey drizzle of a dispirited political climate" New Statesman

"AT YOUR OWN RISK gives the reader access to something that is hard to articulate, the near asphyxiating pain, anxiety and rage which many gay people have felt living under the physical, legal and cultural attacks of the last few years" Observer

"For all his anger, Jarman never seems brutalised. He retains his humanity and his good humour. His is a wonderfully garrulous, mercurial, polymathic daemon" Literary Review

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Allen Lane
• Date d'édition: 1993
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0879514736
• ISBN 13: 9780879514730
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 160
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible