Depuis le Jour

Depuis le Jour

1987 · 5 min · Music, Romance

Derek Jarman's interpretation of the aria 'Depuis le jour' from the final act of Gustave Charpentier's opera Louise (1900) features Aimée Delamain as an aging opera singer taking her final bow and recalling a love affair from her youth. As the aria goes: 'Et je tremble délicieusement au souvenir charmant du premier jour d'amour! (And I tremble deliciously at the delightful memory of the first day of love!)' – Her reveries feature Tilda Swinton and Spencer Leigh wandering around the topiaries of Swinton's family garden and at various seaside locations. The film was made for Aria (1987), the portmanteau project of producer Don Boyd who invited ten directors to create short films set to operatic arias of their choice. The particular performance used in Depuis le jour is by esteemed African-American soprano Leontyne Price.

Directed by Derek Jarman

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

51m together

Depuis le Jour

Projections

Both from Derek Jarman.

More from Derek JarmanSee all →

Waiting for Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Waiting for Godot · 1982

Waiting for Waiting for Godot

MovieDocumentary

Abstract images of figures moving about a room. Filmed from a video monitor in Super 8 during a rehearsal of a RADA production of Beckett's "Waiting for Godot".

Projections

Projections · 1993

MovieMusicDocumentary

The innovative and influential British filmmaker Derek Jarman was invited to direct the Pet Shop Boys' 1989 tour. This film is a series of iconoclastic images he created for the background projections. Stunning, specially shot sequences (featuring actors, the Pet Shop Boys, and friends of Jarman) contrast with documentary montages of nature, all skillfully edited to music tracks.

The Devils

The Devils · 1971

MovieDramaHistory

In 1634 France, charismatic Father Urbain Grandier becomes the target of a sexually obsessed nun’s witchcraft accusations, which corrupt church and state officials are all too happy to exploit.

The Comic Strip Presents...

The Comic Strip Presents... · 1982

The Comic Strip Presents...

The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, who do parodies of films, literature and sometimes major events.

Blue

MovieDocumentaryDrama

Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.

Screen Two

Screen Two · 1985

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

Prick Up Your Ears

Prick Up Your Ears · 1987

Prick Up Your Ears

When the young, attractive Joe Orton meets the older, more introverted Kenneth Halliwell at drama school, he befriends the kindred spirit and they start an affair. As Orton becomes more comfortable with his sexuality and starts to find success with his writing, Halliwell becomes increasingly alienated and jealous, ultimately tapping into a dangerous rage.

Sebastiane

Sebastiane · 1976

MovieDramaHistory

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.

Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein · 1993

MovieDramaHistory

A dramatization, in modern theatrical style, of the life and thought of the Viennese-born, Cambridge-educated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose principal interest was the nature and limits of language. A series of sketches depict the unfolding of his life from boyhood, through the era of the first World War, to his eventual Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The emphasis in these sketches is on the exposition of the ideas of Wittgenstein, a homosexual, and an intuitive, moody, proud, and perfectionistic thinker generally regarded as a genius.

Ostia

Ostia is a fascinating short film directed by Julian Cole and produced for the Royal College of Art, which reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ostia relocates the proceedings to London and stars Derek Jarman as Pasolini. The film features an evocative dream sequence which is accompanied by poignant excerpts from Pasolini’s own poetry, as read by Jarman.

Savage Messiah

Savage Messiah · 1972

In the Paris of the 1910s, brash young sculptor Henri Gaudier begins a creative partnership with an older writer, Sophie Brzeska. Though the couple is 20 years apart in age, Gaudier finds that his untamed work is complemented by the older woman's cultural refinement. He then moves to London with Brzeska, where he falls in with a group of avant-garde artists. There, Gaudier encounters yet another artistic muse in passionate suffragette Gosh Boyle.

War Requiem

War Requiem · 1989

During World War I, British soldier Owen is mortified by the examples of cruelty that surround him in the trenches. He combats these terrifying images by maintaining hope in his love for an army nurse. But he also begins to accept his fate as another battlefield sacrifice.

Edward II

Edward II · 1991

MovieHistoryRomance

England, 14th century. King Edward II falls in love with Piers Gaveston, a young man of humble origins, whom he honors with favors and titles of nobility. The cold and jealous Queen Isabella conspires with the evil Mortimer to get rid of Gaveston, overthrow her husband and take power…

Caravaggio

Caravaggio · 1986

MovieDramaHistory

A retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.

The Last of England

The Last of England · 1987

The Last of England

The artist's personal commentary on the decline of his country in a language closer to poetry than prose. A dark meditation on London under Thatcher.

Glitterbug

Glitterbug · 1994

MovieMusicTV Movie

A collage of Derek Jarman's super 8 footage spanning over 20 years.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter