Garden of Luxor (1973)

"Garden of Luxor" is a 9-minute silent movie from over 40 years ago. The director is Derek Jarman and he was roughly 30 when he made this, still very early in his career. He died at the age of 52 from HIV, but made roughly 50 films during these 20 years. Pretty prolific. This film here is an experimental movie and I am usually not too big on these. Still I have to say this was not a complete failure. The colors were used nicely especially red and there were smart references about Ancient Egypt including lashes for the workers who built the Pyramides, a reference to the missing nose of the Sphinx and some more stuff. Still, all this cannot make up for the lack of a good story in my opinion. Not recommended.

Jarman's early avant-garde experiment in "Garden of Luxor" is a strange, interesting experience though not as gripping or ground-breaking as his future films would become. It took me more than one view to actually form an idea of what this could be; and the first time it left me empty and disappointing cause I didn't feel anything and art, above comprehending, is mostly about feeling, any kind of sensation. It grew on me a little afterwards.At first, it seems like the film tells us about a garden of pleasures with awkward characters enjoying themselves in their dreams and images of lust and gluttony, whether having a lovely moment laying on the ground (the only clear image of the picture, a young guy that later on appears to be wearing a dress); or the man with a whip destroying the plants from the garden - matching with the image of a woman's face that keeps teasing a man; whipping the garden as if doing with the woman. Further on, Jarman moves with this and goes to superimpose images of the pyramids, Egypt, a noseless man, and a war going on. Luxor, a great Epgtyian city known as the world's greatest open-air museum, is probably thrown in there as well. Or perhaps it's Jarman's idea of it.That's the great thing about art; it provides with plenty of questions, one after another and doesn't need, in fact, to answer any of that. That's life as well. You can try to figure out what's it all about and there's infinite possibilities. And to get close to what the artist first conceived, well, that's a tricky one and a hard one. Maybe you'll get close. I liked this experience even though I think the director was just playing and making a quirky mix of elements that doesn't add much to anything. He was a lot better when he was doing those transgressions in masterpieces like "Caravaggio", "The Last Of England" or "Sebastiane", when he had a solid basis to compose his art and make his outstanding flights of imagination. He's more compelling in those films that in this random collage. Nevermind this words. Watch for yourself. You'll probably get it more than I did. In the end, it's quite enjoyable. 6/10