Sebastiane (1976) User Reviews (25)

Killing the One We Can't Have

[nycritic · 7/10 · 14 April 2006]

It's funny how only now, over twenty years after coming out, I've been able to have access to SEBASTIANE, the movie that once upon a time in a sheltered country such as Dominican Republic, was, aside from MAURICE, the ice-breaker that would identify two gay men to each other in a non-gay environment. Seeing it now I can understand how in the mid-80s (or when it came out in 1976) this would have been one of those films so controversial even the act of lifting the sleeve off the video shelf meant (if you weren't out) you first had to look to the left, to the right, and over your shoulder to make sure no one was looking. Such is the power of a film like this: no disguised theme, no hints of the "other sexuality" -- this is homosexuality at its frankest and cruelest.

The story of the love-hate relationship between Sebastiane and a Severus, a Roman centurion, and its consequences. It's shot in an entirely realistic setting even when it bears a loose plot thread, but this is Derek Jarman's tendency to focus on style over substance. While there were times when I wondered what would the purpose of such a story be the theme of unrequited love/lust wasn't lost on me: Sebastiane is an outsider, with brooding looks, and an aura about him that sets him apart from his fellow comrades who spend their time engaged in trivial hedonism. Severus is smitten by him, lusts at him from a distance, and then decides to submit him to torture after torture because of the indifference, then rejection, he suffers. (This is a reflection of a dance sequence seen at the start of the film in which a dancer is "sacrificed" to the lust of a group of dancers.)

Derek Jarman's movie seems to be less a straightforward narration instead of a contemplative poem of a homo-social society where women are absent, and men are allowed to engage in intimacy with one another. It's on occasion a slow movie because of this and by today's values could even be considered a little cheesy here and there, especially in the slow-motion sequence when Severus observes Sebastiane take a shower. Is Sebastiane provoking him by showering like that or is this Severus' gaze taking in all of Sebastiane's body? One wouldn't know had it been for another scene, that of Anthony and Adrian, lovers in the open, again observed by Severus's point of view. These two scenes make Severus less a flat villain and closer to a man desperately love with a man he cannot have, a man who is, essentially, a tease.

Not a movie that will appeal to everyone, but one that has, due to its release and presence in video stores, and due to its director's prominence, opened the doors to more films of this kind which have their own audience and acceptance whether they are contemporary classics or exercises in homoerotic cheese. Derek Jarman accelerated conscious, gay film-making by decades at a time when a "gay presence" was little more than a shadow or something to be laughed at or pitied (as with the advent of AIDS and AIDS-themed films). You have to admire a man who, having died of the disease, decided to "get up and do something" instead of wallowing in maudlin. There hasn't been anyone quite like him, but hopefully, that will change.

Queer Cinema Classic

[momorguci · 7/10 · 18 May 2006]

Atmospheric, lyrical, experimental, and with a distinctly queer gaze, Sebastiane is a must for those interested in gay cinema. The film explores the myth behind St. Sebastian whose paintings and imagery have always been linked to queerness as he was one of the only male figures to be sexualized, a rare occurrence, with his naked arrowed chest.

Sebastiane, a Christian, is exiled to a remote sort of military camp. The emphasis as has been said is clearly on the visual.The air permeates and oozes of sexual desire and longing. Soldiers are half naked throughout, often wrestling, joking, and talking a lot about sex. Sebastiane, stands apart because of his Christian beliefs, and the film explores the sado masochism inherent in martyrdom, the pleasure the pain brings, further strengthening his convictions. Sebastiane believes strongly in a higher power and the film itself seems em bused with a spirituality in its slow contemplative shots of nature. The film also deals heavily with unrequited love, both Justin and Severes have an eye for Sebastiane but express it in very different ways. There is also a gay couple among the soldiers whose love is tender and natural. Jarman has a distinct "voice", his films and imagery feel deeply personal and are generally in my opinion fascinating to watch.

Beautiful movie

[gabriela-12 · 7/10 · 4 August 2005]

I just found in a Spanish DVD shop this movie. I had seen Edward II and found it odd, but yet interesting. Sebastiane was made in Latin, because Jarman thought strange to be watching a movie about Romans that spoke English. I think it was wise and seductive. The story runs in a smooth way, as if someone with a camera (perhaps thanks to a Time machine,)was hiding to catch those moments. I can't find the scandalous issue here. I find quite natural that between a bunch of men exiled from the city of Rome, violence and desire could rise. Love (and love resistance, and violence and non violence. These are the arguments. I think Jarman made a beautiful movie, sensible, of religious meaning in the case of Sebastiane, and of love and frustration in the case of the Captain. The film reminds me absolutely Golding's "Lord of the flies", as the situation is similar. The film probably lacks passion or interior force, but this was only Jarman's first movie. I recommend this movie as I would Pasolini's "Edipo": I think both movies or perhaps the two director's sensibilities are in touch here.

The "Gone With the Wind" of homoerotic fantasies

[dinky-4 · 11 July 2003]

It's surprising more comments haven't been posted for this production which, at the time of its original release, created quite a stir. Perhaps the film's failure to create a continuing subgenre of imitators is to blame, but then, that makes it a one-of-a-kind effort and efforts of this sort deserve remembering as well.

Looking back on the film from more than a quarter of a century, it seems clear that normal criteria concerning story, dialog, and character simply don't apply here. Instead, one must simply view it as a feverish, almost hallucinogenic fantasy drenched with homoerotic, sadomasochistic imagery that is played out against a sun-drenched dreamscape on the Sardinian coast. Think of it as a high-class photo shoot for an avant-garde fashion magazine specializing in loincloths and Roman military paraphernalia.

Having the dialog spoken in Latin can be dismissed as a "gimmick" but actually it adds to the film's air of mystery and unreality. If only some of the anachronisms could have been avoided!

Considering the possibilities, there's surprisingly little sex here, though it's a subject often discussed and, indeed, the whole film is imbued with an air of desire and yearning. On the other hand, there's a plethora of bondage and torture. Leonardo Treviglio, who plays the title character and who spends most of the movie in no more than a loincloth, is hanged by his wrists and flogged, burned with a flame, staked out spreadeagle-style under the scorching sun, and finally shot full of arrows. Curiously, his most memorable torment is also the simplest. Barney James, playing the commanding officer who's torn by conflicting emotions, takes a handful of sand and grinds it into Treviglio's bare torso, blurring the lines between pleasure and pain, between lust and longing. It's a memorable moment in a movie that is now half-forgotten ... like one of those dreams which fade from the mind after you awaken, even though you try to recall the details.

Brutal and Sensuous

[rava-1 · 7/10 · 24 February 2006]

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?

Comparisons

[aarmese2004 · 9/10 · 20 January 2005]

Remember seeing this film on the big screen in an art film house in Ottawa while I was a student in Visual Arts two decades ago. Absolutely loved it and have pretty clear recollection of most of it, it's amazing! I was a bit blinded by some of the homo-erotic content and had no idea that Jarman would go on to make a number of art-house films, many also dealing with homosexual texts such as Carravagio, a painter I absolutely love as well as Edward the Second, film version of Christopher Marlowe's play of the fay king of England. The acting in Sebastiane may seem stilted but that also might be due to the fact that many of the actors were amateurs; the Latin for me also lent an aura of authenticity since I studied Latin in high-school for five years. The historical accuracy of the life of Sebastian, the saint, was more correct than most of the hagiographies of his life. The settings were perfect, the depictions quite accurate, the drunken scenes were real because they really were drunk. The hand held quality of the film was a pioneering method of filming that also lends to the realism of the period. All in all a wonderfully creative, even innovative, stylised film that I remind to those who enjoy auteur and art-house plus homo-erotic movies. The sound track was done by Brian Eno and was released separately as "Music for a Movie". This is the only part of the film that strikes me as incongruous but somehow the moody style set by Eno's pioneering electronic music does work. Needless to say that Jarman's short filmography is to my mind very impressive.

Successful on its own terms

[gsygsy · 7/10 · 17 February 2014]

Derek Jarman was, like his contemporary Peter Greenaway still is, a visual artist working in film. The usual obsessions of the movie industry didn't occupy him overmuch. Psychology, character development, narrative, plot - all those were secondary considerations, if they were considered at all. The main preoccupation was the expressive power of the the image. To those of us reared on conventional, industrial cinema, this makes Jarman's (and Greenaway's) work both refreshing and frustrating in equal measure.

SEBASTIANE is not, then, a conventional film. It would be misleading to assess it in conventional terms. At times it is jokey, revelling in its low budget and independent spirit. At other times, it is so beautiful it takes your breath away. And at other times it seems to crawl along, with dull acting beneath a luxuriously blue Sardinian sky.

Leonardo Treviglio is a stunning, intense Sebastian, a Renaissance painting come to life. As his tormentor Severus, Barney James successfully conveys frustration and bewilderment behind his icy-grey eyes. Richard Warwick (probably the best known actor, having made a mark as one of the young rebels in Lindsay Anderson's IF...) is quietly impressive as Sebastian's only friend in the outpost. A lot is required of Neil Hamilton as the gruff Maximus, which is a pity because he is unconvincing enough to be a distraction.

Personally, I think SEBASTIANE succeeds as a cinematic study of the isolation at the centre of martyrdom. It doesn't indulge in psychological speculation. It simply depicts some of the temptations, struggles, and sufferings involved. The sensuality of the lives of the other soldiers is at odds with the kind of life Sebastian wants to live. Jarman and his co-director (and editor) Paul Humfress show all this with great clarity.

However, one of the side-effects of such clarity is emotional detachment. We watch as if the film were an installation in an art gallery. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you remember that's what you're looking at. Otherwise you might emerge from SEBASTIANE thinking that it's a failure, a halfway-house between an art-film and a porn-movie. For me, though, it's pretty successful on its own terms. And because it was a pioneering piece of film-making in other ways (Latin dialogue, gay lovemaking, self-conscious anachronisms), SEBASTIANE will always have a place in cinema history.

Sebastiane

[lasttimeisaw · 4/10 · 24 June 2012]

My second film of Derek Jarman, his feature-length debut co-directed with Paul Humfress, it was quite a talking-point and a rousing art film in light of firstly, it speaks entirely in Latin and secondly, the interpretation of the anecdote of Saint Sebastiane was quite a stir and prompted some severe controversy at the time when it being released owing to a blatant male nudity exposure, and it brazenly features many homo-erotic scenes. And afterward, the film's notoriety has never ceased to prevail, especially considering the untimely decease of Derek Jarman.

In my instant response, with its gritty fiber, the film bears a resemblance of a dated pornography, an astonishing gambit is the opening dancing sequence of Lindsay Kemp with his troupe, which is both campy and filthy. Soon the film takes a prompt locale changeover to an arid desert where Sebastiane and other soldiers are being exiled, with a non-female premise, the masculinity carries the day, the camera lingers on the sinewy male bodies restlessly (not only Sebastiane, other soldiers are all model-designed male mannequins, maybe an OTT Neil Kennedy could not excluded by a strict criterion), slow-motions are strenuously pressed into service while two soldiers passionately caressing each other in the water. By contrast, the actors are plain numb and wooden, better serving as statues than line-readers which as if the lines are beyond their comprehension, actually the use of Latin is a ballyhoo to the max.

For me Derek Jarman has so far become an odd number to appreciate, after a throbbing viewing of CARAVAGGIO (1986, an encouraging 8/10), regrettably, SEBASTIANE backfires much stronger than I would expect, a low 4 out of 10 bursts out of my heart without any wavering.

Derek Jarman's lovingly erotic & humanist vision of St Sebastian

[alitosca · 10/10 · 29 July 2008]

I first saw this when it came out in 1976 & had almost forgotten it. Derek Jarman's first feature film & one of his superlative creations. Intensly erotic and shot with loving attention to the beauty of the male body. The seemingly endless stretches of white sand create an idyllic & almost dreamlike atmosphere. However it also acts as a stark backdrop, that forces our attention onto the only too realistic actions & emotions of this isolated group of soldiers.

The characters are complex and cannot be just categorised into "good" & "evil". Even Severus has repressions which have festered into hatred by being internalised. Saint Sebastian shines on his journey towards piety & to the iconic image of his body pierced with arrows. But Jarman always retains the realistic humanity of this playful, loving and courageous character.

Don't want to harp on the bodies beautiful, but as a general comment it is a rarity to be able to enjoy the male nude. Male film-goers are oversupplied with boobs, bottoms & pubes, while women (half of humanity) usually have to make do with "tastefully posed" shots. Thank God for directors like Derek Jarman, Ken Russell, Pasolini, Fellini & most European film-makers who don't believe the audience will be struck dead if they see a penis.

An Enjoyable Period Piece

[Aulic Exclusiva · 7/10 · 7 April 2007]

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.

Hot days with sweaty bodies

[BILLYBOY-10 · 4/10 · 29 April 2008]

As soft porn erotica for soft porn erotica sake goes, this isn't a bad production. Obligatory hunks prancing around a remote seaside Roman political refugee camp in their diapers and assorted battle garb, these boys have too much time on their hands, so Roman sexual behavior being what it was in those days, there's a fair amount of male-male hanky panky going on plus the main story of the task master guard in(unrequited)love with the Christian pretty boy movie namesake: Sebastiane.

Well after much nothing but fondling and slo-mo body contact the story progresses to the grand finale which is obviously a play on our hero's name in relationship to biblical characters. Don't wanna have too many spoilers here, but if you have some time to kill and nothing better to do, might as well see what 30+ year old gay films passed off as historical drah-mah is all about.

9/10

[desperateliving · 9/10 · 25 April 2005]

Not being overly familiar with Bible stories or Christian history (and the fact that the opening rolling titles are impossible to read), the factuality of this film will escape me. But Jarman is a visual artist, and his film has more in common with the many paintings of Sebastian than it does with factual storytelling. Jarman's ornate decor can sometimes feel dull and bland -- his films can seem lifeless, bogged down by the set decoration. This calls to mind "Velvet Goldmine," a complex film I didn't care for, even though I love Todd Haynes; I want to like Jarman -- I love his books -- and this is the first film of his that I've been actively enthusiastic about. It has much more to do with sex than history; and it's apolitical and political at the same time.

Consider the film's approach to homosexuality. No one is defined as being a homosexual, so that at first seems like a de-politicization of sex -- all there are are acts, and acts are not political. But at the same time, it's acts that are disdained and made illegal, and without the "political" approach to defining (and thereby defending) people as homosexuals, it leaves the acts open to censorship and condemnation -- politicization. As a film itself, though, it is not pedantic or accusatory -- in fact, Sebastian is killed, it seems, because of the lust of Severus, who he refuses. Like the Christian God who Sebastian loves and sees as more beautiful than Adonis, Severus wants Sebastian. But it isn't just condemning lust, either -- Anthony and Adrian are openly lovers, and the abundance of male nudity, and the eroticism of it by Jarman, could hardly be called prudish. In fact, there is a scene at night of the men grabbing each other, their dark-lit bodies, and the soldier pressing his near-naked, muscled body on his lover, that still seems shocking in its passion today.

It's more like a lyrical tone poem, and Brian Eno's New Age-y score goes well with that. Jarman isn't a bully, and when the crucifying comes around he doesn't bludgeon us -- first we see a close-up of his face, as arrows pierce through Sebastian's skin, silently with the exception of the wind, and Jarman gives us one final distorted image to meditate on the death of the one we can't have. 9/10

A Meditation on the Masculine

[ekeby · 7/10 · 2 November 2006]

Despite not having grown up with Catholic iconography, as a gay man I knew that the paintings of St. Sebastian's martyrdom were considered by some to have homo erotic appeal. I have had to consult a saint's dictionary to find out exactly who the saint was, what he did, and why he's revered. The facts have little relevance to this film.

Jarman's Sebastiane seems to be an imagined back story of how homo eroticism might have come to be associated with the saint's imagery. The story's framework gives Jarman an opportunity to incorporate big themes into the film: persecution, alpha males, authority, love, unrequited love, devotion, loyalty, idealism, morality, and group dynamics. Religion, not so much. These themes are not editorialized, necessarily, other than being woven into the daily lives of a small group of Roman soldiers living in an isolated outpost.

While Sebastiane's Christianity is the reason he is persecuted by his comrades, Sebastiane does not evangelize. His Christianity, in the few instances he articulates it, seems to be a jumble of spiritual and erotic love for the Christian god and the god Apollo. Sebastiane's ideals also seem to be somewhat muddled. After a lengthy group training session with mock sword fights, he throws down his weapon and declares that Christians don't fight. His participation in the practice fight and his sudden refusal to continue don't make any logical sense; perhaps the scene is meant to be a metaphor for a gay man refusing to act straight any longer.

The whole movie is, of course, somewhat of a rumination about what it means to be a gay man and outside of the mainstream of male sexuality. It acknowledges that being male includes same sex activity, but it also makes it clear that exclusive same sex activity, especially if there is sentiment attached, is considered aberrant. In other words it's okay for straight males to screw each other, but it's not okay for them to love each other.

The film is often cited as an exercise in self-indulgent eroticism, and I'd agree it leans in that direction. The naked men are not hard to look at, especially the extraordinarily sexy Ken Hicks. There is a long slow-motion scene of him frolicking with his lover that would not be out of place as an introductory sequence in any '70s gay porn movie. I can understand intellectually why it deserves to be included, but I think the film would have been stronger--and taken more seriously--if those kinds of scenes had been minimized.

I found the end of the film somewhat unsatisfactory. Sebastiane's martyrdom looks more like target practice than an execution. I think that Jarman's having each soldier in turn shoot Sebastiane with an arrow was meant to symbolize something, but whatever it was eluded me. By stretching it out, the scene lost its power. I suppose it was done that way to emphasize the origin of the familiar homo erotic imagery of the saint, but it didn't feel right to me.

This film is required viewing for any student of gay cinema.

Not a good movie.

[filius_angelorum · 1/10 · 13 July 2007]

DO NOT watch this movie. First, it is historically and hagiographically empty. It's image of Sebastian dates from perhaps the Renaissance and has little resemblance to the actual story of the title character. Just because a painting has become a gay icon does not mean that one should make a movie about a real individual who was NOT a gay icon. Second, it displays the very problem with most movies about homosexuality: namely, that they all have to contain a lot of gay sex. This is quite ridiculous. We watched this movie in our "Latin in Modern Mass Media" class for College. The Latin itself was hardly impressive, and seemed far too influenced by British grammars and barely qualified script-writers. It didn't even seem to be using the colloquial form of Latin common to that time period.

A Masterpiece of Love and Tragedy

[Papacy24 · 14 November 2015]

The film is a gem in the global history of LGBT cinema, partly for the reason it doesn't promote self-shaming. While the life of St. Sebastiane is portrayed in a partly fictitious manner, certain traditions and beliefs ingrained in the culture of the Roman Empire are honestly depicted. Same-sex love was still prevalent during the Early Christian Era of Rome. It was not perceived to be an act against religious faith for at the time even aristocratic men who were married were still respected if having been discovered to partake in sexual intercourse with male servants. Women played a submissive, domestic role. They were thus regarded as merely a means to produce male children. There was no religious scripture condemning homosexuality or same-sex love at the time. Society had not evolved to the point in which it would began to shame itself for possessing natural tendencies until polytheism became extinct in the Early Medieval Era.

The military culture in the film is rustic, aggressive, bold and hyper masculine. All scenes contain soldiers wearing a loincloth or nothing at all. The climate of the region is very hot. No character is modest in displaying combat skills, love and affection for another. The troop's constant disdain for any tradition/belief contrary to their own is a recurring theme.

Sebastiane becomes the target of the troop's aggressive nature, willingly embracing his persecution. It comes across as a Christian being devoured by a lion in the Roman Colosseum. The troop stationed in a desolate spot on the coast of the Italian peninsula ridicules, tortures and eventually executes Sebastiane for refusing to relinquish his chastity and adherence to the new faith. It may be perceived that he was mistreated for rejecting his station in life, though at the time anyone who joined the military did not think twice about giving up arms for a peaceful life. Sebastiane would have participated in warfare if the Emperor commanded it.

In 3rd Century Imperial Rome, Christianity and Polytheism were in conflict, resulting in reigns marked by global adherence for polytheism or peace between different religious communities. During Sebastiane's life, Christianity was still a minority religion. It was treated as a threat to the security of the Empire. Anyone who openly practiced the faith was executed. Churches built were destroyed for the construction of temples. The Emperor was unwilling to show leniency towards anyone who contested his divine authority.

There is only one soldier who regards Sebastiane as a friend: Justin. Even though they don't become lovers, they are bound to one another through mutual trust and compassion. Justin is willing to listen to Sebastiane's viewpoints and knowledge of Jesus Christ. When watching his friend dance he is enraptured by graceful movement. He acts as a barrier between Sebastiane and the troop. Without Justin's diligent protection, Sebastiane would have been executed early on in his punishment.

It is somewhat of an irony that despite Commander Severus' multiple attempts to subdue his defiant soldier, he appears indifferent to Sebastiane's devotion to Jesus Christ. He threatens to kill him if he does not reciprocate his advances. He is after all, a mere man stranded in an area far from civilization. Alcoholism ruins his self- restraint, though Sebastiane does not succumb to anger or hatred. He takes this injustice in stride for his faith teaches him to show compassion towards the flaws of a person.

The film equates nudity with misery. When someone is miserable, a person can easily see it. His life is consuming him mercilessly so no effort to hide it is made. The men are nude for their violence, internal conflict, masculinity and love for one another are the interlocking factors of the story. Nudity emphasizes the relationship between these things. It gives the audience a message that human nature in Imperial Rome is truly understood if one takes away the subtlety and ambiguity redundantly utilized in the artistic portrayal of this historical period.

It would be amiss to not mention that that nudity in a Mediterranean climate was considered reasonable during the summer season amongst cloistered men. Being fully clothed was just foolishness. If no woman is in sight, a man would not feel uncomfortable in taking his clothes off. He is surrounded by friends whom he trusts and shares a bond with.

I commend the late Director Derek Jarman for instructing his entire cast to speak in Latin. There are only a handful of films in Post- modernist Cinema that are entirely produced in classical language. Latin much like Sanskrit, is viewed as a dead language, thus Derek Jarman's effort to present Imperial Roman culture as accurate as possible is dignified.

Hasn't lasted well

[Shuggy · 6/10 · 17 November 2007]

This film made a big impression on me when it was new and I was semi-closetted to myself. It was progress that nobody was defined as gay or strait but same-sex love was normal and accepted. The sado-masochistic details, like Sebastian's tempting of Severus, passed over my head.

Seeing it again, it hasn't aged well. The casual nudity's been overtaken by acres, reams and years of gay porn (but the lovemaking in the water is still as lyrical as it was). The breech-clouts just look like nappies (diapers). The long, slow editing seems incredibly tedious (admittedly, 30 years of advertising has made us now expect several technical events per second). The Latin sounds stilted - someone should have told them they're not being tested, they don't have to articulate every syllable. But even discounting that and casting ourselves back to 1976, the drama seems both turgid and tepid. Someone said the execution is like target practice. (The bows are a joke.) A few well-placed words might have given it a lot more point.

To see it today, remove distractions, pour yourself a drink or something, let it wash over you, and it might make something like the original impression.

To be tortured is to reach salvation

[Dr_Coulardeau · 10/10 · 10 July 2014]

This film is not a religious film. But this film is not an anti- religious film. This film is about the rejection of a group of men banned out of society to some outlandish deserted area and what happens among them who have nothing to do and are under the command of an officer who is banned exactly the same way.

First they are obsessed by sex since it is the main human activity they cannot have, at least in a normal heterosexual way. So they live that sexual obsession in jokes, in some brutality, in some dreams or some homosexual surrogate activities. But even so hunting a wild pig and killing it, having fake fights with wooden weapons are definitely not enough to satisfy their frustrations and their desires. If you are the officer you can order one simple soldier to satisfy your sexual impulse, but otherwise we are in a plain case of playing or raping.

The film, apart from showing the homosexual relation between two soldiers reveals the fact that there are two Christians in the group and they are taken as scapegoats. One of them is Sebastian and he is tortured by the officer and by the soldiers because he refuses to fight because Christians do not fight. The officer takes a great pleasure in whipping him, torturing him day and night, tying him down in the sunshine for hours, trying to force him to accept to let him make love to him, and strangely enough he does not rape him though Sebastian refuses to service him. The soldiers do not touch him because he is the officer's prey, toy, possession. But they get even with the second Christian they torture physically just because he is a Christian. That is segregation and racism, hostility based on pure and simple religious rejection. The person who is not like you, who is different from you is a natural prey to your frustrations and compensations of these.

Then the killing of Sebastian the way it is known in Catholic and Christian folklore is of course staged by the officer who makes each man shoot one arrow at Sebastian and even the second Christian is forced to shoot his own arrow, and Sebastian is abandoned to die of his wounds in the sunshine.

But the film is targeting a far more important and universal theme. Anyone who is different is the potential victim of such persecution, and Derek Jarman is of course speaking of men who are gay in our society, at least in his society in 1976 and how they were rejected, ostracized, violated, raped, brutalized and even persecuted by the police. And beyond this sexual segregation the human species, hence humanity, has always cultivated segregation, persecution and apartheid against those they classify as different. The human species, hence humanity, is a segregative species. This is a deeply pessimistic vision but the evolution on such a subject is slow, very slow, and can take two steps forwards and three or four backwards just afterwards.

The most fascinating and strongest aspect of the film is the way Derek Jarman show suffering as being a beautiful experience. Sebastian transforms his torture into a direct contact with Jesus and God. He transforms the sun into the kiss of God. He finds his love in his being tortured, but his love goes to Jesus and God because his suffering is the proof of Jesus's and God's existence: they exist because he believes in them and because he is made to suffer because of this belief. His suffering casts his belief in bronze and Jesus and God in gold.

Then the plastic beauty of these bodies mostly nude or quasi-nude is just the mirage that Derek Jarman sends into our minds and our eyes: the mirage that the film is only about the beauty of male bodies, these bodies that are nothing but vanity because the only important thing is not the bodies of these men but their moral or ethical integrity, and then life and death are like the two sides of the same coin when you are a Christian. Life is dedicated to longing for death to rejoin the company of Jesus and God. And death is the escape door from the limited and locked up physical life into the eternal life of the soul in communion with God and Jesus, in absolute union with them. When we finally reach that understanding, that deep communion with man's spiritual dream and project, the fact that they are in the nude, undressed does not count any more We do not see it any more, or we do not feel any appeal in that nudity.

That's the real project of Derek Jarman: to make us reach beyond erotic or pornographic voyeurism to lift our souls and minds to the contemplation of purity in the midst of total perdition and sacrilege, perdition of human integrity and sacrilege of human perversity. This film should thus not be restricted because it is the most beautiful lesson of visionary enlightenment.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

moving meditation on dreamy eroticism and hard realism

[framptonhollis · 7/10 · 27 June 2018]

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.

Watchable.. Interesting..meh

[wbsimsjr-32405 · 3/10 · 19 June 2020]

I was "challenged" to watch some old "art" films by a friend.. This is a case were the passage of time has morphed opinions.. Just because a duck is 50 years old doesn't change the fact that it's still a duck.. This is just 70's late night XXX soft porn.. Though in 2020 what was considered risque in 1970 is now just a bunch of naked men and a camera.. Watch if Ya think Ya have to see it, but frankly it's not worth the time...

sebastiane

[rparker-14 · 10/10 · 6 November 2006]

as a piece of homo erotica ,it has never been surpassed simply because of its restraint , like all things the unspoken is stronger than the graphic,had Sebastian been raped everything would have been lost ,it is an examination of unrequited love and having the willpower to resist yet the Sebastian character ,leonardo treviglio perfectly cast for his sumptuous body ,seems to invite his fate by flaunting himself naked in front of the lust struck commander. The beautiful body of Sebastian in fact is the engine for this whole tragedy. the camera lingers over every detail of his form in a way that is almost a caress If he resists his would be lovers he does not resist their gaze or the cameras ,Sebastian from the outset separates himself from the rest of the garrison he bathes alone, he is bearded and does not shave his body or conceal his luxuriant pubic hair ,symbolically he is at one with nature and the god he worships.Pain worship is a route to his god that allows him to accept being spreadeagled whipped and sexually assaulted with a combination of pleasure and passivity.the exasperation of all concerned with his sullen separateness leads to his execution ,the execution scene where he is revealed completely naked,his substantantial genitals exposed as he is tied to a stake his arms above his head. This invites the callousness of his fellow soldiers. who take it in turns to injure him firing arrows into his vulnerable nakedness at close range rather than remain anonymous in a single line up,stand back to admire their handiwork as they contemplate the aroows piercing his body before deciding where to aim next Sebastian's response is a combination of passive and erotic posing, as the arrows pierce him his back arches in a sensuous curve, was there ever a more curvaceous male butt than treviglios and shown off in spectacular fashion as his buttocks thrust back against the stake he is bound to, the sensual pleasure he is receiving via his own demise revealed as Sebastian's penis becomes semi tumescent, jarman apparently would have liked this to have been a full erection to show sebatiane's sado masochistic

fulfilment in his own bloody death but the actor was suffering from heat stroke and needed medical attention, the message here is Sebastian got the painful orgasmic end he lusted for the rest of the garrison realising they have put this object of desire of reach stand aghast at what they have done .as a study of the destructive power of love and religion its never been bettered

Not for all sensibilities

[lucifer · 20 February 2000]

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.

Odd film, not for the conservative audience

[Stephan-Edwards · 15 April 2004]

"Sebastiane" is fairly unique in film history, at least prior to Gibson's "The Passion," for its exclusive (and historically correct) use of Latin. That said, it was also a ground-breaker for its sensitive and frank depiction of homosexual desire in a film intended for the non-pornographic market. Potential viewers should be aware that the same-sex sexual content is quite explicit, and that the film would have an NC-17 rating if released in the US today. The film was shot entirely on location in (if I recall correctly) North Africa, and the arid, nearly tree-less landscape lends itself to the storyline quite well. Costuming is minimal, limited to loincloths, helmets, greaves, and gauntlets. The acting is somewhat stiff, probably the result of speaking a "dead" language. But without question, if you are a fan of Derek Jarman and his work, this is a film that should not be missed, if you can find it. I have never seen it on any seller's lists in the US. My own tape of it was obtained in Europe.

Exit, pursued by a leopard-skinned man

[sandover · 10 October 2010]

I first saw "Sebastian" in my early twenties, eager to witness a film of the gay canon, but I was mostly disappointed: specially the ending, with its fish-eye distortion, was way too 70's for me, at the time a derogatory term in matters of cinematic taste.

I watched the film again today, some ten years later, and was hesitant whether it would be a philological, or an actual experience; it turned out the latter, even if of a mixed variety.

Right from the first shot Jarman informs us about - and with - his punk sensibility, mixing it with a sure, queer hand; but we should be quite attentive that this word - queer - is a complex matter for Jarman.

The film revolves around two unnerving short-circuits if you pay attention for it to become an apologetic - in the two senses of the word - piece of queer hagiography.

The first is the man with the leopard skin, to call him that. In his most striking appearance, he comes while Sebastian is delirious, arguably after a sun-stroke, about God's love, exemplified by the sun's caresses. I don't know if the text he recites is some sort of quotes, I am not informed on Sebastian's sayings and doings, but his sensuous, Christian speech strikes an uncanny note with the fact that the man in the leopard skin is a common depiction of Dionysus; is this a Nietszchean short-circuit between Apollo (who Sebastian names as the sun) and Dionysus, or a farewell to his pre-Christian past? We do not get an answer and this is poetically just.

The second is the more lighthearted and sly one. The gladiator-without-a-nose, seething with repressed homosexual feelings, apart from serving as a catalyst for Severus' own feelings, gets an unexpected treatment: in the scene where he babbles about Fellini's Satyricon and DeMille's decadence (and this is the actually pure and queer sensibility of the film) we sense Jarman makes a short circuit between garrulous film-goers interested in a gossipy manner in films and repressed gays. This is accurate and hilarious.

These two instances evacuate the film from any easy sense of queerness, or what actual side, if that matters, its maker is on. Is it on the side of lust? No, as Sebastian himself says and exemplifies: "Do you think your drunk lust will equal the love of God?" This is eloquent enough. But then, is it some sort of apologia for Christianity among deviant, bored, querulous soldiers? The Billy Budd turn does not elucidate matters either. For all it being obviously borrowed from Melville's story, it makes sense when we add it up to Max's, the gladiator-without-a-nose, seething repression (perhaps because he is the spineless spine of the film). Even the notorious slow-mo of the two lovers playing/fighting in the water is not that sensuous, but has an odd, generic quality about it; as if they were lovers out of being bored soldiers. I argue so because that scene was also patterned on a previous model, namely the groundbreaking "A very natural thing" appearing two years before Jarman's film, with the same aquatic play between lovers; only there it had a sense of paradise regained, not that suspending ambiguity (note also that these two lovers are dumbly obedient in performing Sebastian's tortures).

It is Sebastian himself, that I take as Jarman's misstep, and by that I do not mean in casting that specific actor as much as directing him into, to put it that way, passivity. He is too passive in order to validate his ordeal; we do not connect actively with him. Recalling Pasolini's naturals but not as engaging, he also has the wrong physique to convince us he is a lover of the sun.

On the other hand, even if it smells a bit too metaphysical, jumping a bit on our backs, the final, distorted shot is a master-stroke, in the best tradition of Mannerist painting, and succinctly says what it has to: now that Sebastian has died, we can look at everything, at a 360 degrees angle, and see nothing; now that his spirit is gone, Jarman conflates it with the gaze as object, to borrow a phrase from current film studies. Looking at everything at once is inscribed with a distortion, a grimace of the real. This distortion coincides with us looking from his position, and it is the conflation of the gaze and the holy body that gives the film its richness.

Eno's soundtrack with its spare, evocative tintinnabulation is apt punctuation for the film's genuine, gesturing spirituality.

special

[Kirpianuscus · 31 March 2016]

far to be a great movie, it is a significant piece from a special filmography. and testimony about a genre of sensitivity. because , after four decades, it is more strange than homo-erotic. its minimalism , the dialogs in a lost language, who seems gives authenticity, the story of a saint martyr who becomes victim of a mixture of lust and fury, the atmosphere and the provocative scenes are parts of a film who is , in fact, only a poem in image. because the story of Sebastiane , story of pure virtue against the desire of the other, has the admirable manner to reflect a form of delicacy . maybe that is the detail who saves Sebastiane by status of a film for gay. the last image of Leonardo Treviglio remains the sign of a not ordinary manner to present the fight for ideal.

About beauty

[Vincentiu · 25 January 2012]

far of a saint picture, with crumbs of Renaissence style, dark, aggressive, kitsch, grotesque, it is interesting, for vision of director. for exercise to say a story. for fragile poetry. and for definition of beauty in different colors, with strange instruments. like every picture, it is result of public. it may be porno movie, boring or trip in history, homage to a martyr or lost of time. it is not perfect and idea of masterpiece is more ambiguous. but the sacrifice of a military for who, in a empty place the sense is the Beauty is subtle lesson who repairs all the errors of script or acting. it is a religious film in a special form. behind definition and behind judgments. a sea in evening. silhouette of boat. and forest of arrows. and night fall. as kneeling.