The Angelic Conversation is a 1985 arthouse

Art film

An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...

 drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...

. Its tone is set by the juxtaposition of slow moving photographic images and Shakespeare's sonnets

Shakespeare's sonnets

Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. All but two of the poems were first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.: Never before imprinted. Sonnets 138 and 144...

 read by Judi Dench

Judi Dench

Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...

. The film consists primarily of images of homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 and opaque landscapes through which two men take a journey into their own desires.

Jarman himself described the film as:

"a dream world, a world of magic and ritual, yet there are images there of the burning cars and radar systems, which remind you there is a price to be paid in order to gain this dream in the face of a world of violence."

The soundtrack to the film was composed and performed by Coil

Coil (band)

Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...

, and it was released as an album of the same title. In 2008 Peter Christopherson

Peter Christopherson

Peter Martin Christopherson, a.k.a. Sleazy was a musician, video director and designer, and former member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis....

 of Coil (with David Tibet

David Tibet

David Tibet is a British poet and artist who founded the music group Current 93, of which he is the only full-time member. He had earlier collaborated with Psychic TV and 23 Skidoo...

, Othon Mataragas

Othon Mataragas

OTHON, a.k.a. Othon Mataragas , is a Greek composer, songwriter and pianist.-Early life:Othon Mataragas started to play the piano at the age of four and the following year he gave his first recital...

 and Ernesto Tomasini

Ernesto Tomasini

Ernesto Tomasini is an Italian actor/singer/writer living in Britain. Best known for his more recent forays into contemporary music, he has behind himself a 20 year career on the stage.-Early performances:...

) performed a new live soundtrack to the movie during a special screening at the Turin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

Shakespeare's sonnets

14 sonnets the film features are:

Sonnet LVII Sonnet 57 Sonnet 57 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man. It represents to many a standard.-Interpretations:... Being your slave, what should I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your desire? Sonnet XC Sonnet 90 Sonnet 90 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.-Synopsis:... Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now, Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross, Sonnet XLIII Sonnet 43 Shakespeare's Sonnet 43 employs antithesis and paradox to highlight the speaker's yearning for his beloved and sadness in his absence, and confusion about the situation described in the previous three sonnets.-Paraphrase:... When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, For all the day they view things unrespected; Sonnet LIII Sonnet 53 Shakespeare's Sonnet 53, presumably addressed to the same young man as the other sonnets in the first part of the sequence, raises some of the most common themes of the sonnet: the sublime beauty of the beloved, the weight of tradition, and the nature and extent of art's power.-Paraphrase:What are... What is your substance, whereof are you made, That millions of strange shadows on you tend? Sonnet CXLVIII Sonnet 148 -Notes and references:*... O me, what eyes hath love put in my head, Which have no correspondence with true sight! Sonnet CXXVI Sonnet 126 Sonnet 126 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's the final member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet shows how Time and nature coincide.... O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle hour, Sonnet XXIX Sonnet 29 Sonnet 29 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. This is one of his more ambiguous sonnets: one does not know who the speaker is referring to or if the word "love" in this sonnet refers to a romantic love or a platonic love.- Structure of Sonnet 29... When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state,

EWLINE Sonnet XCIV Sonnet 94 Sonnet 94 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.-Commentary:... They that have power to hurt and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show Sonnet XXX Sonnet 30 Shakespeare's Sonnet 30, one of his most famous, is a reflection on sad memories reconciled by the realization of the gift he has in his friend. A phrase from the second line of this sonnet has achieved a worldwide circulation in the literature of the twentieth century, with its concern with time:... When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, Sonnet LV Sonnet 55 Sonnet 55 is one of the best and most critically acclaimed sonnets of the 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.... Not marble nor the gilded monuments Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme, Sonnet XXVII Sonnet 27 Sonnet 27 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards another person. Sonnet 27 is Shakespeare's only pangrammic sonnet.... Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tired Sonnet LXI Sonnet 61 Sonnet 61 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.-External links:**... Is it thy will, thy image should keep open My heavy eyelids to the weary night? Sonnet LVI Sonnet 56 Sonnet 56 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.... Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said Thy edge should blunter be than appetite, Sonnet CIV Sonnet 104 Sonnet 104 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.-Synopsis:... To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I ey'd

Cast

• Dave Baby
• Timothy Burke
• Simon Costin
• Christopher Hobbs
  Christopher Hobbs
  Christopher Hobbs is an English experimental composer, best known as a pioneer of British Systems music.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Philip McDonald
• Toby Mott
  Toby Mott
  Toby Victor Mott is a British artist,designer and sometime Punk historian known for his work with the Grey Organisation, an artists' collective that was active in the 1980s, and for his fashion brand Toby Pimlico...
  
  
• Steve Randall
• Robert Sharp
• Tony Wood
• Judi Dench
  Judi Dench
  Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
  
   (Narrator)
• Paul Reynolds

• Phillip Williamson