Jubilee **** (1978, Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Jordan, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson, Adam Ant, Neil Kennedy, Jack Birkett, Jayne County, Richard O’Brien) – Classic Movie Review 4989

Co-writer/ director Derek Jarman’s amazing 1978 punk-rock anti-celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee is an original, outrageous, clever report of the state of the British nation in 1977. Jubilee was always a rousing, eye-opening movie, but what a brilliant time capsule it now is too.

The ingenious device for Jarman’s super show is a musical time-travel black comedy fantasy, with Jenny Runacre starring as the first Queen Elizabeth transported by her court magician/ astrologer to the 20th century and being appalled by the modern urban life she finds.

An extravaganza of shocks, extravagance, sex, drugs, punk rock, time travel, violence and nastiness, it is now endearingly old-fashioned and safely locked away in the time-warped po-going punk past.

The cast is bursting with exciting, big anti-culture names of the day. Also in the cast are Little Nell [Nell Campbell], Toyah Willcox, Hermine Demoriane, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson, Adam Ant, Jordan (as Amyl Nitrite), Linda Spurler, Richard O’Brien, Neil Kennedy, Orlando [Jack Birkett], Lindsay Kemp, David Haughton [David Brandon] as Ariel and Gene October.

Jordan sings ‘Rule Britannia’ and there is an innovative score from the great Brian Eno, with music by Suzi Pinns, Adam and the Ants, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Chelsea and Wayne [Jayne] County.

After becoming a star with Chariots of Fire (1981), Charleson sadly used to leave it off his resumé.

Jordan (aka Pamela Rooke): ‘Punk, really, died for me when the Pistols split up. It couldn’t have gone on. It was like an orgasm, there were a few seconds then… pfft.’

Toyah Willcox, who plays Mad in the film, played Queen Elizabeth and Bod in a stage version in November 2017 at Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre.

The film’s style and presentation are totally influenced by the late-1970s punk aesthetic but Jarman is critical of punk’s fascination with stupidity, petty violence and fascism, so the film was not entirely popular in British punk circles, and Vivienne Westwood denounced the film and what she saw as Jarman’s misrepresentations of punk.

The script, written by Jarman and Christopher Hobbs, is freewheeling, largely plotless and episodic. London was a different place back then. Incredibly, in 1978 many London areas were still economically depressed and had large amounts of rubble left over from the London Blitz, so Jarman takes advantage of that in his location filming, shooting in grainy colour.

Jubilee has rightly established itself a cult classic and was released by the Criterion Collection.

The  cast are Jenny Runacre as Queen Elizabeth I / Bod, Little Nell as Crabs, Toyah Willcox as Mad, Jordan as Amyl Nitrate, Hermine Demoriane as Chaos, Ian Charleson as Angel, Karl Johnson as Sphinx, Linda Spurrier as Viv, Orlando as Borgia Ginz, Wayne County as Lounge Lizard, Richard O’Brien as John Dee, Adam Ant as Kid, Helen Wellington-Lloyd as lady-in-waiting, Claire Davenport as First Customs Lady, Barney James as Policeman, Lindsay Kemp as Cabaret performer, Gene October as Happy Days, David Haughton as Ariel, Siouxsie Sioux as herself, and Steven Severin.

Pamela Rooke (23 June 1955 – 3 April 2022) took the single name Jordan at the age of 14, in Seaford.

Pamela Rooke, also known as Jordan and Jordan Mooney (23 June 1955 – 3 April 2022).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4989

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Derek Jarman (1942–1994).