Next month, Kino Lorber will bring both Sebastiane and The Tempest to Blu-ray. Viewed together, these two films help detail the creative and intellectual experimentations of acclaimed British filmmaker Derek Jarman (The Last of England).
From Kino's official synopses:
Sebastiane -
"Stripped of rank and exiled to a remote Sardinian outpost, Roman soldier and suspected Christian Sebastian (Leonardo Treviglio, Titus) becomes the object of his commanding officer's aggressive desire. As Sebastian turns his back on his fellow soldiers in favor of his own mystical longings, his sun-bleached Mediterranean idyll becomes a psycho-sexual hothouse where lust sets the stage for a shocking tableau of death and martyrdom."
The Tempest -
"[This] acclaimed 1979 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's final great play...is the story of Prospero the magician (Heathcote Williams, Basic Instinct 2), who lives with his nubile daughter (Toyah Willcox, Quadrophenia) on an enchanted island and punishes his enemies when they are shipwrecked there. Essentially a study of sexual and political power in the guise of a fairy tale, in Jarman's hands, The Tempest becomes an original and dazzling spectacle mixing Hollywood pastiche, high camp, and gothic horror."
Kino's individual Blu-rays present the two films in their original aspect ratios - 1.66:1 for Sebastiane, 1.37:1 for The Tempest - with LPCM monaural tracks. While Sebastiane has no bonus supplements, The Tempest contains the following:
Three short films by Derek Jarman:
A Journey to Avebury (1971)
Garden of Luxor (1972)
Art of Mirrors (1973)
Both Sebastiane and The Tempest street on August 7th.
