Originally trained as a painter, Derek Jarman eventually took on film as his primary medium, producing a number of influential experimental works. His final feature film, Blue, was originally inspired by French conceptual artist Yves Klein’s signature monochrome blue canvases, but the project took on a more perusal tone after Jarman was diagnosed with AIDS. Released a year before his death from AIDS-related complications, the film mimics the hue that his vision took on as it faded toward the end of his life. The static blue glow of the frame is overlaid by a soundtrack composed by British musician and actor Simon Fisher Turner, as well as a narrated mediation that associates blue with melancholy and infinity.
