Jubilee (1978 film)

Jubilee is a 1978 British drama from director Derek Jarman. Its cast includes Jenny Runacre, Ian Charleson, Nell Campbell, Hermine Demoriane, and numerous punk musicians. The film's name comes from the 1977 Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

The story follows Queen Elizabeth I, who is brought forward in time by the occultist John Dee and the spirit guide Ariel (from Shakespeare's *The Tempest*). She arrives in a decaying 1970s Britain and observes a group of nihilistic young women—Amyl Nitrate, Bod, Chaos, Crabs, and Mad—along with two incestuous bisexual brothers, Sphinx and Angel. Early on, Bod strangles Queen Elizabeth II in a random street robbery and takes her crown. The group moves through a series of violent and chaotic encounters: they asphyxiate a one-night stand, murder an androgynous rock star named Lounge Lizard, and attack a policeman. An impresario named Borgia Ginz signs Kid's band as "Scum," turning Westminster Cathedral and Buckingham Palace into music venues. After Sphinx, Angel, and Kid are killed during a police raid, the women take revenge on the officers. Ginz eventually takes the four women to a right-wing enclave in Dorset, where he signs them to a recording contract. Throughout, Dee, Ariel, and Elizabeth try to make sense of the modern anarchy before returning to the sixteenth century.

The film's style draws heavily on the punk aesthetic of the 1970s. It was shot in grainy color, has little traditional plot, and was filmed in London neighborhoods still marked by rubble from the Blitz or economic decline.

Reception was mixed. Ralph McLean of *The Irish News* called it "a heady brew of cold ultra-violence and future vision vitriol, offset by an uneven and occasionally amateurish way with storytelling." Derek Malcolm wrote that while it may not be a good film, its existence is a justification in the current climate. Lee Broughton of *PopMatters* noted that most punk viewers found little to relate to in the characters. Julian Upton of *Bright Lights Film Journal* said it "looks increasingly unsophisticated in its attempts to shock." Adam Scovell argued that despite its pessimism, the film shows a London that contrasts with today's bland, unaffordable city. David Pirie of *Time Out* felt several scenes stoop to juvenile theatrics, and the sexual inversion resembles a misogynist binge.