History

Romance

Drama

Edward II

BBC Film

Working Title Films

British Screen Productions

Uplink

United Kingdom

Japan

English

Steven Waddington

Andrew Tiernan

Tilda Swinton

Nigel Terry

John Lynch

Dudley Sutton

Jerome Flynn

Jody Graber

Annie Lennox

Kevin Collins

Tony Forsyth

Jill Balcon

Barbara New

Andrea Miller

Brian Mitchell

David Glover

Andrew Charleson

John Quentin

Roger Hammond

Allan Corduner

Lloyd Newson

Nigel Charnock

Mark Davis

Andy Jeffrey

Barry John Clarke

John Henry Duncan

Thomas Duncan

Giles de Montigny

Jonathan Stables

Michael Watkins

Robb Dennis

Chris McHallem

David Oliver

Christopher Adamson

Danny Earl

Kim Dare

Kristina Overton

Trevor Skingle

Christopher Hobbs

Sandy Powell

Kate Temple

Andrew Lee Bolton

Liz Ranken

Renee Eyre

Sharon Munro

Daniel Bevan

Ian Francis

Tristam Cones

Jocelyn Pook

Abigail Brown

Sonia Slaney

Dinah Beamish

Derek Jarman

Christopher Marlowe

Stephen McBride

Ken Butler

Takashi Asai

Steve Clark-Hall

Simon Curtis

Sarah Radclyffe

Antony Root

Simon Fisher-Turner

Ian Wilson

George Akers

Ricky Eyres

CinemaSerf

The rights of kings may well have been divine in the fourteenth century, but that was only so long as you could carry the support of the church, your wife and the powerful nobles upon whom this whole game of political jenga was based. When Edward II (Steven Waddington) decides to tempt just about all of these pillars of support by openly parading his lover Gaveston (Andrew Tiernan) to his court, it seems to manage something that had hitherto be rare in his kingdom. It galvanised just about everyone into a position where the proper order had to be restored and the boyfriend sent into exile. Initially, the king tries to assert his authority and even reduces an archbishop (Dudley Sutton) to degradation, but with his wife (Tilda Swinton) and her powerful lover Mortimer (Nigel Terry) increasingly aware that the crown can be their’s with little risk of protest from anyone, things become distinctly perilous for the king and any who support him. Derek Jarman has heavily abridged Christopher Marlowe’s speculative play, and by mixing the aesthetics of the twentieth century with more contemporary ones, and by the very creative use of a soundtrack, he creates a visually stylised account of the ultimate in treason that I admit, I struggled to appreciate. I do recall seeing this first time around and being frankly rather bored. Thirty-odd years later I can probably appreciate the artistry rather better and my brain is better wired for the intensity of the dialogue, but it’s still a remarkably sterile interpretation of a story of treachery, brutality and lust. Sure, there’s nudity and simulated sex, but the rapport between Waddington and Tiernan was often akin to that of silent film actors working within the confines of some theatrical wings. The hybrid of production styles only really served to leave it dangling between two stools and the storytelling itself is sacrificed to the artifice too frequently, leaving us with a very skeletal take of this turbulent time in English history. Annie Lennox singing Cole Porter whilst the two, pyjama-clad, men have a dance is an intimate highlight but I’m afraid the rest is just too superficial.

Trailer

Best Movies

Edward II

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Steven Waddington

Andrew Tiernan

Tilda Swinton

Nigel Terry

John Lynch

Dudley Sutton

Jerome Flynn

Jody Graber

Annie Lennox

Kevin Collins

Box office

More Like This

Blackmail

The Poseidon Adventure

Bread and Tulips

Grease

Naimisiin päiväksi

Stalag 17

When Harry Met Sally...

Requiem for a Dream