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Summary: This
film is director Derek Jarman's adaptation and interpretation of what may
have been Shakespeare's final play. Jarman radically reinterprets what is
presented in Shakespeare's dramatic text. Jarman's Prospero seems to
manipulate the whole scheme of revenge and restoration, but characters and
events threaten to go beyond the control of the internal director
Prospero
The film is set on a barren island where Prospero
on his 19th century clothing resides in his ghostly Stoneleigh Abbey.
Ariel's presence symbolizes Prospero's desire and unconscious. Ariel's
performance of the tempest that shipwrecks the king and his men is seen in
Prospero dream, and this dream becomes a nightmare that wakes him up.
Caliban's abrupt laugh and swallowing of raw eggs,
while speaking lines from Shakespeare's text, draws our attention to his
attempts to destroy Prospero's plan: by distaining Miranda's virginity
Caliban may people his island and perpetuate his race. Without Miranda
Prospero could never succeed with his plans for restoration. Caliban intends
to subvert those plans by showing the possibility of eating Prospero's royal
seed, but this subversive power is only temporary.
The heir apparent Ferdinand, separated from his
father King Alonso and others, reaches the shore naked, carrying only a
sword. He goes to Prospero's house to get warm near the hearth and falls
asleep. Prospero wakes him up and threatens him with a sword; the
patriarchal manifestation, suggested by the sword, now seems to be taken by
Prospero. Prospero even downgrades Ferdinand to a servant: "this is a
Caliban." Caliban is happy to see Ferdinand as a slave; he plays a musical
instrument when Prospeo is locking up Ferdinand and ordering him to
work.
At a different spot on the shoreline the king and
his men fall asleep, except Sebastian and Antonio. The two conspire to
murder and take the place of the king, but Ariel calls out to the king and
others to wake them up. Prospero tells and shows Miranda the history of
their family by use of his magic staff, emphasizing their orthodoxy and
royal position, while at the same time Caliban stands silently and
motionlessly behind them.
At yet another place on the shore, the sailor
Trinculo and the cook Stephano meet Caliban. Caliban expresses his
humbleness and obedience to them, and he tells them how his island was
robbed by Prospero. The three form a revolutionary team and march toward
Prospero's house. In the house Ariel asks Prospero about his liberty.
Prospero recalls Ariel's memory of the tyrannical Sycorax, who is presented
in a scene from the past as a smoking, fat, naked woman, breast-feeding
Caliban and enslaving Ariel. By demand from Prospero, Ariel performs magic,
first, creating the sound of a hound to scare off Caliban's drunk rebel,
and, second, playing attractive, sweet music to Alonso and his men as dwarfs
tease them. Then Alonso and others are cast into a spell in which they are
imprisoned and fall asleep.
The wedding of Miranda and Ferdinand opens with
dance music and a sailors' circle dance, which is performed in front of the
still-sleeping king and others. When the dance and the music are stopped,
Prospero wakes them up, and they are reconciled. Alonso blesses the marriage
of Ferdinand and Miranda. Ariel then is allowed to go free into the
elements. Walking through the chorus line of sailors, the veteran black
musical comedy star Elizabeth Welch sings "Stormy Weather."
The last scene presents Ariel on Prospero's throne
while Prospero is sleeping at the table, and then Ariel runs and disappears
while singing. Prospero delivers the epilogue: "life is rounded with sleep."
His desires seem not to be gone with Ariel's liberty into elements. Jarman's
movie is a depiction of desire, power and revolt, presented as a space that
links reality and sleep.