Sebastiane

Derek Jarman's debut feature film created a firestorm of controversy over its frank portrayal of homosexuality, violence, and the ultimate martyrdom of the Catholic saint Sebastiane in 303 A.D. A visually striking fantasy, SEBASTIANE begins at the court of Emperor Diocletian in an unforgettable sequence of Roman excess and Bacchanalian sexuality. Similar in tone to the opening sequence to Ken Russell's THE DEVILS, which Jarman designed in 1971, the film is also reminiscent of the orgiastic fantasies of Federico Fellini's SATYRICON and Cecil B. DeMille's THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. (Jarman was conscious of these similarities--a Roman soldier in the film, dreaming of the golden era of Rome, mentions "Cecilli Mille" and "Phillistini's Satyricon.") Accused of standing up for a Christian, Sebastiane (Leonardo Treviglio), friend of the emperor and captain of his guard, is demoted to mere soldier and banished from Rome to a coastal outpost. This remote place proves to be both a barren wasteland and an oasis of freed...