name	Caravaggio
director	Derek Jarman
producer	Sarah Radclyffe
writer	Derek JarmanSuso Cecchi d'AmicoNicholas Ward-Jackson (story)
starring	Nigel TerrySean BeanTilda Swinton
music	Simon Fisher-Turner
cinematography	Gabriel Beristain
editing	George Akers
distributor	Cinevista (USA)
released	United States:August 29, 1986
runtime	93 minutes
country
language	English
budget	}}

''Caravaggio'' (1986) is a British film directed by Derek Jarman. The film is a fictionalized re-telling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Plot

Told in a segmented fashion, the film opens as Caravaggio (Nigel Terry) dies from lead poisoning while in exile, with only his long-time deaf-dumb companion Jerusaleme (Spencer Leigh) (who was given by his family to the artist as a boy) by his side. Caravaggio thinks back to his life as a teenage street ruffian (Dexter Fletcher) who hustles and paints. While taken ill and in the care of priests, young Caravaggio catches the eye of Cardinal Del Monte (Michael Gough). Del Monte nurtures Caravaggio's artistic and intellectual development but also appears to molest him.

As an adult, Caravaggio still lives under the roof and paints with the funding of Del Monte. Caravaggio is shown employing street people, drunks and prostitutes as models for his intense, usually religious paintings (see the article on the painter for examples). He is depicted as frequently brawling, gambling, getting drunk and is implied to sleep with both male and female models, including the male Jerusaleme and the female contortionist Pipo (Dawn Archibald). In the art world, Caravaggio is regarded as vulgar and entitled due to his Vatican connections.

One day, Ranuccio (Sean Bean), a street fighter for pay, catches Caravaggio's eye as a subject and potential lover. Ranuccio's also introduces Caravaggio to his girlfriend Lena (Tilda Swinton), who also becomes an object of attraction and a model to the artist. When both Ranuccio and Lena are separately caught kissing Caravaggio, each display jealousy over the artist's attentions. One day, Lena announces she is pregnant (although she doesn't state who the father is) and will become a mistress to the wealthy Scipione Borghese (Robbie Coltrane). Soon, she is found murdered by drowning. As the crying Ranuccio looks, Caravaggio and Jerusaleme clean Lena's body. Caravaggio is shown painting Lena after she dies and mournfully writhing with her nude body. Ranuccio is arrested for Lena's murder, although he claims to be innocent. Caravaggio pulls strings and goes to the Pope himself to free Ranuccio. When Ranuccio is freed, he tells Caravaggio he killed Lena so they could be together. In response, Caravaggio cuts Ranuccio's throat, killing him. Back on his deathbed, Caravaggio is shown having visions of himself as a boy and trying to refuse the priests giving him his last rites.

In keeping with Caravaggio's use of contemporary dress for his Biblical figures, Jarman intentionally includes several anachronisms in the film that don't fit with Caravaggio's life in the 16th century. In one scene, Caravaggio in a bar lit with electric lights. Another character is seen using an electronic calculator. Also, car horns are heard honking outside of Caravaggio's studio and, in one scene, Caravaggio is seen leaning on a green truck.

Details and Awards

''Caravaggio'' was the first time that Jarman worked with Tilda Swinton and was her first film role. The cook Jennifer Paterson was an extra. The production designer was Christopher Hobbs who was also responsible for the copies of Caravaggio paintings seen in the film. The film was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Silver Bear for an outstanding single achievement.

Cast

Noam Almaz as Boy Caravaggio

Dawn Archibald as Pipo

Sean Bean as Ranuccio

Jack Birkett as The Pope

Sadie Corre as Princess Collona

Una Brandon-Jones as Weeping Woman

Imogen Claire as Lady with the Jewels

Robbie Coltrane as Scipione Borghese

Garry Cooper as Davide

Lol Coxhill as Old Priest

Nigel Davenport as Giustiniani

Vernon Dobtcheff as Art Lover

Terry Downes as Bodyguard

Dexter Fletcher as Young Caravaggio

Michael Gough as Cardinal Del Monte

Jonathan Hyde as Baglione

Spencer Leigh as Jerusaleme

Emile Nicolaou as Young Jerusaleme

Gene October as Model Peeling Fruit

Cindy Oswin as Lady Elizabeth

John Rogan as Vatican Official

Zohra Segal as Jerualeme's Grandmother

Tilda Swinton as Lena

Lucien Taylor as Boy with Guitar

Nigel Terry as Caravaggio

Simon Fisher Turner as Fra Fillipo (as Simon Turner)

References

External links

Category:1986 films Category:British films Category:English-language films Category:1980s drama films Category:Films directed by Derek Jarman Category:Films set in the 16th century Category:Films set in the 17th century Category:British LGBT-related films Category:Independent films Category:Caravaggio Category:Biographical films about artists

de:Caravaggio (Film) fr:Caravaggio (film) it:Caravaggio (film) la:Caravaggio (pellicula) ja:カラヴァッジオ (映画) pl:Caravaggio (film) ru:Караваджо (фильм)

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.

Life

Jarman was born in Northwood, Middlesex. His father was a military officer, born in New Zealand, and his mother was half-Jewish. He boarded at Canford School in Dorset, and from 1960 studied at King's College London. This was followed by four years at the Slade School of Art, University College London, starting in 1963. He had a studio at Butler's Wharf, London, and was part of the Andrew Logan social scene in the 1970s. Jarman was outspoken about homosexuality, his never-ending public fight for gay rights, and his personal struggle with AIDS.

On 22 December 1986, Jarman was diagnosed as HIV positive, and discussed his condition in public. His illness prompted him to move to Prospect Cottage, Dungeness in Kent, near the nuclear power station. In 1994, he died of an AIDS-related illness in London, aged 52. He is buried in the graveyard at St. Clements Church, Old Romney, Kent.

The band Chumbawamba subsequently released ''Song for Derek Jarman'' in his honour. Andi Sexgang, another music artist, released the CD ''Last of England'' as a Jarman tribute. The ambient experimental album ''The garden is full of metal'', by Robin Rimbaud, includes Jarman speech samples. Manic Street Preachers' Bassist, Nicky Wire, also recorded a track titled ''Derek Jarman's Garden'' as a b-side to his single ''Break My Heart Slowly'' in 2006.

Films

Jarman's first films were experimental super 8 mm shorts, a form he never entirely abandoned, and later developed further in his films ''Imagining October'' (1984), ''The Angelic Conversation'' (1985), ''The Last of England'' (1987) and ''The Garden'' (1990) as a parallel to his narrative work. The Angelic Conversation featured Toby Mott and other members of the Radical artist collective The Grey Organisation

Jarman first became known as a stage designer, getting his break in the film industry as production designer for Ken Russell's ''The Devils'' (1970). He later made his debut in "overground" narrative filmmaking with the groundbreaking ''Sebastiane'' (1976), arguably the first British film to feature positive images of gay sexuality, and the first film entirely in correct Latin. ''Sebastiane'' is a story about the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, which created a stir on the art cinema market because of its overt depiction of homosexual desire. Its stylistic tendency to camp was enhanced by its dialogue being in Latin.

He followed this with the film many regard as his first masterpiece, ''Jubilee'' (shot 1977, released 1978), in which Queen Elizabeth I of England is transported forward in time to a desolate and brutal wasteland ruled by her twentieth century namesake. ''Jubilee'' was arguably the first UK punk movie, and among its cast featured punk groups and figures such as Wayne County of Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, Jordan, Toyah Willcox, and Adam and the Ants.

This was followed by Jarman's unconventional adaptation of Shakespeare's ''The Tempest'' in 1979. Praised by several Shakespeare scholars, but dismissed by some traditionalist critics, the film contains a considerable amount of nudity (mostly male, but also some female, including a scene in which Caliban's mother Sycorax breast-feeds her son), some unconventional casting (Toyah Willcox's Miranda hardly suggests innocent purity) and an unusual setting (a crumbling mansion as opposed to an island). Throughout the film, Jarman is liberal with Shakespeare's text, using it as a springboard for his own interpretation.

During the 1980s Jarman was still one of the few openly gay public figures in Britain and was a leading campaigner against Clause 28. He also worked to raise awareness of AIDS. His artistic practice in the early 1980s reflected these commitments, perhaps most famously in ''The Angelic Conversation'' (1985), a film in which the imagery is accompanied by a voice reciting Shakespeare's sonnets, obviously chosen for their openness to a homoerotic re-reading.

Jarman spent seven years making experimental super 8 mm films and attempting to raise money for ''Caravaggio'' (he later claimed to have rewritten the script seventeen times during this period).

Released in 1986, ''Caravaggio'' attracted a comparatively wide audience (and is still, barring the cult hit ''Jubilee'', probably Jarman's most widely-known work). This is partly due to the involvement, for the first time, of the British television company Channel 4 in funding and distribution. Funded by the BFI and produced by film theorist Colin MacCabe, ''Caravaggio'' became Jarman's most famous film, and marked the beginning of a new phase in Jarman's filmmaking career: from now on all his films would be partly funded by television companies, often receiving their most prominent exhibition in TV screenings. ''Caravaggio'' also saw Jarman work with actress Tilda Swinton for the first time. Here, his trademark aesthetics flourished: overt depictions of homosexual love, narrative ambiguity, and superb visuals, particularly the live representations of Caravaggio's most famous paintings, are all prominent features of the work.

The conclusion of ''Caravaggio'' also marked the beginning of a temporary abandonment of traditional narrative in Jarman's films. Frustrated by the formality of 35 mm film production, and the institutional dependence and resultant prolonged inactivity associated with it (which had already cost him seven years with ''Caravaggio'', as well as derailing several long-term projects), Jarman returned to and expanded the super 8 mm-based form he had previously worked in on ''Imagining October'' and ''The Angelic Conversation''. The film was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Silver Bear for an outstanding single achievement.

The first film to result from this new semi-narrative phase, ''The Last of England'' told the death of a country, ravaged by its own internal decay and the economic restructuring of Thatcher's government. "Wrenchingly beautiful…the film is one of the few commanding works of personal cinema in the late 80's – a call to open our eyes to a world violated by greed and repression, to see what irrevocable damage has been wrought on city, countryside and soul, how our skies, our bodies, have turned poisonous", wrote a ''Village Voice'' critic. This film re-interpreted Ford Madox Brown's famous painting of emigrants leaving the English shores for a life in the New World, and has been compared to Humphrey Jennings's documentary ''Listen to Britain'' (1942) which constitutes its very antithesis. Where ''Listen to Britain'' indulges in the idyllic, The Last of England tries to expose the decay.

During the making of his film ''The Garden'', Jarman became seriously ill. Although he recovered sufficiently to complete the work, he never attempted anything on a comparable scale afterwards, returning to a more pared-down form for his concluding narrative films, ''Edward II'' (perhaps his most politically outspoken work, informed by his Queer activism) and the Brechtian ''Wittgenstein'', a delicate tragicomedy based on the life of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. It was a later complaint of Jarman's that with the disappearance of the Independent Film sector it had become impossible for him to get finance. Jarman made a side income by directing music videos for various artists including Marianne Faithfull, The Smiths and the Pet Shop Boys.

In 1989, Jarman's film ''War Requiem'' brought the legendary actor Laurence Olivier out of retirement. It turned out to be Olivier's last performance.

By the time of his 1993 film ''Blue'', Jarman was losing his sight and dying of AIDS-related complications. ''Blue'' consists of a single shot of saturated blue colour filling the screen, as background to a soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner, and featuring original music by Coil and other artists, in which Jarman describes his life and vision. When it was shown on British television, Channel 4 carried the image whilst the soundtrack was broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio 3, a collaborative project unique for its time.

His final testament as a film-maker was the film ''Glitterbug'' made for the Arena slot on BBC Two, and broadcast shortly after Jarman's death. Compiled and edited from many hours of super 8 footage shot with friends and companions throughout his career, it is a moving collage of memories, people and moments lost in time, accompanied by a specially commissioned soundtrack from Brian Eno.

Other works

Jarman's work broke new ground in creating and expanding the fledgling form of 'the pop video' in England, and in gay rights activism. Several volumes of his diaries have been published.

Jarman also directed the 1989 tour by the UK duo Pet Shop Boys. By pop concert standards this was a highly theatrical event with costume and specially shot films accompanying the individual songs. Jarman was the stage director of Sylvano Bussotti's opera ''L'Ispirazione'', first staged in Florence in 1998.

Jarman is also remembered for his famous shingle cottage-garden, created in the latter years of his life, in the shadow of Dungeness nuclear power station. The house was built in tarred timber. Raised wooden text on the side of the cottage is the first stanza and the last five lines of the last stanza of John Donne's poem, ''The Sun Rising''. The cottage's beach garden was made using local materials and has been the subject of several books. At this time, Jarman also began painting again (see the book: ''Evil Queen: The Last Paintings'', 1994).

Jarman was the author of several books including his autobiography ''Dancing Ledge'', a collection of poetry ''A Finger in the Fishes Mouth'', two volumes of diaries ''Modern Nature'' and ''Smiling In Slow Motion'' and two treatises on his work in film and art ''The Last of England'' (also published as ''Kicking the Pricks'') and ''Chroma''. Other notable published works include film scripts (''Up in the Air'', ''Blue'', ''War Requiem'', ''Caravaggio'', ''Queer Edward II'' and ''Wittgenstein: The Terry Eagleton Script/The Derek Jarman Film''), a study of his garden at Dungeness ''Derek Jarman's Garden'', and ''At Your Own Risk'', a defiant celebration of gay sexuality.

Filmography

Feature films

''Sebastiane'' (1976)

''Jubilee'' (1977)

''The Tempest'' (1979)

''The Angelic Conversation'' (1985)

''Caravaggio'' (1986)

''The Last of England'' (1988)

''War Requiem'' (1989)

''The Garden'' (1990)

''Edward II'' (1991)

''Wittgenstein'' (1993)

''Blue'' (1993)

Short films

''Electric Fairy'' (1971)

''Studio Bankside'' (1971)

''Garden of Luxor'' (1972)

''Burning the Pyramids'' (1972)

''Miss Gaby'' (1972)

''A Journey to Avebury'' (1971)

''Andrew Logan Kisses the Glitterati'' (1972)

''Tarot'' (aka ''the Magician'', 1972)

''Sulphur'' (1973)

''Stolen Apples for Karen Blixen'' (1973)

''Miss World'' (1973)

''The Devils at the Elgin'' (aka ''Reworking the Devils'', 1974)

''Fire Island'' (1974)

''Duggie Fields'' (1974)

''Ula's Fete'' (aka ''Ula's Chandelier'', 1975)

''Picnic at Ray's'' (1975)

''Sebastian Wrap'' (1975)

''Sloane Square: A Room of One's Own'' (1976)

''Gerald's Film'' (1976)

''Art and the Pose'' (1976)

''Houston Texas'' (1976)

''Jordan's Dance'' (1977)

''Every Woman for Herself and All for Art'' (1977)

''The Pantheon'' (1978)

''In the Shadow of the Sun'' (1974) ''(in 1980 Throbbing Gristle was commissioned to provide a new soundtrack for this 54 minute film eponymous piece by Throbbing Gristle)''

''T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven'' (1981)

''Jordan's Wedding'' (1981)

''Pirate Tape (William S. Burroughs Film)'' (1982)

''Waiting for Waiting for Godot'' (1982)

''Pontormo and Punks at Santa Croce'' (1982)

''B2 Tape/Film'' (1983)

''Catalan'' (1984)

''Imagining October'' (1984)

''Aria'' (1987)

*segment: ''Depuis le Jour''

''L'Ispirazione'' (1988)

''Glitterbug'' (1994) ''(one-hour compilation film of various Super-8 shorts with music by Brian Eno)''

Jarman's early Super-8 mm work has been included on some of the DVD releases of his films.

Music videos

The Sex Pistols: ''The Sex Pistols Number One'' (1976). Early live footage of the band.

Marianne Faithfull: "Broken English", "Witches' Song", and "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" (all 1979)

Throbbing Gristle: ''TG Psychic Rally in Heaven'' (1981).

Language: "Touch The Radio Dance" (1984) (notable because it was shown at the Museum of Modern Art)

Orange Juice: "What Presence?!" (1984).

Marc Almond: "Tenderness Is a Weakness" (1984).

The Smiths:

* ''The Queen Is Dead'', a short film incorporating the Smiths songs "The Queen Is Dead", "Panic", and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" (1986)

* The "Panic" sequence from ''The Queen Is Dead'' was edited to form the video for that single (1986)

* "Ask" (1986)

Matt Fretton: "Avatar" (1986)

Pet Shop Boys: "It's a Sin", "Rent", and "Projections".

Pet Shop Boys: "King's Cross"

Suede

Scenic design

''Jazz Calendar'' at Covent Garden. ''Don Giovanni'' at the Coliseum. ''The Devils'', directed by Ken Russell. ''Savage Messiah'', directed by Ken Russell. ''The Rake's Progress'', directed by Ken Russell in Florence. 1991: ''Waiting for Godot'' by Samuel Beckett, at the Queen's Theatre in the West End.

Documentaries

''The Last Paintings of Derek Jarman'' (Mark Jordan, Granada TV 1995). Broadcast by Granada TV and shown at the San Francisco Frameline Film Festival. Last footage shot of Derek producing his final works. Guests inc Margi Clarke. Toyah Wilcox. Brett Anderson. Frank Schofield. Jon Savage. To coincide with the broadcast the exhibition Evil Queen was premiered at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. (Contact BFI for footage).

''Derek'' (2008): a biography of the life and work of Jarman, directed by Isaac Julien, narrated by Tilda Swinton.

''Red Duckies'' (2006): Short film directed by Luke Seomore & Joseph Bull, featuring a voice-over from Simon Fisher Turner commissioned by Dazed & Confused (magazine) for World Aids Day 2006.

''Delphinium: A Childhood Portrait of Derek Jarman'' (2009): a "stylized and lyrical coming-of-age" short film combining narrative and documentary elements directed by Matthew Mishory depicting Jarman's "artistic, sexual, and political awakening in postwar England". Jarman's surviving muse Keith Collins and Siouxsie and the Banshees founder Steven Severin both participated in the making of the film, which screened at the 2009 Raindance Film Festival in London.

References

Further reading

Martin Frey. ''Derek Jarman – Bewegte Bilder eines Malers.'' (BoD, 2008), ISBN 978-3-8370-1217-0

Steven Dillon. ''Derek Jarman and Lyric Film: The Mirror and the Sea.'' (2004).

Tony Peake. ''Derek Jarman'' (Little, Brown & Co, 2000). 600-page biography.

Michael O'Pray. ''Derek Jarman: Dreams of England''. (British Film Institute, 1996).

Howard Sooley. ''Derek Jarman's Garden.'' (Thames & Hudson, 1995).

Derek Jarman. 'Modern Nature' (Diaries 1989–1990)

Derek Jarman. 'Smiling in Slow Motion' (Diaries 1991–1994)

'Evil Queen' Exhibition catalogue. Forward by Mark Jordan ISBN 0-9524356-0-8

External links

Bibliography of books and articles about Jarman via UC Berkeley Media Resources center

Slow Motion Angel – a Derek Jarman Information and Resource Site

Derek Jarman: Radical Traditionalist

Preserving A Harlequin – a Jarman retrospective by Nick Clapson

Photographs of Prospect Cottage & garden details at Flickr

Derek Jarman on Find-A-Grave

Derek Jarman – Moving Pictures of a Painter

Derek Jarman; On lyrical love and dedication

Audio recording of Derek Jarman interviewed by Ken Campbell at the ICA, London, 7 February 1984

Category:Alumni of the Slade School of Art Category:English film directors Category:English diarists Category:English artists Category:British experimental filmmakers Category:LGBT rights activists from the United Kingdom Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:Old Canfordians Category:People from Northwood, London Category:Gay writers Category:LGBT directors Category:LGBT people from England Category:1942 births Category:1994 deaths Category:AIDS-related deaths in England

de:Derek Jarman es:Derek Jarman fr:Derek Jarman id:Derek Jarman it:Derek Jarman he:דרק ג'רמן la:Derek Jarman hu:Derek Jarman nl:Derek Jarman ja:デレク・ジャーマン pl:Derek Jarman pt:Derek Jarman ru:Джармен, Дерек fi:Derek Jarman tr:Derek Jarman

name	Claudia Faniello
background	solo_singer
birth date	February 25, 1988
origin	Qawra, Malta
other	}}

Claudia Faniello (born 25 February 1988) is a Maltese singer.

Biography

Claudia was born and raised in Malta, along with her siblings Fabrizio and Miriana. At the age of 12, Claudia began to participate in a variety of television shows and participating also in many festivals and placing in top positions. In 2001, at the ''Phoenicia Hotel'' in Malta, she won the 'Talentissimi Juniors' - a show organised by 'Actreact'. A year later she sang live with Malta's National Orchestra in aid of impoverished children at the University of Malta. She was accompanied by Malta's ambassadors in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, Julie & Ludwig and also her brother Fabrizio.

At the ''Mediterranean Conference Festival'', in 2003 she sang at a concert with Fabrizio Faniello while a year later she sang again with the National Orchestra with Nadine Axisa, Fabrizio and Philippa. In 2005 she classified fourth on 'Hotspot' - a TV show programmed on Net TV. The year 2006 was the year were she started her experience in the Malta Song For Europe Festival with the song 'High Alert!' - a song composed by Ray Agius. At the same contest she won the award for best new-comer.

She won the Festival Kanzunetta Indipendenza 2006 with the song 'Ma Nafx' - a song composed by Ray Agius. In 2007, despite qualifying for the Malta Song for Europe 2007 Semi-Final with the song "L-Imħabba Għamja" (Love is Blind), she wasn't part of the six songs that gained the right to compete for the final round. She finished 7th.

In summer 2007, Claudia Faniello launched "Wild Flower", a song composed by Aldo Spiteri and written by Deo Grech. In 2008 she passed for the Go Malta Song for Europe Semi-Final Festival with two songs "Caravaggio" and "Sunrise". Both songs passed into the final eight songs. In the final of this festival she finished 2nd with the song "Caravaggio", a song about the Italian artist with the same name and 3rd with the song "Sunrise". The successive year, she made her fourth appearance in this Maltese festival, but still wasn't part of the last three songs that fought to book a place in Moscow 2009. She finished fourth with her song entitled "Blue Sonata", composed and written by Ray Agius. She qualified to the final in the The GO Malta Eurosong 2010 with the song "Samsara" composed by Philip Vella and written Gerard James Borg. She finished 8th with 31 points.

She released her first album entitled 'Convincingly Better' in August 2010.

References

External links

Official website

Category:1988 births Category:Living people Category:Malta Song for Europe contestants Category:Maltese female singers

fr:Claudia Faniello mt:Claudia Faniello sv:Claudia Faniello

Name	Simon Schama
Birth date	February 13, 1945
Birth place	London
Nationality	British
Work institutions	Columbia University
Alma mater	Christ's College, Cambridge
Footnotes	}}

Simon Michael Schama, CBE (born 13 February 1945) is a British historian and art historian. He is a professor at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series ''A History of Britain''. Other works on history and art include ''The Embarrassment of Riches'', ''Landscape and Memory'', ''Dead Certainties'', ''Rembrandt's Eyes'', and his history of the French Revolution, ''Citizens''. Schama is an art and cultural critic for ''The New Yorker''.

Life and early career

The son of Jewish parents with roots in Lithuania, Romania, and Turkey, Schama was born in London. In the mid-1940s, the family moved to Southend-on-Sea in Essex before moving back to London. Schama writes of this period in the Introduction to ''Landscape & Memory'' (pp. 3–4)

I had no hill [the previous paragraph had talked of his enthusiasm for ''Puck of Pook's Hill''], but I did have the Thames. It was not the upstream river that the poets in my Palgrave claimed burbled betwixt mossy banks. ... It was the low, gull-swept estuary, the marriage bed of salt and fresh water, stretching as far as I could see from my northern Essex bank, toward a thin black horizon on the other side. That would be Kent, the sinister enemy who always seemed to beat us in the County Cricket Championship. ...

In 1956 Schama won a scholarship to the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Cricklewood, (from 1961 Elstree, Herts.), followed by Christ's College, Cambridge, reading history under J. H. Plumb and graduating with a Starred First in 1966.

He worked for short periods as a lecturer in history at Cambridge, where he became a Fellow and Director of Studies in History, and at Oxford, where he was made a Fellow of Brasenose College in 1976, specialising in the French Revolution. At this time, Schama wrote his first book, ''Patriots and Liberators'', which won the Wolfson History Prize. The book was originally intended as a study of the French Revolution, but as published in 1977, it focused on the effect of the Patriot revolution in The Netherlands, and its aftermath.

His second book, ''Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel'' (1978), is a study of the Zionist aims of Edmond James de Rothschild and James Armand de Rothschild.

He is married to Ginny Papaioannou, a geneticist from California; they have two children.

In the United States

In 1980 Schama took up a chair at Harvard. His next book, ''The Embarrassment of Riches'' (1987), again focused on Dutch history. In it, Schama interpreted the ambivalences that informed the Dutch Golden Age of the seventeenth century, held in balance between the conflicting imperatives, to live richly and with power, or to live a godly life. The iconographic evidence that Schama draws upon, in 317 illustrations, of emblems and propaganda that defined Dutch character, prefigured his expansion in the 1990s as a commentator on art and visual culture.

''Citizens'' (1989), written at speed to a publisher's commission, finally saw the publication of his long-awaited study of the French revolution, and won the 1990 NCR Book Award. ''Citizens'' was very well-received and sold admirably. Its view that the violence of the Terror was inherent from the start of the Revolution, however, has received serious criticism.

In 1991, he published ''Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations)'', a relatively slender work of unusual structure and point-of-view in that it looked at two widely reported deaths a hundred years apart, that of General James Wolfe – and the famous painting by Benjamin West – and that of (by murder) George Parkman, uncle of the better known Francis Parkman. Schama mooted some possible (invented) connections between the two cases, exploring the historian's inability "ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing the documentation," and speculatively bridging "the teasing gap separating a lived event and its subsequent narration." Not all readers absorbed the nuance of the title: it received a greatly mixed critical and academic reception. Traditional historians in particular denounced Schama's integration of fact and conjecture to produce a seamless narrative but later assessments took a more relaxed view of the experiment. It was an approach soon taken up by such historical writers as Peter Ackroyd, David Taylor and Richard Holmes. Sales in hardback exceeded Schama's earlier works.

Schama's ''Landscape and Memory'' (1995) focused on the relationship between physical environment and folk memory, separating the components of landscape as wood, water and rock, enmeshed in the cultural consciousness of collective "memory" that are embodied in myths, which Schama finds to be expressed outwardly in ceremony and text. While in many ways even more personal and idiosyncratic than ''Dead Certainties'', roaming through widening circles of digressions, this book was also more traditionally structured and better-defined in its approach. While many reviews remained decidedly mixed, the book was a definite commercial success and won numerous prizes.

Appropriately, many of the plaudits came from the art world rather than from traditional academia. This was borne out when Schama became art critic for ''The New Yorker'' in 1995. He held the position for three years, dovetailing his regular column with professorial duties at Columbia University; a selection of his best essays on art for the magazine, chosen by Schama himself, was published in 2005 under the title ''Hang Ups''. During this time, Schama also produced a lavishly illustrated ''Rembrandt's Eyes'', another critical and commercial success. Despite the book's title, it contrasts the biographies of Rembrandt van Rijn and Peter Paul Rubens.

BBC

In 1995 Schama wrote and presented a series called ''Landscape and Memory'' to accompany his book of the same name.

The year 2000 saw Schama return to the UK, having been commissioned by the BBC to produce a series of television documentary programmes on British history as part of their Millennium celebrations, under the title ''A History of Britain''. Schama wrote and presented the episodes himself, in a friendly and often jocular style with his highly characteristic delivery, and was rewarded with excellent reviews and unexpectedly high ratings. There has been, however, some irritation and criticism expressed by a group of historians about Schama's condensed recounting of the British Isles' history on this occasion, particularly by those specialising in the pre-Anglo-Saxon history of insular Celtic civilisation. The series was eventually expanded to three, with 15 episodes produced in total covering the complete span of British history up until 1965; it went on to become one of the BBC's best-selling documentary series on DVD. Schama also wrote a trilogy of tie-in books for the show, which took the story up to the year 2000; there is some debate as to whether the books are the tie-in product for the TV series, or the other way around. The series also had some popularity in the United States when it was first shown on the History Channel.

In 2001 Schama received a CBE. In 2003 he signed a lucrative new contract with the BBC and HarperCollins to produce three new books and two accompanying TV series. Worth £3 million (around US$5.3m), it represents the biggest advance deal ever for a TV historian. The first result of the deal was a book and TV show entitled ''Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution'', dealing in particular with the proclamation issued during the Revolutionary War by Lord Dunmore offering slaves from rebel plantations freedom in return for service to the crown.

In 2006 the BBC broadcast a new TV series, ''Simon Schama's Power of Art'' which, with an accompanying book, was presented and written by Schama. It marks a return to art history for him, treating eight artists through eight key works (Caravaggio's ''David with the Head of Goliath'', Bernini's ''Ecstasy of St Theresa'', Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis'', Jacques-Louis David's ''The Death Of Marat'', J. M. W. Turner's ''The Slave Ship'', Vincent van Gogh's ''Wheat Field with Crows'', Picasso's ''Guernica'', and Mark Rothko's ''Seagram Murals''). It was also shown on PBS in the United States.

In October 2008 BBC broadcast a four-part television series called ''The American Future: A History'' presented and written by Schama. In March 2009, Schama presented a BBC Radio 4 show entitled 'Baseball and Me', both exploring the history of the game and describing his own personal support of the Boston Red Sox.

Politics

Schama is a supporter of the Labour Party, donating £2,000 to Oona King's bid to become Labour's candidate for the 2012 London Mayoral election.

Israel

Schama was critical of a call by British novelist John Berger for an academic boycott of Israel over its policies towards the Palestinians. Writing in ''The Guardian'' in an article co-authored with lawyer Anthony Julius, Schama compared Berger's academic boycott to policies adopted by Nazi Germany, noting "This is not the first boycott call directed at Jews. On 1 April 1933, a week after he came to power, Hitler ordered a boycott of Jewish shops, banks, offices and department stores."

In 2006 on the BBC, Schama debated with Vivienne Westwood the morality of Israel's actions in the Israel-Lebanon war. He characterised Israel's bombing of Lebanese city centres as unhelpful in Israel's attempt to "get rid of" Hezbollah. With regard to the bombing he said: "Of course the spectacle and suffering makes us grieve. Who wouldn't grieve? But it's not enough to do that. We've got to understand. You've even got to understand Israel's point of view."

United States

Schama is a vocal supporter of Barack Obama and critic of George W. Bush. He appeared on the BBC's coverage of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, clashing with John Bolton.

Writing style

Schama has a literary way of writing that is attractive to both historians and a wider readership. It is "packed with evocative detail: rich fruit cakes crammed with raisins, currants, nuts and glacé cherries all mulled in brandy sauce". He has also received criticism from one critic for dumbing down history, presenting a "grossly oversimplified and mythologising view of the history of nations" and not fostering critical thinking.

Criticism

Susan Buck-Morss criticizes Schama's ''The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age'' for its "selective national history" of the Dutch Republic, "that omits much or all of the colonizing story." "One would have no idea that Dutch hegemony in the slave trade (replacing Spain and Portugal as major players) contributed substantially to the enormous "overload" of wealth that he describes as becoming so socially and morally problematic during the century of Dutch "centrality" to the "commerce of the world.""

Publications

; Books:

''Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands 1780–1813'' (1977)

''Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel'' (1978)

''The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age'' (1987)

''Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution'' (1989)

''Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations'' (1991)

''Landscape and Memory'' (1995) ''Rembrandt's Eyes'' (1999)

''A History of Britain'' Vol. I (2000, ISBN 0-563-48714-3)

''A History of Britain'' Vol. II (2001, ISBN 0-563-48718-6)

''A History of Britain'' Vol. III (2002, ISBN 0-563-48719-4)

''Hang Ups: Essays on Art'' (2005)

''Rough Crossings'' (2005, ISBN 0-06-053916-X)

''Simon Schama's Power of Art'' (2006, ISBN 0-06-117610-9)

''The American Future: A History'' (2009, ISBN 0-06-053923-2)

''Scribble, Scribble, Scribble: Writing on Politics, Ice Cream, Churchill and My Mother''

; Documentaries:

''Landscape and Memory'' (1995), in five parts

''Rembrandt: The Public Eye and the Private Gaze'' (1995)

''Simon Schama's A History of Britain'' – BBC (2000), in 15 parts

''Murder at Harvard'' - PBS (2003)

''Rough Crossings'' – BBC (2005)

''Simon Schama's Power of Art'' – BBC (2006), in eight parts

''The American Future: A History'' – BBC (2008), in four parts

''Simon Schama's: Obama's America'' – BBC (2009).

Prizes & Other Honors

1977 Wolfson History Prize, for ''Patriots and Liberators''

1977 Leo Gershoy Award, for ''Patriots and Liberators''

1987 New York Times Best Books of the Year, for ''The Embarrassment of Riches''

1989 New York Times Best Books of the Year, for ''Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution''

1989 Yorkshire Post Book Award, for ''Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution''

1996 Lionel Trilling Book Award, for ''Landscape and Memory''

1996 WH Smith Literary Award, for ''Landscape and Memory''

2001 Broadcasting Press Guild Writer's Award, for ''A History of Britain''

2001 Nominated for BAFTA Huw Wheldon Award for Specialised Programme or Series (Arts, History, Religion and Science), for ''A History of Britain''

2002 Nominated for BAFTA Richard Dimbleby Award for the Best Presenter (Factual, Features and News), for ''A History of Britain''

2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Non-fiction winner, for ''Rough Crossings''

2006 Hessell-Tiltman Prize Shortlist, for ''Rough Crossings''

2007 Nominated for BAFTA Huw Wheldon Award for Specialized Factual Programme or Series, for ''Simon Schama's Power of Art''

2008 The Daily Telegraph's 110 Best Books: The Perfect Library, for ''Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution''

Notes

References

Binstock, Benjamin. “Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama.” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 82, No. 2 (Jun., 2000), pp. 361–66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3051386 (accessed 30 April 2009).

Cooper, Barbara Roisman. ''"A Wild Ride" Through A History Of Britain With Simon Schama.'' British Heritage 23, No. 6 (November 2002): 48. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 28 April 2009)

Daniel, M., and S. Steinberg. "Simon Schama." Publishers Weekly 238, No. 22 (17 May 1991): 46. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 30 April 2009)

Halttunen, Karen. Review of “Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations.) by Simon Schama.” The Journal of American History, Vol. 79, No. 2 (Sep., 1992), p. 631 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2080071 (accessed 29 April 2009).

JULIE BOSMAN. "National Briefing | Arts: National Book Critics Circle Winners." New York Times (9 March 2007): 20. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 1 May 2009).

Nalley, Richard. "SIMON SCHAMA'S POWER OF ART." Forbes 180 (18 September 2007): 165. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 30 April 2009).

"SIMON SCHAMA; Dumbed Down." New York Times (24 November 2002): 4. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 1 May 2009).

Snowman, Daniel. "Simon Schama." History Today 54, No. 7 (July 2004): 34–36. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 30 April 2009)

Williams, Michael. Review of: “Landscape and Memory. by Simon Schama.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 87, No. 3 (Sep., 1997), pp. 564–565 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2564086 (accessed 30 April 2009)

External links

Columbia History faculty page

Columbia Art History faculty page

"Free Fight", with Schama, offers "a new look at Britain, the United States, slavery and freedom during the Revolutionary War". ''The Brian Lehrer Show'', 8 May 2006.

Simon Schama’s The American History: A Future A Talk at the Shanghai International Literary Festival

Audio: Simon Schama in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme ''The Forum''

''Booknotes'' interview with Schama on ''Citizens'', 14 July 1989.

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Category:Honorary Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford Category:Historians of the French Revolution Category:English historians Category:English Jews Category:Romanian Jews Category:English people of Romanian descent Category:Jewish historians Category:British academics Category:British art historians Category:British expatriates in the United States Category:English academics Category:Columbia University faculty Category:NCR Book Award winners Category:Old Haberdashers

bg:Саймън Шама de:Simon Schama es:Simon Schama fr:Simon Schama fy:Simon Schama it:Simon Schama la:Simon Schama nl:Simon Schama pl:Simon Schama pt:Simon Schama sco:Simon Schama fi:Simon Schama zh:西蒙·沙玛

name	Andrew Graham-Dixon
birth date	December 26, 1960
alma mater	Courtauld Institute of Art
known for
occupation
website	http://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/ }}

Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster.

Life and work

Education

Graham-Dixon was educated at the independent Westminster School and at Christ Church at the University of Oxford, where he read English. He graduated in 1981, before pursuing doctoral studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

Career

Graham-Dixon began work as a reviewer for the weekly ''Sunday Correspondent'', before becoming the chief art critic of ''The Independent'' newspaper where he remained until 1998, and as of 2005 is the chief art critic of ''The Sunday Telegraph''. Since 2004, he has also been a contributor to the BBC Two's ''The Culture Show'' on a variety of subjects.

In 1992, Graham-Dixon won the first prize in the Reportage section in the Montreal World Film Festival for a documentary film about Théodore Géricault's painting ''The Raft of the Medusa''. He has since gone on to present several BBC documentary series on art, including ''A History of British Art'' (1996), ''Renaissance'' (1999), ''Caravaggio'' (2002) ''The Secret of Drawing'' (2005), ''The Battle for British Art'' (2007), ''The Art of Eternity'' (2007), ''The Art of Spain'' (2008), ''The Art of Russia (2009) and "The Art of Germany (2010).

He has also presented programmes on subjects other than art, such as ''I, Samurai'' (2006) and ''The Real Casino Royale'' for the BBC and ''100% English'' (2006) for Channel 4. In 2010, he interviewed John Lydon for a ''Culture Show'' special about Public Image Limited.

Graham-Dixon also wrote and presented the BBC documentary 'Who Killed Caravaggio?' , broadcast on BBC 4 in 2010. In 2010 his biography of the artist Caravaggio was published: 'Caravaggio: A Life Sacred And Profane'.

Supporter of YBAs

He was an early supporter of the later-to-be YBA artists, in 1990 he wrote:

Goldsmiths' graduates are unembarrassed about promoting themselves and their work: some of the most striking exhibitions in London over the past few months—"The East Country Yard Show", or "Gambler", both staged in docklands—have been independently organized and funded by Goldsmiths' graduates as showcases for their work. This has given them a reputation for pushiness, yet it should also be said that in terms of ambition, attention to display and sheer bravado there has been little to match such shows in the country's established contemporary art institutions. They were far superior, for instance, to any of the contemporary art shows that have been staged by the Liverpool Tate in its own multi-million-pound dockland site.

Personal life and family

Graham-Dixon is son of the barrister Anthony Graham-Dixon and Suzanne "Sue" (née Villar 1931–2010), a publicist for music and opera companies. Graham-Dixon is married, with three children; he lives in London.

List of credits

+ Film and television
Year	! Title	Notes
1992	''''
1992	''''	First Prize in the Reportage Section of theMontreal International Film and Television Festival
1996	''''	Six-part seriesNominated for BAFTA and RTS awards
1996	''Hogarth's Progress''
1999		Six-part seriesNominated for RTS award
2001	''Art That Shook the World''	Series 1 episode 1 "Monet's Impression Sunrise"
2002	''Secret Lives of the Artists''	Three-part series
2002	''''	Drama-documentary
2003	''1000 Ways of Getting Drunk in England''
2004–present	''''
2005	''''	Four-part series
2006	''I, Samurai''
2006	''''
2006	''100% English''
2007	''''
2007	''''	Three-part seriesLong-listed for Grierson Award
2008	''''	Three-part series
2008	''''	Three-part series
2009	''''	Three-part series
2010	''''	Three-part series

Bibliography

''Howard Hodgkin''. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994 (ISBN 0-50027769-9); revised, 2001 (ISBN 0-50009298-2).

''John Virtue: new paintings''. Bristol: Arnolfini, 1995. ISBN 978-0907738411.

''Paper Museum: writings about painting, mostly''. London: HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 0-00255557-3.

''A History of British Art''. London: BBC, 1996. ISBN 0-56337044-0.

''Renaissance''. London: BBC, 1999. ISBN 0-56338396-8.

''In the Picture: The Year Through Art''. London: Allen Lane, 2002. ISBN 978-0713996753.

''Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008. ISBN 978-0297853657.

''Caravaggio: A Life Sacred And Profane''. London: Allen Lane, 2009. ISBN 978-0713996746.

References

External links

Official website

Category:1960 births Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art Category:British art critics Category:British art historians Category:Living people Category:Old Westminsters