# Caravaggio (1986 film)
*Caravaggio* is a 1986 British drama film directed and written by [Derek Jarman](https://www.edgepedia.org/derek-jarman) that offers a fictionalized portrait of the Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da [Caravaggio](https://www.edgepedia.org/caravaggio) (1571–1610), framing his life through a love triangle with two of his models and recreating the look of his paintings on screen.[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) • [2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio) Produced by the BFI Production Board in association with Channel Four Television, it won a Silver Bear for outstanding single achievement in visual composition at the 1986 [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) and is generally described as the most mainstream and accessible of Jarman's features.[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) • [3](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/userFiles/uploads/films/23/presskit.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Derek Jarman, who spent seven years working on the project[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) • [4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/caravaggio-3/) |
| Running time and year | 93 minutes, United Kingdom, 1986[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) |
| Principal cast | Nigel Terry (Caravaggio), Sean Bean (Ranuccio), Tilda Swinton (Lena), Dexter Fletcher (young Caravaggio), Michael Gough, Nigel Davenport, Robbie Coltrane[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) • [4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/caravaggio-3/) |
| Key crew | Producer Sarah Radclyffe; cinematography Gabriel Beristain; production design Christopher Hobbs; music Simon Fisher Turner; editing George Akers[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) |
| Awards | Silver Bear for outstanding single achievement in visual composition and a C.I.D.A.L.C. Award at the 1986 Berlinale; Special Prize of the Jury at the 1987 Istanbul International Film Festival[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) • [4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/caravaggio-3/) |
| Production | BFI Production Board in association with Channel Four Television; shot in a studio in Limehouse, London[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) • [2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio) |
| Reception | 82% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (11 reviews); Metascore 55 on Metacritic[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/caravaggio) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/caravaggio/critic-reviews/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and structure
The film opens on the painter's deathbed. In 1610, wanted for murder and on the run, Caravaggio ([Nigel Terry](https://www.edgepedia.org/nigel-terry)) lies dying in Porto Ercole, Tuscany, cared for by his young deaf-mute apprentice, and narrates episodes of his life as he muses on his approaching death.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio) • [7](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/caravaggio) The story is told in nonlinear chapters from this confession.[8](https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline50/caravaggio)
The central relationship is a volatile, bisexual love triangle between Caravaggio and two of the models for his religious paintings: the street fighter and gambler Ranuccio ([Sean Bean](https://www.edgepedia.org/sean-bean)) and Ranuccio's mistress Lena ([Tilda Swinton](https://www.edgepedia.org/tilda-swinton)), whom the painter portrays as the Magdalene.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio) • [8](https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline50/caravaggio) Around them the film follows the artist's rise from selling paintings on the street, through the patronage of Cardinal Del Monte ([Michael Gough](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-gough)) and the banker Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (Nigel Davenport), to his first major public commission for the French church of St. Louis in Rome, *The Calling of St. Matthew* and *The Saint's Martyrdom*.[3](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/userFiles/uploads/films/23/presskit.pdf) The plot moves toward Lena's scheming to ensnare the powerful Cardinal Scipione Borghese (Robbie Coltrane), her drowning in the Tiber, Ranuccio's arrest for her murder, and a fatal revelation between the two men.[3](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/userFiles/uploads/films/23/presskit.pdf)
## Anachronism and visual style
**Anachronism as method.** Though the film was shot in a studio in Limehouse, Jarman's use of light and sound conjures an Italian mood that is deliberately punctured by anachronisms: a pocket calculator, Ranuccio's motorbike, the sound of a train, a typewriter, and street sounds of contemporary Italy.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio) • [7](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/caravaggio) • [9](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-13-ca-11533-story.html) A scholarly study of the film describes this cultivated anachronism as a representational strategy that connects the painter's works and biography, rather than a lapse in period detail.[10](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/derek-jarmans-medieval-modern/EAAD5122741E4A468208653E6FC38D90/listing) Jarman defended the approach in a 1985 remark: "people tend to think that history is immutable, that there is something called reality. Reality is what interests me – that image of reality in Caravaggio."[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/revisiting-derek-jarman-caravaggio)
The film's lighting and compositions mimic Caravaggio's actual paintings, translating the painter's chiaroscuro, the strong contrast of light and dark, into cinematic terms.[12](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/4384624) Variety praised the way Jarman and his team "recreate the look and color of the original paintings," and the Los Angeles Times called the cinematography and art direction, on a sub-million-dollar production, "little short of a miracle."[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/caravaggio/critic-reviews/) • [9](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-13-ca-11533-story.html) In his production notes, Jarman explained that the painter's original canvases could not be used because they "have aged and would have given the film a documentary element that was inappropriate," so the paintings were recreated for the camera.[13](https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/120958/files/1986_SFS_Vol14_No20_Sept_26.pdf)
## Production history
The film took years to reach the screen. Jarman worked on it for seven years, and the screenplay went through 17 rewrites; the Italian screenwriter Suso Cecchi d'Amico, known for her work with [Luchino Visconti](https://www.edgepedia.org/luchino-visconti) and [Michelangelo Antonioni](https://www.edgepedia.org/michelangelo-antonioni), eventually came on to collaborate with Jarman on the script.[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/caravaggio-3/) • [14](https://wiki.chadnet.org/files/soiled-sinema.pdf) Financial problems shaped both the script and the designs: production designer Christopher Hobbs had to prepare two sets of storyboards, one to attract would-be producers and a second showing how the visuals could be achieved on a much-reduced budget, before the BFI, under the chairmanship of Colin MacCabe, rescued the project.[15](https://lib.zu.edu.pk/ebookdata/Media%20Sciences/Film/British%20Film%20Design%20A%20History%20by%20Laurie%20N.%20Ede.pdf) At one point Jarman and Hobbs had planned to appear on screen themselves as a framing device, discussing their practical intentions and designs.[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/revisiting-derek-jarman-caravaggio)
Sources differ on the shooting format: the Thessaloniki Film Festival lists the film as 16mm color,[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/caravaggio-3/) while the [British Council](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-council) records the current restoration as digitally remastered from 35mm.[1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio)
## Cast and careers launched
Tilda Swinton made her feature film debut as Lena, the first collaboration between the actress and Jarman, who then cast her in all six of his subsequent features, notably *Edward II* (1991).[8](https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline50/caravaggio) • [2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio) The BFI credits this low-budget production with launching the film careers of Swinton, Sean Bean, costume designer Sandy Powell, and cinematographer Gabriel Beristain, all of whom became Hollywood regulars.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio) Beristain's work on the film earned him the Special Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/caravaggio-3/)
## Reception and legacy
British reviewers on release admired the film's visual beauty while grumbling that "far too little happening" (John Russell Taylor, *Sight and Sound*) and complaining about the obscurity of the plot (Alan Stanbrook, *Stills*); Waldemar Januszczak in *The Guardian* called it a "tour-de-force" of filmmaking but objected that it distorted the actual life of the historical Caravaggio.[16](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2024/cteq/caravaggio/) The writer and critic [John Berger](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-berger) took the opposite view, writing to Jarman after watching the film: "You have made a masterpiece, easily the best film about a painter."[16](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2024/cteq/caravaggio/) American reviews ranged from Michael Wilmington's praise in the Los Angeles Times to Paul Attanasio's dismissal in the Washington Post of the film as "less a movie than an act of vandalism."[9](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-13-ca-11533-story.html) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/caravaggio/critic-reviews/) Aggregated scores sit in mixed-to-positive territory: 82% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 11 reviews and a Metascore of 55.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/caravaggio) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/caravaggio/critic-reviews/)
The film was distributed in the United States by Zeitgeist Films, with a wide US release on December 31, 1986, a 2002 theatrical rerelease, and a reported US box office of $3.2K.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/caravaggio) In France it received its visa on November 20, 1987 and opened in cinemas on December 16, 1987.[17](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/66890)
**Later standing.** The BFI describes the film as a landmark in Jarman's recognition as a major director, and it has since been read as a key work of queer cinema; Frameline calls Jarman "one of the patron saints of 20th century queer cinema" and notes that the film grapples with the portrayal of an artist's life in ways that influenced later works such as John Maybury's *[Love Is the Devil](https://www.edgepedia.org/love-is-the-devil)* (1998).[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/revisiting-derek-jarman-caravaggio) • [8](https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline50/caravaggio) • [18](https://mubi.com/en/films/caravaggio/critics-reviews) Jarman, who continued to work on the margins of the British film industry, died in 1994 at the age of 52; to coincide with the 20th anniversary of his death, the film was digitally restored by the BFI National Archive.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio) • [1](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio) • [8](https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline50/caravaggio)
## References
1. [Caravaggio, British Council UK Films Database](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/caravaggio)
2. [Caravaggio (1986), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/75638803-be1c-53e9-b076-8510927b7be3/caravaggio)
3. [Derek Jarman's Caravaggio presskit, Zeitgeist Films](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/userFiles/uploads/films/23/presskit.pdf)
4. [Caravaggio, Thessaloniki Film Festival](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/caravaggio-3/)
5. [Caravaggio, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/caravaggio)
6. [Caravaggio critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/caravaggio/critic-reviews/)
7. [Caravaggio, Viennale (Vienna International Film Festival)](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/caravaggio)
8. [Caravaggio, Frameline](https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline50/caravaggio)
9. [Movie Review: 'Caravaggio': A Dialectic of Passions, Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1986](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-13-ca-11533-story.html)
10. [Derek Jarman's Medieval Modern, Cambridge University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/derek-jarmans-medieval-modern/EAAD5122741E4A468208653E6FC38D90/listing)
11. [Revisiting Derek Jarman's Caravaggio, BFI, April 5, 2018](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/revisiting-derek-jarman-caravaggio)
12. [Derek Jarman's Caravaggio: light and the painter's vision, DergiPark research article](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/4384624)
13. [Sentinel, September 26, 1986, UC Berkeley digital collection](https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/120958/files/1986_SFS_Vol14_No20_Sept_26.pdf)
14. [Soiled Sinema essay on Caravaggio (1986)](https://wiki.chadnet.org/files/soiled-sinema.pdf)
15. [Laurie N. Ede, British Film Design: A History](https://lib.zu.edu.pk/ebookdata/Media%20Sciences/Film/British%20Film%20Design%20A%20History%20by%20Laurie%20N.%20Ede.pdf)
16. [Michael Charlesworth, "Caravaggio," Senses of Cinema, Issue 111, November 2024](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2024/cteq/caravaggio/)
17. [Caravaggio, visa no. 66890, CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée)](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/66890)
18. [Caravaggio (1986) critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/caravaggio/critics-reviews)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Biographical films of musicians, artists, and writers › Biographical films about visual and performing artists*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license