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This elegiac audio-visual poem narrates grief in esoteric vignettes, like lost reels from an occult early cinema. Inspired by and named after the final line in Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem Lament, white city mourns a personal loss during the AIDS pandemic. This grieving process takes on something more private and existential, across mysterious scenes in New York City and the Arizona desert.
Director
Writer
Status
Released
Original Language
EN

Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.

When Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean, she decides to leave for Paris on her own. After spending a year in the city as a mistress of the wealthy Pierre Revel, she is reunited with Jean by chance. This leaves her with the choice between a glamorous life in Paris, and the true love she left behind.