War Requiem

Derek Jarman visualizes Benjamin Britten's 1961 oratorio, a requiem for poet and British soldier Wilfred Owen (killed in the final days of World War I), as an impressionistic tour through Owen's life and death. The film is a painterly series of scenes of war and loss, entirely wordless but for a voice-over reading of Owen's poem "Strange Meeting" by Laurence Olivier (who also appears as an old soldier near the end of his life), and features strong performances by a cast that includes Nathaniel Parker, Sean Bean, Nigel Terry and longtime Jarman collaborator Tilda Swinton. Swinton also narrates Isaac Julien's documentary "Derek," which Kino also releases this week.