Sightlines · reception
How Blue was received
1993 · Derek Jarman · Blue on Sightlines
The arc
Greeted in 1993 as either a radical masterpiece or a provocation too far — a feature with no images — it's now firmly canonized as one of the great last films and a defining artwork of the AIDS era.
What’s debated
The eternal thread: is Blue actually cinema at all — and is it cheating to just listen to it with your eyes closed?
Its footprint
That single unbroken field of International Klein Blue has become an icon in itself, screened in galleries as often as cinemas and revived in live 'Blue Now' performances; it's the ultimate 'the screen is the image' reference point.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of the queer and experimental canon — a Letterboxd rite of passage that people log less as a watch than as an experience.
Did you know? On its 1993 UK premiere, Channel 4 broadcast the blue screen while BBC Radio 3 simultaneously aired the soundtrack, so viewers could watch the TV with the radio on.
Named by the director
- Yves Klein — Jarman openly built the film around Klein — the project began as a tribute to the artist, and the screen's color is Klein's own International Klein Blue.