War Requiem

This book contains an introduction by producer Don Boyd, the script or list of scenarios by Derek Jarman, the libretto of the "War Requiem" compiled by Imogen Holst for Benjamin Britten, and Derek Jarman's film notes. Jarman's film, commissioned by the BBC, has been shot on location at the Darenth Park Hospital in Kent, a location which serves imaginatively as the trenches and No Man's land of World War I. The film stars Laurence Olivier as the Old Soldier, Tilda Swinton as the Nurse and Nathaniel Parker as Wilfred Owen himself. Jarman makes use of existing war footage to punctuate the scenes between his characters, and to make the point that no matter how a nation may suffer and sacrifice during a war, that war itself will never come to an end. Derek Jarman's work includes "The Tempest", "Jubilee", "Sebastiane", "Caravaggio" and "The Last of England".