Considering that one might describe maverick film maker Derek Jarman and the Italian artist Michelangelo Caravaggio as blood-brothers almost 400 years apart, it always seemed that Jarman was the ideal director to film the painter's tortured life story. As Caravaggio painted portraits of young men with his brushes, so Jarman does with his camera - skilfully aided by the colourwork of cinematographer Gabriel Beristain. Of the merits of the film's anachronistic content, one is less sure, but there are measured portrayals in the required vein by Nigel Terry, Sean Bean and Tilda Swinton.


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