This double bill of films made in 1986—Caravaggio by Derek Jarman and Caprice by Joanna Hogg—pays tribute to some of Tilda Swinton’s most enduring friendships and the beginnings of her most significant creative collaborations. Joanna Hogg, one of Swinton’s oldest friends, was a young photographer in the late 1970s when she sought career advice from Derek Jarman. Jarman’s encouragement and mentorship inspired Hogg to pursue her studies at the National Film and Television School. Swinton, having just finished shooting Jarman’s Caravaggio the same year, supported Hogg by starring in her thesis film, Caprice.

While these two films appear ostensibly different, they are both by extraordinary filmmakers and explore the power of image-making and its complicated afterlife. More importantly, they demonstrate Swinton’s incredible versatility as an actress and a creative collaborator who immerses herself in the worlds of her directors, becoming their most embodied and committed citizen.

The screening of Caravaggio will be preceded by Caprice.

Joanna Hogg | 1986 | 26 min.

Caprice stars a fresh-faced Tilda Swinton as she traipses through a Technicolor-inspired wonderland of a fashion magazine brought to life. Inspired by an array of influences—including Jean-Luc Godard, Charles Vidor, Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese, and American cartoons—Joanna Hogg’s graduation film explores the societal pressures on women’s appearance and behaviour. This film was brilliantly referenced 35 years later by Swinton’s daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, who stars in Hogg’s The Souvenir: Part II (2021).

Derek Jarman | 1986 | 93 min.

Derek Jarman’s dramatisation of the tumultuous life of 17th-century artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio deepens the artist-filmmaker’s exploration of how ‘a man’s character is his fate’, as described by the film’s titular protagonist. Starring Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, and Tilda Swinton in her feature debut, this cinematic meditation on art imitating life luxuriates in scenes that exquisitely replicate the chiaroscuro of Renaissance paintings, while also incorporating thoughtful anachronisms that allude to the modern day.