"As long as the music is loud enough, they won't hear the world falling apart."

My favorite film of all time, Derek Jarman's 1977 cult classic Jubilee. The film centers around a punk girl gang living in post-apocalyptic London. Jarman, an experimental filmmaker who was openly gay, was arguably one of the first British filmmakers to feature positive images of gay sexuality in his films (most notably in Sebastiane), and was called the godfather of queer cinema. His films have often been praised for being allegories of political resistance. While this film does portray some queer characters, it is most significant for it's portrayal of strong female characters, which I would argue makes the film quite feminist.











While the cast and amazing soundtrack give the film a lot of punk cred, it was was controversial in the UK punk scene when it was released because Jarman was considered an outsider looking in. Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood went so far as to create a t-shirt on which she printed an open letter to Jarman, denouncing the film for its misrepresentations of punk.

Either way, Jubilee is iconic for many reasons, particularly for its cast, which includes:

1. A young Adam Ant as an aspiring punk singer, The Kid, when he himself was still an aspiring punk singer.

2. Malcom McLaren/Vivienne Westwood's SEX Boutique model, Jordan, as an "anti-historian" named Amyl Nitrate.

3. New Wave singer Toyah Wilcox (who also appeared in The Who's Quadrophenia) as a pyromaniac named Mad.

4. New Wave French Singer Hermine Demoriane, (who was also a tightrope walker!) as a a French Au Pair.

5. "Little Nell" Campbell, most famous for her role as Columbia in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, as a nymphomaniac named Crabs.

6. Richard O'Brien, writer of Rocky Horror.

7. Legendary transgendered punk singer Wayne County, now known as Jayne County.

8. Score by Brian Eno.

9. A brilliant set of cameos, including one by Siouxsie and the Banshees, and a great one by The Slits: