Blue

Blue is an avant-garde film from the 1990's that explores the director Derek Jarman's experience with AIDS. Blue was Derek Jarman's twelfth and final film. Four months after Blue was released, the director died of AIDS-related complications. Blue was Derek Jarman's last statement on AIDS, film and his life vision. By the time Blue was released, Jarman was partially blind, but his experience of the film wasn't hindered. The entire film is one repeated single shot of a very saturated blue color that fills the whole screen. All of the sensory variation and the experience of the film comes from the audio track.

The audio poetically explores the literal and allegorical experience Jarman had as he struggled with AIDS, the battle he ultimately lost. It also includes an exploration of blue as a color and as a symbol with a multitude of meanings. As the viewer stares into the blue screen, they are given a space to meditate on the words spoken by the narrators of the film, and an immersing environment in which they can reflect on their own lives.

The narration in the movie Blue ends with the lines "In time, no one will remember our work. Our life will pass like the traces of a cloud and be scattered like mist that is chased by the rays for the sun for our time is the passing of a shadow. I place a delphinium, Blue, upon your grave."

The most famous contributor to the audio was the British actor Tilda Swinton. The music for the audio was composed by various artists, including Simon Fisher Turner, John Balance, Momus, Peter Christopherson, and Karol Szymanowski.

Upon its initial television release, the British Television Network Channel 4 and BBC Radio 3 released a simultaneous broadcast of the audio track with Channel 4 including the blue screen visual in addition to the audio. To date, the film has been released on DVD in Britain, Germany, and Italy.