Jubilee + Fires Were Started

Jubilee. Dir. Derek Jarman. 1978, 106 mins. DCP source: BFI. Preceded by Fires Were Started. Dir. Humphrey Jennings. 1943, 63 mins. 35mm print source: BFI. Humphrey Jennings’s only feature film is a docudrama centered around a real group of heroic firefighters as they extinguish the destructive blazes of war; Derek Jarman’s Jubilee follows a group of nihilistic punks who love nothing more than to set anything ablaze. In both films the spirit and mettle of the directors’ respective Britains are on display, and Jennings’s heart-heavy optimism is starkly opposed by Jarman’s bitterness. A mythic inferno opposes the British spirit, but may also be the only way to access it as it slips away, and both Fires Were Started and Jubilee explore this in contrasting but similar ensemble narratives.

Tickets: $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for children under 3 and Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online.(Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum (see gallery hours). View the Museum’s ticketing policy here. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page.