what we know of caravaggio suggest a strut brawler with a healthy sense of entitlement who live amongst whore and thief and hustler and put them on canvas . his work theme be sex and death and redemption and above all and find the sacred within the profane . he live at a time where homosexuality carry a death sentence and political intrigue normally involved fatality in a society define by the maxim strangle the boy for the purity of his scream . you can not fault derek jarman for his cinematography and nor his recreation of caravaggio painting and you certainly can not accuse the man of shy away from the homosexuality . but frankly and jarman never stray beyond 80 caricature . italian patronage become the 80 london art scene complete with pretty waiter and calculator . sean bean be a sexy bit of northern rough oil his motorbike . tilda swinton perform a transformation worthy of a mill and boon ( why and miss lena and without that gypsy headscarf and youre beautiful . ) . jarman provide caravaggio with a particularly trite motive for the murder which leave him exile . this could have be a visually stunning treatment of a man whose life be dangerous and exciting and violent and decadent but who nonetheless elevate the life of ordinary people to the status of renaissance masterpiece and look on by emperor and king . instead and what you get be pierre et gilles do italy . the pretty body of young boy be show to perfection and but never the men who inhabit them . jarman appear to satirise the london art scene and show it shallow and pretentious . to use caravaggio and renaissance italy to make the point be to use a silk purse to make a pig ear . in fairness and this film remain visually stunning and but ultimately a two dimensional a the painting it describe .