The Angelic Conversation is a lyrical, haunting film about a young man’s search for love in a dreamlike landscape. Its tone is set by the juxtaposition of slow moving homo-erotic images and opaque landscapes through which two men take a journey into their own desires. Offscreen, Dame Judi Dench recites a sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets that counterpoint the action. Jarman called it, “My most austere work, but also the closest to my heart.”

Judi Dench
as (voice)

Paul Reynolds
as

Philip Williamson
as

Dave Baby
as

Timothy Burke
as

Simon Costin
as

Christopher Hobbs
as

Philip MacDonald
as

Toby Mott
as

Steve Randall
as
CinemaSerf
Paul Reynolds and Philip Williamson reminded me of silent film actors in this really quite poignant tale of homosexual longing, lust and pure love all complemented by a Shakesperian narrative consisting of fourteen of his sonnets read, emotively and vibrantly, by Judi Dench. The imagery is often qui...