DEREK Jarman studied Caravaggio's painting for clues to his screenplay. 'The Beheading Of St John', where the weapon is a knife rather than a sword was, he suggested, "a confessional relating to the murder. From here I developed the idea he had a relationship with his victim... It was more likely to have been a lover's quarrel," while

'The Martyrdom Of St Matthew', Caravaggio's first major commission, has the central nude added much later, which Jarman supposes was inspired by Caravaggio discovering Ranuccio. "The key in unifying and identifying the religious, artistic and sexual sides of his nature," a nature and a life that Jarman has successfully captured in this extraordinary film.

DYLAN REELs BY SCORSESE