Akhenaten

Jarman's films have been criticised for being so episodic that they are indiffer­ent to narrative, but in fact Akenaten unfolds with the chronological sequence of historical events, and has obviously been carefully researched. The Sphinx pro­vides a consistent narrative voice. Naturally the Sphinx is a suitable narrator for an Oedipal melodrama, but perhaps it is also a witty reference to the garish son- et-lumiere

shows with voice-overs by the Sphinx that are still popular tourist attrac­tions in Egypt. Akenaten has some set-pieces in common with the novels discussed in the previous chapter: a 'hymn' to the Aten scene, a boundary stela scene, and so on. However, the overall effect is very different, because Jarman gives these standard scenes an Oedipal or homoerotic gloss, and there is more violence and sex than usual. In Akenaten

Tutankhamun and Smenkhkare' are Akhenaten's sons, born from his incestuous relationship with his mother Tiye, and Smenkhkare' becomes his lover as well. As usual in gay versions of Akhenaten, the hetero­sexual love story is downplayed in favour of the homosexual one. Nefertiti plays a subordinate 'wifely' role (at one point she is seen making bread), and her daugh­ters by Akhenaten do not appear at all. Like other gay redactors of Akhenaten, Jarman presents him positively, characterising him according to very conservative and romantic ideas about genius. He is a transcendentally gifted poet and a visionary with a radical view of sexual politics, and the end of Akenaten is ambiguous as to whether his cultural and sexual revolution is defeated or not.

The screenplay begins with Akhenaten's return to Amunhotep Ill's palace after being exposed in the desert as an infant. Short scenes narrate his marriages to Nefertiti and Tiye, his accession to the throne, conflict with the priests of Amun, and the founding of Akhet-aten. The focus then moves onto Akhenaten's infatuation with Smenkhkare', their love affair and eventual marriage. Jealous of Smenkhkare', Nefertiti commits suicide and is cremated at one of the Akhet-aten boundary stelae. Over her ashes, Akhenaten intones a poem very like the Song of Solomon. At the devastated Thebes, Tiye decides that things cannot go on this way any longer. Enlisting Amun as a spiritual authority, she incites her younger son Tutankhamun to murder Smenkhkare' and dismember his body like that of Osiris. Tutankhamun obeys his mother and is duly recognised as king. Akhenaten flees into the desert, and is last seen with the butchered remains of Smenkhkare': he has reassembled them, as Isis reassembled Osiris in the myth. Jarman had obviously read a translation of a famous Egyptian magical papyrus now in Lei­den, several spells of which relate to Isis mourning over Osiris' corpse.) Over Smenkhkare''s body, Akhenaten recites a poetic version of a funerary text found on the coffin from tomb 55 in the Valley of the Kings (see Plate 2.4). The original editor of this text thought that it was spoken by Nefertiti to Akhenaten, but Jarman puts a characteristically gay spin on it by having Akhenaten speak it over Smenkhkare'. He quotes it almost verbatim from Velikovsky:

soul. I will embrace you. Call me by name again and again, for ever, and never will you call without response."'

As he speaks, Akhenaten stares at the dazzling sun to blind himself, like Oedipus in Sophocles' play (although by different means). Jarman thus identifies Akhenaten with Isis and Oedipus simultaneously, apparently as stricken images of mourning. Yet when the mythical intertext is supplied, what Jarman implies by these identifi­cations seems more complex than is obvious at first. In the myths, Isis revivifies Osiris' mangled body with her magic, and Oedipus eventually finds peace and reconciliation after blinding himself and fleeing from Thebes. Akenaten'

s ambigu­ous end simultaneously stages defeat and continuing resistance. It allows for the inspirational possibility of a gay world surviving rather than being wiped out by the repressive political forces, as personified by Tutankhamun and Tiye in Akenaten. Such endings also feature injarman's later films, such as Edward7/(1991).