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John Boorman

Tristan and Isolde

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Carl Jung, "On Psychic Energy" (1948)

“The hero is the symbolical exponent of the movement of libido. Entry into the dragon is the regressive direction, and the journey to the East (the “night sea journey”) with its attendant events symbolizes the effort to adapt to the conditions of the psychic inner world. The complete swallowing up and disappearance of the hero in the belly of the dragon represents the complete withdrawal of interest from the outer world. The overcoming of the monster from within is the achievement of adaptation to the conditions of the inner world, and the emergence (“slipping out”) of the hero from the monster’s belly with the help of a bird, which happens at the moment of sunrise, symbolizes the recommencement of progression.”

Carl Jung, "On Psychic Energy" (1948)

Excalibur

     Tristan (Tristram) is depicted as a friend and counterpart to Lancelot in Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. Characteristically, Boorman “draws the principal characters and stories together” (as he put it in his production notes), connecting the character of Tristan with the figure of Lancelot. In this, Boorman comes perhaps closer than any other filmmaker to the complex mythic synthesis of Arthurian and Celtic material in Wagner’s landmark opera Tristan and Isolde. In the original myths, and in Wagner’s opera, the erstwhile knight falls in love with Isolde after succumbing to a magic potion. Boorman, like Alfred Hitchock in Vertigo (1958), focuses instead on the universal human capacity for self-destruction and on cinematic analogies, with Merlin taking Morgana down into a cave containing one of Boorman’s many proto-cinematic vision machines.
     “Look,” he declares as Arthur finds the lovers and plunges Excalibur into the earth, reinforcing the Jungian psychological subtext and sending Camelot and the surrounding landscape into the condition of a desolate Wasteland that can only be redeemed by the recovery of the Grail.

John Boorman on Wagner and myth (See Chapter 4)

Prelude to Tristan and Isolde (Richard Wagner, 1859)

Wilhelm Furtwängler's 1952 performance at Covent Garden (London)

Tristan and Isolde (Boorman)
Forbidden love in Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981)
Tristan and Isolde (Boorman)
The Dragon and a Cinematic Vision Machine in Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Timing cues for the editing of the sequence above in Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Recording Schedule for Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Recording Schedule for Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Recording Schedule for Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
Recording Schedule for Excalibur (Courtesy John Boorman and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana)
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