Tilda Swinton: a Super 8 muse

Few who go to see the blockbuster fantasy The Chronicles of Narnia (top left) will know that Tilda Swinton, the White Witch and real star of the film, has a long and prestigious acting career stretching back to the mid eighties. Back then, the young graduate of Cambridge had worked at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and also had a brief stint as a student at the RSC before becoming the focus of a very different style of filmmaking.

Her long association with the renowned and experimental filmmaker Derek Jarman resulted in her becoming the muse for many of his visually stunning Super 8 and 16mm shorts and features. With films such as The Garden (above) and The Last of England, Swinton truly shone through Jarman's lens and his particular and unique approach to the moving image. After narrating Jarman's last film, the challenging Blue, just before his death in 1994 from AIDS, Swinton has continued with a steady stream of irregular on and off screen appearances including "The Maybe" which saw her lying asleep in a glass case for 8 hours a day in 1995 at London's Serpentine Gallery.

Now living in the far north of Scotland with her family, 2005 has been a prolific year for this most unique of British actresses with her playing Audrey Cobb in Thumbsucker with Keanu Reeves, Gabriel in Constantine (the adatation of the comic book Hellblazer) and a brief appearance as the dreadful hick Penny in Broken Flowers with an ever deadpan Bill Murray.

But it's in the The Chronicles of Narnia that her unique looks and icy cold demeanure really bring C.S. Lewis' character to stunning life. Whilst Aslan the Lion is impressive and the scenery beautifully stunning, it's Derek Jarman's Super 8 star who truly captivates and scares witless at the same time.

With Swinton now slated to play Nico in David Mackensie's account of Andy Warhol's German muse due for release in 2006, it really is a case of life imitating art, or is that vice versa?

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