With this box set bringing together films from early in Jarman's career with the three films that he completed before his death in 1994, it seems one of the best places to begin to draw out some understanding of his intentions as a filmmaker: to speak frankly about his homosexuality and infection with AIDS, to challenge the narrative constraints of modern cinema (especially in England in the late '70s/early '80s when he first arrived on the scene) and to bring to bear his avant garde/experimental and political leanings in an infinitely watchable form.

The latter is especially true of the two pseudo-biopics that are on this set – Caravaggio and Wittgenstein. Both weave the groundbreaking work of these men into the films (especially the challenging and beautiful paintings of Caravaggio) into stark evocations of their lives brought to bear on sparse sets and Brechtian stagings of key moments in their careers. Even with the tiny budgets Jarman had to work with, both films are filled with arresting imagery and capture the essence of the two men without resorting to over-dramatization or the dull recitation of facts.

Glitterbox also brings to DVD (for the first time, if I'm not mistaken) the film that Jarman is possibly best known for: Blue. The 76-minute film is a single shot of a blue screen accompanied by a stark and beautiful musical score composed by Simon Fisher Turner and the voices of Jarman and frequent collaborator Tilda Swinton (among others) telling the story of his life and ambitions and visions as an artist. It is a rare achievement and comes as close as any director has in capturing how one person views the world in a very literal sense.

What this set truly captures is how liberating viewing Jarman's work can be. If you are willing to remove all kinds of expectations and thoughts about how a movie should be made or how a story should be told, you will get so much out of the five films on this set. They practically beg you to let the sure hand of Jarman and his nimble mind guide you. Until Matthew Barney and Guy Maddin arrived in the film world, no other director seemed willing to ask so much of an audience. For that alone, Jarman and this lovely set of films should receive the highest of praise.