Monday, March 28, 2016

Off Script: Only Lovers Left Alive

Film: Only Lovers Left Alive
Format: DVDs from DeKalb Public Library on laptop.

I don’t know if Jim Jarmusch can be considered an acquired taste because I liked Jarmusch’s films from my first viewing of them. While I could probably rank his films in some order, every one that I have seen is one that I’ve liked. Only Lovers Left Alive is a film that I’ve wanted to see for some time, and it’s a film that makes me angry on a specific point. That it does says far more about me than it does about Jim Jarmusch or Only Lovers Left Alive.

In a very real sense, this is probably the least horror movie horror movie I’ve seen in a long time. It’s classified as such only because our two main characters and two of their main associates are vampires. We’re never actually told that they are vampires and that word appears nowhere in the film, but they have fangs, drink blood, can’t go out during the day, and appear to be undying. The film is not so much about them tracking down victims and killing them or about the tortured love between vampire and human victim, but about the endless toll of the years on them and their troubled and increasingly difficult existence in the modern world.

Adam (Tom Hiddleston) lives in a virtually abandoned section of Detroit. His only real contact with the outside world is through Ian (Anton Yelchin), who procures rare and expensive musical instruments for him. Adam survives by buying blood from a local hospital (or possibly blood bank) from a doctor (Jeffrey Wright). From the very beginning it’s implied that the blood of humans has become tainted in some way, and drinking directly from the source has certain risks involved.

Halfway across the world in Tangier live Eve (Tilda Swinton) and Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt). Yes, that Christopher Marlowe, who in the world of the film really is the author of all of Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays. Marlowe acquires “the good stuff” through his connection Bilal (Slimane Dazi), who then gives some of that to Eve. Despite their separation, Adam and Eve are married. When they talk, Eve senses that Adam has become depressed and possibly suicidal, so she journeys by night to visit him. Her instincts are correct—Adam has recently commissioned a wooden bullet made that he can use to shoot his own heart.

Reconnecting with Eve brings him back a bit, though, but trouble begins with the arrival of Ava (Mia Wasikowska), Eve’s sister. Ava, while certainly centuries old, is considerably younger acting than both Adam and Eve. She is also reckless, and her actions force Adam and Eve to make some difficult and potentially life-threatening decisions.

Truthfully, there’s a lot to unpack from Only Lovers Left Alive. First is the overall style of the film, and this is a film that drips with style and atmosphere. Virtually all of the film (of course) takes place at night, and much of the idea of decay and degradation of humanity and society is reflected in the blasted landscapes of Detroit. It’s all abandoned factories and boarded up houses, as much a ghost town as anything left behind after a bombardment. There’s no question that Jarmusch chose Detroit specifically for this reason. The music—much of it attributed to Adam—seems to touch on the same themes of death and decay, and comes across as nothing so much as modern funeral dirges.

The characters themselves are equally stylized. Adam wears only black while Eve wears mainly white touched sometimes with a little red. They are yin and yang, male and female, despondent and still aching for experience, filled with ennui and curious of everything. While opposites in so many respects, they are also similar in many, two sides of the same coin.

I also find the characters’ reaction to blood to be fascinating. They are much less feeding on and dependent on blood than they appear to be addicted to it. A small aperitif glass of “the good stuff” (which is apparently type O-negative) causes an almost heroin-like reaction. It’s an interesting choice.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t spend a few lines on John Hurt. I love John Hurt. I like listening to him talk and any movie that has him in it, for me, has an immediate bump in its favor. He’s not in this much at all, but his presence looms large over a great deal of the film, since it is implied in some sense that both Adam and Eve are his spiritual (and possibly vampiric) children. Both of them hold him in high esteem, so that even their conversations in Detroit seem to have a little bit of Hurt’s Marlowe in them.

So why does this make me mad? Because I’m not that good a fiction writer. I had the idea years ago to explore what might happen with vampires living in a world plagued by AIDS, but I didn’t have the chops to pull it off. Now, when I think I might actually be able to do it, Only Lovers Left Alive has more or less done that very thing without doing it explicitly.

The fact that I’m a shit writer shouldn’t mean that you can’t enjoy this film, though, and you should enjoy it. It’s a hell of a good story and it’s beautifully realized. In fact, the only real possible downside to Only Lovers Left Alive is that for a horror movie, there’s not a great deal of horror in it. Seriously, how much horror do you expect to get from vampires who rob blood banks and not jugular veins? Still, while there’s not much scare, there’s a lot of beauty and a great deal worth seeing.

Why to watch Only Lovers Left Alive: Only Jarmusch could make a vampire film like this one.
Why not to watch: If you’re looking for a real horror movie, this isn’t it.

10 comments:

  1. Yeah, this is a vampire drama, not a horror movie. I liked the thought-provoking premise of what it does to a person to live for centuries, and I also thought it was an original idea that the vampires didn't kill for blood. Although I've gotta admit the slow pace and lack of plot frustrated me.
    Nice idea of yours to have vampires living in a world plagued by AIDS, maybe somebody will read this review and run with it.

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    1. I get that the pace can be off-putting, but I liked it. The characters have lived for so long that the pace is, more or less, suitable to them since it's the pace they've learned to live at. It's the main reason that Ava is such a tornado in their lives--she hasn't figured that out yet.

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  2. I definitely admired this, but it is so cool that I couldn't quite get into it as much as I wanted (I am pretty much the opposite of cool). I did like the ending, especially the last shot.

    I did find it funny reflecting on the dynamic between Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska here and in Crimson Peak. Could not have been more different!

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    1. I almost went with the last shot for the picture here, but decided against it. It is a great shot, but it's not really representative of the film as a whole.

      I thought the same thing about Crimson Peak in relation to this.

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  3. I liked this one quite a bit - to the point it might be my favorite Jarmusch film (although Ghost Dog is right there, too).

    Two comments on the AIDS story - I'd say write it anyway, just for your own satisfaction at least. And two, the concept isn't new to Jarmusch. I remember reading a published short story back in the 80s where a brother to a vampires' victim offers himself to them. They are suspicious, but finally accept. They do a blood test to check for AIDS, but he fools it somehow (I forget exactly). We find out at the end that he intentionally infected himself with the plan to intentionally infect and kill the vampires who killed his sibling.

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    1. Ghost Dog doesn't seem to get the love I think it deserves, so it's nice to hear I'm not alone in thinking it deserves more acclaim.

      In terms of the AIDS story...I've discovered that I'm a far better editor of other people's work than I am a writer or editor of my own work.

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  4. I couldn't get into this, at all. I don't mind that it's a drama and not a horror, but I do mind that nothing happened. There is no plot and the pace is so languid and lacking in energy it's lifeless. I get the various comments it's making on humanity, it just says them in a way that's completely uninteresting to me. The also slow "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" does similar things a lot better. And yes, I really like Ghost Dog so I'm not totally averse to Jarmusch's style.

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    1. I think that's fair, although I appreciated the pace. I do think something happens, though. Ava knocks the two of them out of the existence they are living. In a sense, both Adam and Eve have gotten to a place where their lives are nothing more than music and books respectively. By the end, they need to start taking risks again--essentially living again with all of the excitement and problems that entails.

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  5. Surprisingly, I also actually quite liked this one. It's weird and slow, but it's mesmerizing to watch. I also didn't go into it expecting a horror movie.

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    1. I did only because, y'know, vampires. Still, with Jarmusch you never really know what you're going to get.

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