…or
how to do a vampire love story right. “Only Lovers Left Alive” is a little independent
movie by Jim Jarmusch. If you blinked last year, you probably missed it - and
that’s a shame. The movie was released on DVD in Germany yesterday and I took
the chance to snatch a copy for myself.
Okay,
so my main reason was this:
But,
seriously, the movie stars more people than just Tom Hiddleston, who is
standing there and looking delicious. The main cast also includes Tilda
Swinton, Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, and John Hurt. That’s also about all
the main characters, four of which are vampires and one proves very mortal.
How
do you make a vampire movie these days? With the vampire being one of the
classic monsters of horror, it’s very much a case of ‘been there, done that’
for most things you could think of. ‘Good vampires’ have been done over and
over again recently. That was fun once (Louis du Point du Lac), even twice (Nick
Knight), or three times (Angel), but has become quite tiring by now.
Vampire-human relationships are tricky, too. And a 150-year-old guy should not
hang around high schools and date 16-year-old girls with no personality, if you
ask me.
What
can you do with vampires? What angles haven’t been done to death already? One
angle I’d like to see more often is the whole ‘ennui’ thing. Another is
relationships of any kind among vampires. And how do you cope with seeing the
world change over and over again, as an almost-immortal being? “Only Lovers
Left Alive” deals with all of that stuff to a certain degree. It knits ennui
and world change into one thing, but that’s okay. Seeing how stupid humans stay
over time can be tiring.
“Only
Lovers Left Alive” is the story of Adam and Eve. Well, probably not those Adam
and Eve, you know, the ones from the Garden Eden. However, both are pretty old
as vampires, that much is obvious from several scenes of the movie (and a
deleted scene, in which they talk about how Eve’s people transported the stones
for Stonehenge). Adam is a musician with a solid interest in and knowledge of
technology (good enough so he can build a little Tesla generator in his garden,
so he has electricity at home). Eve is an avid reader, a good dancer, and
overall the more pragmatic of the couple. They’ve been married for a long time
already (their third wedding was in 1868) and are very much in love with each
other. Yet they’ve chosen to live in separate places, he lives in Detroit, she
lives in Tanger.
Adam
is quite depressed, seeing how the humans (the zombies, as they both put it)
treat their surrounding and themselves. How they have even contaminated their
own blood - which makes living as a vampire not exactly easier. Eve, sensing
his mood and worrying for him after a phone call, travels to Detroit to help
him - and not a minute too soon, he already obtained a bullet capable of
killing him. The lovers’ reunion, however, is disturbed by Eve’s sister Ava. (And
can’t you just hear the dialogue between their parents when Ava was born? ‘It’s
a girl again, darling.’ ‘Well, we named our first daughter Eve, how about
naming this one Ava?’ ‘Great idea, darling, let’s do just that.’) Ava is, for
all intents and purposes, a spoiled brat with the self-control and survival
instinct of a wet hanky. How she survived so long (as she must be around 10,000
years old herself, being Eve’s sister), is a complete mystery. Ava just appears
in Adam’s home, not even waiting for an invitation, just going in while Adam
and Eve are going for a late-night drive. She disturbs her sister and
brother-in-law (who is still pissed about that thing in Paris a little over 80
years ago), she diminishes their blood reserves (which Adam gets from a
hospital), and in the end her actions force Adam to abandon his home and his
beloved instruments and flee back to Tanger with Eve. I’m not going to spoil
what happens in Detroit and what happens in Tanger afterwards, but I will say
this: for all the love Adam and Eve have for each other, for all their
knowledge and their close relationship with nature, they are predators and,
unlike some other movies, “Only Lovers Left Alive” accepts that.
The
movie definitely is no blockbuster, no movie made by a large studio for making
money with it. It’s an independent production that relies more on visuals and
the talents of the actors to bring the story to life. There’s few special effects
(unfortunately the two scenes involving mirrors have been cut from the movies,
but are on the DVD), there’s no glamour in the vampires. They are outsiders,
looking a little suspicious (hair seems to be a real problem, once you’ve
become a vampire), acting a little out of time (especially Adam, who has
removed himself pretty much from the world).
Yet
it is exactly this ‘we’re not a major movie’ thing which makes up the charm of
the movie. Detroit, falling into ruins, full of neighbourhoods that are
anything but filled with life. Tanger, an old city, full of people with shady
trades (it seems), yet more alive than Detroit. And four vampires moving
through time, remembering the past, watching the present, sometimes guessing
the future. Four vampires, three of which seem to be creative in their own way
(Christopher Marlowe, played by John Hurt, still writing, Adam composing music,
Eve dancing), and one of which hanging on to life without a real destination (Ava,
who is living in L.A.). When push comes to shove, though, vampires are the
ultimate survivors - and that leaves us both happy for Adam and Eve, who will
survive, and worried for our safety.
“Only Lovers Left Alive”
is definitely a movie worth watching. Don’t expect too much action, rather
expect a well-told story with eccentric characters. In the end, only the lovers
will stay alive, as they have for such a long time already.