ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

US, 2013, 117 minutes, Colour.
Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, John Hurt, Jeffrey Wright.
Directed by Jim Jarmusch.

In recent years, there seems to be a multi-presence of vampires in books, television programs, films. Is this a subconscious longing for readers and viewers for some kind of immortality? With many of the answers on offer, vampire immortality is not something to be sought. However, the two vampires in this film lead very comfortable lives, as long as the blood supply is readily available.

This is a vampire film for adult audiences. Teen audiences have been able to enjoy the Twilight series and popular comedies like Vampire Academy. Those with a taste for more violent stories have been amply catered for, especially with the television series, True Blood. But what about adults? There have been some adult vampire films but not so many. One of the much better adult vampire films, Byzantium, directed by Neil Jordan, failed to get cinema release in some countries. Actually, this reviewer would recommend Byzantium instead of Only Lovers Left Alive.

Jim Jarmusch is the writer and director here, an idiosyncratic film-maker for the last 30 years, working in a wide range of genres. While his story is rather simple: centuries-old married couple, one living in Tangiers, the other in Detroit, meet up again, enjoy each other’s company, are disturbed by the visit of a free-wheeling sister who wreaks a bit of havoc, including draining her potential boyfriend, and is ousted, the couple deciding to return to Tangiers. And, in Tangiers, they have a great friend, Kit Marlowe, in fact the celebrated playwright, Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt).

The film was very stylish in its visuals, everything happening at night, the creative use of colour, camera angles, editing. The film was also very stylish in the range of the musical score, quite different styles of music as background to a variety of sequences. But the language… this is a great drawback for some audiences who have a more cultivated sensibility. But with the proliferation of four letter expletives, some of the dialogue, especially from the husband, becomes irritating and tiresome – surely a film-maker like Jim Jarmusch has a wider range of creative vocabulary at hand instead of the lazy approach of four letter substitutes. This coarsens the impact of the film and the characters.
Tilda Swinton is the wife, a cultured woman, adept at speed reading and so absorbing a great deal of knowledge, as well as enjoying her friendship with Christopher Marlowe. Tom Hiddleston is the husband, the composer living in the Motown capital, adapting to contemporary musical styles, with a large number of guitars, many of them supplied by a young man in Detroit, Ian, played by Anton Yelchin. The troublesome sister, all 21st century attitudes, language and narcissism, whose last annoyance to the couple was in Paris 87 years earlier! is played by Mia Waskikowska.

There is a doctor in Detroit, played by Jeffrey Wright, who is not above supplying specialist blood for a cash price. Since there are literary allusions in the film, the couple being called Adam and Eve, there are jokes between Adam and the doctor with all kinds of literary references to various doctors, including Dr Faustus.

Which means that the film is one of atmosphere rather than significant plot, a film that plays on vampire traditions and overturning them or parodying them – although, the quest for blood and survival remains very serious. Many will like this film – and, probably, many will not.

1. The 21st century popularity of vampire stories, novels, television, films? The reason for the popularity? The tradition of vampire stories? The tradition of vampire films? This film for an adult audience, arthouse audience? The differences from other films?

2. Jim Jarmusch and his career, imagination, the blend of the serious, the comic, offbeat?

3. The importance of his visuals, the visual style, camera work and angles, editing and pace, seems only at night? In Tangiers, in Detroit, apartments, the contents and clutter, the streets, exotic Africa, downtown Detroit, the buildings, the clubs?

4. Importance of music, the range of the score, the various moods for atmosphere?

5. The language, at times elevated, how contemporary for vampires, American slang and jargon, coarse language?

6. The plausibility of the plot? Adult vampires? Their being turned? Their lives over the centuries, living only at night, yet ordinary and blending? Eve and her reading, speed reading, educated? Adam and his music, composing? The travelling at night? The friendship with Christopher Marlowe – that Christopher Marlowe?

7. Adam and Eve, and Ava, Kit Marlowe, and the various jokes about the doctors, literary?

8. Eve’s life, in comfort, Tangiers and its atmosphere Western Mark her friendship with Kit, the discussions, his career? The need for blood? His special blood? Her phone calls to Adam? Her relationship with him, love for him?

9. At, Detroit, composing the music, his many instruments, his friendship with Ian, Ian bringing the instruments and Adam delighted with them? His isolation? Asking for the Broughton bullet? The phone call with Eve?

10. Eve, the travel arrangements, coming to Detroit, the atmosphere of Detroit, the bankrupt city, a decaying city?

11. Adamant Eve, their love, memories of their weddings, over the centuries, comfortable with each other? Tender? Eve as literate? Adam as 21st-century cool? His attitudes, intolerance, his language?

12. Ian, his help, his puzzles about at, admiring him?

13. Ava, a young vampire, memories of Paris and her misdemeanours? The 21st century style, clothes, attitudes, the need for blood? Including? Inconsiderate? Going out, dancing at the club, meeting with Ian, bringing him back home, they’re trashing the room, her being ousted? Her turning Ian and her lack of control? Departure?

14. The Dr, the friendship with at, the laboratory, getting the blood, taking the cash? The jokes about the various literary doctors?

15. The couple leaving Detroit, the travel arrangements, at night, in the plane, the need for blood, getting weaker, arriving in Tangiers, the taxi, walking the streets on the steps? Going to seek Kit, discovering him ill, the discussions, his death? The few drops of blood?

16. The couple in the Street, Adam and Eve and their decision, the approach to the couple – turning them?

17. Atmosphere versus plot? The treatment of the vampire story? Whether any deeper meanings?