BYZANTIUM

Ireland, 2013, 117 minutes, Colour.
Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronin, Sam Riley, Daniel Mays, Caleb Landry Jones, Johnny Lee Miller, Tom Hollander, Maria Doyle Kennedy.
Directed by Neil Jordan.

Byzantium is an exotic entertainment from Irish director, Neil Jordan. It is a vampire entertainment for an adult audience. Jordan had already ventured into the adult vampire genre with his 1994, Interview with the Vampire. He had also ventured into the horror field with his film version of Angela Carter’s, Company of Wolves.

The setting here is south-eastern England. The drama takes place on the coast and on the beach and piers. Two sisters take refuge, one a prostitute who works in a strip bar, the other a younger sister, aged 16. They are played by Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronin. It emerges that they are vampires and, in fact, mother and daughter. The daughter is telling her story, writing it out for 200 years and then throwing away the text. In a restaurant, playing the piano, she befriends a young man, Frank (Caleb Landry Jones) to whom she gives a copy of her story. Matters become more complicated as she attends an education course and the director reads her story and interrogates her sister about the history.

Ella, the sister, will drink blood only from old people who are willing to die or people in similar circumstances. There is a crisis when Frank, who suffers from leukaemia, is bleeding, but she takes him to hospital where he recovers.

In the meantime, members of the Brotherhood of the vampires is pursuing the two women to destroy them. This leads to a number flashbacks, when Clare, the older, is working on the seashore, encounters two soldiers, opts to go off with one and becomes a prostitute. It emerges that one of the soldiers was wounded in battle but has come back to life, turned into a vampire in a ritual in a cave on an island where, when the turning happens, the cascades of water become blood.

When the pursuers catch up with the two women, there is a crisis for the older sister who became a vampire when it was forbidden. And Ella decides to turn Frank and, presumably, live happily ever after.

There is actually a great deal in the plot and the themes of this film, entertaining and interesting.


1. The impact of the film? A vampire film for adults? Comparisons with other such stories? And the comparison with the Hammer horror film which the characters watch the television sequence?

2. Neil Jordan, the range of his films, tastes? Vampires and Interview with Vampire? Horror with The Company of Wolves? In Dreams?

3. The use of vampire lore? The Brotherhood, the island for transformation, with its cascade of blood? Women excluded? Women being hunted down? Possibility of death – decapitation? Vampires moving in society, not detected? Adapting to the times? But not ageing? The secrecy?

4. Ella’s story, her narration, writing her story, tossing the pages away? The secret, contained? It her decision to show the story to Frank? His showing it to the teacher, to the social worker? Ella with an inner desire to reveal the story? The consequences?

5. The introduction to Ella and Claire, as sisters, travelling, trying to settle? The 200 years, surviving? Claire protecting Ella? Ella and her seeking out people, her nail, to pierce the skin and get blood? The encounter with the old man, her kindness and his willingness to die? The old lady and the hostel, the music and her death? her choosing only people who wish to die? Frank, the possibility of taking his blood?

6. Claire, the club, striptease, as a prostitute, her being pursued, the struggle, the decapitation? The decision to pack, to move?

7. The encounter with Noel, the pickup, his impotence, his grief at his mother’s death, talking with Claire, her sympathy? Taking them home? The old hotel, Byzantium? Then moving in, settling, Noel and Claire in the sexual relationship, Ella in her room, her privacy? Going out to the girls on the street and at the jetty, taking them in, the way they had been treated, setting up the brothel, the range of clients, the money?

8. Ella, knowing what her sister did, going for a walk, the seaside town, the pillars and tunnel, going into the cafe, playing the piano, Frank and his attention, praise? Their meeting, becoming friends, but her inability to reveal her secret? His leukaemia, the flow of the blood, the accident, Ella taking him home, the mother and her concern, the hospital, her visit and wanting it to be a secret from Frank?

9. The adult education class, the teacher, everybody reclining on the floor, remembering their past, speaking out? Ella and her dream? Her secrets? Writing the story again, giving it to Frank? The teacher and his reading it, coming to Byzantium, the discussions with Claire, the flashbacks, and his death? The social worker and her reading the story, interviewing Ella, trying to help, disbelieving?

10. The insertion of the flashbacks, Claire as a young girl, the encounter with Ruthven and Darville? Her work, on the shore, the shells? The period, the men on horses, her decisions? Going with Ruthven? The years passing, her becoming a prostitute, his visiting her? The madame? The surprise when Darville returned? Ruthven thinking he was dead? The flashback, Darville’s injuries during the war, his return, going to the island, climbing the cliff, into the cave, Darville’s experience of the blood, being drained, the cascade of blood in the waterfall? Asking Ruthven to get him water? Ruthven and his wanting to get the map, to be transformed? The irony of Claire getting it, going to the island herself and the experience?

11. Ella and her seeing the cloaked and bonneted girls walking along the beach? Seeing herself? Her experience in the orphanage, the cruelty of those in charge? Claire and the financial support of her daughter? Watching over the years? Ella in the orphanage, the strictness? Ruthven arriving, his violence and viciousness, the rape? Claire intervening, transforming her daughter at age 16?

12. The fact that Claire was Ella’s mother, the 200 years, passing as sisters? Protection?

13. The character of the adult education teacher, his classes, reading the manuscript, visiting Claire, the attraction, listening to the story, his death?

14. The return of Darville and his companions, the audience thinking they were the police, but the Brotherhood’s pursuit of the women, retracing the
women’s steps, the drained and dead bodies? The buildup to the confrontation? Frank and his presence? Darville and his not executing Claire but his companion?

15. Ella, her attitude towards her mother, the separation, her future with the Darville saving her?

16. Ella, taking Frank to the island, this cascade of blood?

17. An intriguing adult vampire story?