Jarmusch's new vampire drama (god, how pretentious it sounds) has made a lot of fuss in Cannes, Toronto and the rest of the world. While film description places it along with those cliche «vampire movies», so we expect it to obey certain rules and norms, like shallowness, for instance or saliently poor acting, with the opening credits you will reject that hypothesis. Only Lovers Left Alive has it all: exquisite visuals, thought-provoking dialogues, breathtakingly talented actors, in one word - every ingredient to produce a tasteful auteur movie.
Not only there are
vampires but they have also got love on their minds and stopped
eating, or shall I say drinking, mortals. Does that sound corny? Yes,
it does. A lot. Put something on and hurry to the nearest cinema
because instead of sickly-sweet you will only see refined and smart.
The storyline in Only
Lovers Left Alive is built around a centuries old couple named Adam and
Eve, talking in grandiloquent manner and dressed painfully stylish.
It is indeed melodramatic enough, yet there is a thin line between
Shakespearean melodramatic and mawkish teen movies about vampires.
Frankly, I'd go as far as to say this is one of my favourite love
stories on screen. Adam is a depressed and reclusive musician tired
of meaningless existence of those around him (read mortals). His
journey through hundreds years marked many ground-breaking events in
both science and art, but now he's experiencing excruciating
annoyance witnessing the collapse of human civilization. Even though his wife Eve lives miles away in Morocco, their love is
probably the only thing that's keeping him sustained. Well, except
for the blood, I suppose. Given that Tilda Swinton is an ethereal
creature herself, her Eve is enigmatic, wise and unruffled. Tom
Hiddleston, on the other hand, with his posh accent and eyes only genuinely depressed person may have, and I treat it as a medical term here, is
a quintessential Hamlet.
The director negates the mere concept of narrative here. The characters do not pursuit an ultimate goal, as it should be. Instead, their life is based on solving day-to-day issues, mostly connected with food supplies. This technique, however, serves to accentuate the visuality of the film. Sometimes it gets dangerously close to noir, nevertheless, it is romantic to the core. The viewer is to elicit a lot from the way characters dress, the place they are living in, the cities they travel to. Time cease to exist in Only Lovers Left Alive not being important at all. What matters here really is a chance to look at yourself from that very angle that uncovers every flaw.
In fact, there is a lot of word play, intelligent and not at all subtle, as well as allusions of all sorts. Jarmusch's triumphal comeback is like usual – a must see, artful with a long-lasting aftertaste. The cinematic world, as we all know, always has its own set of rules, however, the world of Only Lovers Left Alive is strikingly real, pushing the viewers out of their comfort zone through tackling some burning issues. “What are we gonna do now”, - consequently the characters ask themselves the question at some point.
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