A few weeks ago I saw a particular gem of a vampire story – The Only Lovers Left Alive. I hear you groan already. Unless you’re an easily-impressed 13-year-old with a penchant for glitter, vampire movies have received some very bad press recently.
This is mostly courtesy of the great bastion of cheesiness that are the Twilight franchise, the serial The Vampire Diaries (as hot as its two male protagonists are) and the like.
Enter this new film from Jim Jarmusch, which successfuly reverses the trend with a beautifully ethereal production that follows Adam and Eve, a couple of vampires whose love has survived the centuries. Adam is played by angst-filled, super-sensual Tom Hiddleston, while the role of Eve falls to the queen of androgyny Tilda Swinton.
A German-British production, it is more an exercise in stunning, moody visuals than in story-telling. The storyline is there all right – vaguely speaking, human blood is mostly contaminated, humans (referred to as zombies by the vampires) have messed up the earth’s eco-system to such an extent that most water supplies are toxic, and Adam and Eve need to find a way to survive. Oh yeah, and Eve’s younger sister (played by an exuberant Mia Wasikowska) threatens to mess things up.
However, the plot is almost incidental. This is not the kind of film where you’re on tenterhooks to know what happens next. The vibe is leisurely, full of long conversations. And the conver-sations are the sort that constantly reference music, literature and the arts. There’s Byron, Shelly, Schubert, Darwin, Copernicus...
Throughout the film, even the protagonists themselves take on a series of names that are almost a nod-nod, wink-wink moment with the audience. Eve travels under the name Fibonacci, the doctor who supplies plasma is Dr Watson, an older vampire is called Christopher Marlowe... and so it goes on.
Pretentious, pseudo-intellectual referencing? Definitely. But still, the audience is included into the joke, which makes it almost acceptable. The only problem arises for those viewers who are not fast enough on the draw to get all the referencing – in this case, they will miss out on a good chunk of the film’s enjoyment.
The locations switch between the evocative, narrow roads and small tea shops of Tangiers to an impressively deserted Detroit that is almost post-apocalyptic. In another name-dropping highlight, Adam is giving Eve the tour of this new Detroit and takes her to see Jack White’s house.
Which brings us to music. Music plays an important role in this film, both within the soundtrack and as a character aid. The best way to describe Adam would be as an olde-worlde hipster. The vinyl and the guitars are present and correct; he is a small-time music producer who gets annoyed when his music is played in a club.
The soundtrack itself is fantastic and won Best Soundtrack at last year’s Cannes festival. The film opens with Wanda Jackson’s Funnel of Love, remixed. I dare say that a different choice of introduction might not have drawn me into the film as this one did. The repetitive riffs, Jackson’s high-pitched voice... the combination is hypnotic.
This is not the kind of film where you’re on tenterhooks to know what happens next
The into music is set to visuals that alternate between a revolving vinyl and the protagonists lying down in their respective rooms, the whole scene slowly rotating clockwise. The effect makes you dizzy and keeps you glued to the scene.
The rest of the soundtrack is a mishmash of cult classics. There’s Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Paganini, the Kasbah Rockers (a Moroccan trip-hop collaborative project) and Lebanese song-writer Yasmin Hamdan, among others.
There are also original compositions by Dutchman Jozef van Wissem and some offerings from Jarmusch’s own band, SQÜRL.
The pacing of the film is slow, incredibly slow. And yet, somehow, you’re never bored. You’re just too busy taking in the ineffable coolness of Jarmusch’s vampires the whole time, to notice.
rdepares@timesofmalta.com