[film] Only Lovers Left Alive (23-Feb-14)
Monday, March 10th, 2014 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthA vampire film with Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton? There was never any doubt that I was going to see this -- and I wasn't disappointed. It is a beautiful film, full of circles and light and gorgeous ruin. (I don't just mean Adam -- played by Tom Hiddleston -- though he certainly fits that description.) Only Lovers Left Alive is a subtle film, not hammering home its messages (art must be 'out there' to be appreciated; one has to change to survive; love is salvation) but presenting them as casually as it presents Eve (Tilda Swinton) and her knack of knowing the age of any object she touches; langorous reclusive musician Adam, and the roundabout ways in which he ensures his music is heard; Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt! Though I don't know why Marlowe had aged when Adam and Eve -- and Ava (Mia Wasikowska), Eve's brattish younger sister-of-choice -- all looked young, or at least ageless) and his art ...
Adam, Eve and Marlowe all try to maintain a certain purity: the blood they drink comes from medical establishments, and they're horrified when Ava shows up and drinks from a human. (Also, one of the funniest moments of the film.) But the supply lines are precarious, and choices have to be made.
The plot, in brief: Adam is dying of boredom, appalled by what the 'zombies' have done to their world; his wife Eve, eternally fascinated by and engaged with the human world, rescues him. Meanwhile, Ava is a brat. The film moves from decaying Detroit to cosmopolitan Tangiers, both beautifully shot (though, of course, never in daylight). And the music is marvellous too, especially Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan.
I'm fascinated by the hints at who, and what, Adam and Eve have been in the past. Adam hung out with the Romantic poets (“Byron was a pompous bore") and gave Schubert an adagio; Eve is a huge fan of Jack White; Marlowe wishes he'd met Adam before he wrote Hamlet ...
Adam, Eve and Marlowe all try to maintain a certain purity: the blood they drink comes from medical establishments, and they're horrified when Ava shows up and drinks from a human. (Also, one of the funniest moments of the film.) But the supply lines are precarious, and choices have to be made.
The plot, in brief: Adam is dying of boredom, appalled by what the 'zombies' have done to their world; his wife Eve, eternally fascinated by and engaged with the human world, rescues him. Meanwhile, Ava is a brat. The film moves from decaying Detroit to cosmopolitan Tangiers, both beautifully shot (though, of course, never in daylight). And the music is marvellous too, especially Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan.
I'm fascinated by the hints at who, and what, Adam and Eve have been in the past. Adam hung out with the Romantic poets (“Byron was a pompous bore") and gave Schubert an adagio; Eve is a huge fan of Jack White; Marlowe wishes he'd met Adam before he wrote Hamlet ...
