I sit here in my darkened room listening to the soundtrack
recording of the film that I’m just about to write about. I not sure whether it’s
the hypnotic vibes from this collaboration by SQURL and the Dutch lute player
Jozef van Wissem or perhaps it was the fact that ‘breakfast’ was not delivered
today but I can’t get Jim
Jarmusch latest movie out of my head?
 |
| Adam and Eve.... |
A darkly comic tale of a long-term relationship between
husband and wife is the main theme of Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)[1].
The average marriage today is said to be only 7 years (barely worth the
expense!) so very few marriages last for hundreds of years, with the exception
of the aptly named Adam (Tom
Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda
Swinton) a vampire couple whose relationship could conceivably last for
ever if they can continue to obtain a supply of good quality blood. Adam lives
in the run down backwaters of Detroit while Eve lives in the romantic confines
of Tangiers.
 |
| Christopher Marlowe. |
Similar to Thomas Alfredson’s Let the
Right One In (2008) this is not a tale about vampires but a love story
between two people who happen to be vampires albeit with heightened perceptions
from having lived for such a long period of time. A character study that
Jarmusch claimed is a metaphor for the decline of 21st century
America. Note the bankrupt and run down city of Detroit and compare it to the
vibrant and mystical Moroccan city of Tangiers.
 |
| Sister Ava and Ian. |
The biosphere of our two lovers varies. Whereas Eve accepts
the present with her mobile phone and modern cultural attitude, Adam seems to
be stuck in the culture of the 1960’s and 70’s producing his music on vintage
equipment, collecting guitars from that period and driving a vintage Jaguar. He
dislikes what he calls ‘zombies’; his only human friend is Ian (Anton Yelchin)
who, along with the musical instruments and recording equipment, provides him
with a wooden bullet! His only other contact with the zombie world is Doctor
Watson who works in a hospital and who provides the clean blood that guarantees
Adams survival. Eve, who has come back to join her lover in America, has
previously got her ‘supply’ from the English Elizabethan dramatist and poet
Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt),
the man who allegedly influenced William Shakespeare and died at the age of 29
in 1593, little do the historians know? She also has a younger sister Ava (Mia
Waslkowska) whose actions are not appreciated by Adam.
The Taste of Blood
is playing again and I’m feeling a little faint……….
[1] Shown as part of the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre
Film Club and hosted by Julie and Connor McMorran.
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