The Fundy Film Society

Only Lovers Left Alive

Only Lovers Left Alive

Jim Jarmusch’s (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Night on Earth, Stranger Than Paradise) latest film tells the tale of two fragile and sensitive vampires, Adam (Tom Hiddleston, Midnight in Paris) and Eve (Tilda Swinton, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, I Am Love), who have been lovers for centuries. Both are cultured intellectuals with an all-embracing passion for music, literature and science, who have evolved to a level where they no longer kill for sustenance, but still retain their innate wildness.

Adam, a reclusive underground musician hiding out in the ruins of contemporary Detroit, despairs about human civilization’s decline, and worries about future survival. Eve, who is perhaps 3000 years old to Adam’s 500, takes a longer view of history and is more optimistic. She leaves her home in the ancient city of Tangier to come to his side.

As blood has been tainted by the zombies (humans), the formerly immortal Adam and Eve must secure uncontaminated blood from hospitals or they will perish. Eve’s close friend, Elizabethan dramatist and unacknowledged author of Shakespeare’s plays—Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), is now an elder vampire who provides Eve with hospital blood. Adam gets his supply from Dr. Watson (Jeffrey Wright), a skittish hematologist who provides safe blood at a price.

Adam and Eve’s precarious footing is further threatened by the uninvited arrival of Eve’s carefree and uncontrollable little sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska, Tracks, Albert Nobbs, The Kids Are All Right). Unlike Adam and Eve, Ava has not yet learned to tame her wilder instincts, and her recklessness concerns Adam.

Driven by sensual photography, trance-like music, and droll humor, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive is a meditation on art, science, memory, and the mysteries of everlasting love.

“If Jim Jarmusch’s languorous, laconic style isn’t your bag, his stone-faced vampire comedy won’t make you a believer. Those who’ve already been bitten, however, will swoon like the film’s toothy leads whenever their lips touch neck juice.” (Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York)

“In many respects, Adam and Eve are nocturnal cousins to the angels from Wim Wenders’ Wings Of Desire: They’re secret observers of history, living records of the past with little control over the future. But Jarmusch has no interest in the kind of guilt and grief Wenders wove through his movie; Only Lovers comes in a hipper, sexier shade of melancholy.” (A.A. Dowd, The A.V. Club)

“The casting of Hiddleston and Swinton was a stroke of genius: They emanate a particular sort of cool only they seem privy to, accentuating their alienation.” (Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald)