Two more odd thoughts about Only Lovers Left Alive
Because this movie is haunting me....
1) It is a truth personally acknowledged that any film or play in which a beautiful couple like Hiddleston (despite horror-wig) and Swinton lies about in dressing gowns for much of the second act is going to get me right in my longstanding and profound Noel Coward love. (I almost wrote 'feels' instead of 'love,' and then imagined Sir Noel's expression of dismay and changed the word.)
Exhibit A. As the Master has Amanda say, "I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives." BLESS.
2) The AV Club review of Only Lovers Left Alive calls it "a funny, deeply romantic hangout movie that treats art not just as a reason to live, but also as a rejuvenating force in a relationship." I think that's spot-on, but I'm really interested in the idea that this is a "hangout movie."
In an odd way, Jarmusch's treatment of the vampires Adam and Eve is arthouse-film-meets-fanfic.
Arthouse films often (although not always) privilege lingering images and discursive conversation over propulsive narrative. The goal is rather to explore the characters' worlds and their interior lives. And isn't that the goal of some kinds (I emphasize SOME kinds) of fanfic? It's a chance to hang out with characters and explore their worlds and lives in ways that genre sources in particular often just don't have either the time or desire to spend. So there's something especially delicious in Jarmusch taking vampires, these genre-story staples, and ficcing about them. :)
May you find happy-making things and stories to explore today.
1) It is a truth personally acknowledged that any film or play in which a beautiful couple like Hiddleston (despite horror-wig) and Swinton lies about in dressing gowns for much of the second act is going to get me right in my longstanding and profound Noel Coward love. (I almost wrote 'feels' instead of 'love,' and then imagined Sir Noel's expression of dismay and changed the word.)
Exhibit A. As the Master has Amanda say, "I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives." BLESS.
2) The AV Club review of Only Lovers Left Alive calls it "a funny, deeply romantic hangout movie that treats art not just as a reason to live, but also as a rejuvenating force in a relationship." I think that's spot-on, but I'm really interested in the idea that this is a "hangout movie."
In an odd way, Jarmusch's treatment of the vampires Adam and Eve is arthouse-film-meets-fanfic.
Arthouse films often (although not always) privilege lingering images and discursive conversation over propulsive narrative. The goal is rather to explore the characters' worlds and their interior lives. And isn't that the goal of some kinds (I emphasize SOME kinds) of fanfic? It's a chance to hang out with characters and explore their worlds and lives in ways that genre sources in particular often just don't have either the time or desire to spend. So there's something especially delicious in Jarmusch taking vampires, these genre-story staples, and ficcing about them. :)
May you find happy-making things and stories to explore today.