Only Lovers Left Alive

Jim Jarmusch is one of the greatest American artists of our time. Since he first came on to the scene he has delivered films of meticulous beauty time and time again. Away from the constraints of narrative and plot, Jarmusch allows the paint brush to roam free as he depicts isolated characters in a baron and derelict America. His style has now become defining of an entire subculture of independent cinema, his mad brilliant quirks and his penchant for the oddballs that are everywhere in life yet never given a voice, has always allowed his films a purity that cannot be replicated. From ‘Permanent Vacation’ through the flawless ‘Dead Man’ and ‘Broken Flowers’ Jarmusch has developed a language in silence and pace, his films are always empty and slow, yet the beauty lies in the considered use of detail, the meticulously chosen word and the appropriate knowing of when to use music or the right camera angle. His wit is sharp and always on point and his words, though seldom spoke, always perfectly placed with grand purpose. Jarmusch is an American maestro, a real artist, a very rare thing in the modern age, only a few remain.

‘Only Lovers Left Alive’, Jim’s latest film, is utterly mesmerising. Every frame sings and the entire films plays out like a romantic poem of years gone by. The beauty lies in the characters, Adam and Eve, intentionally named as to magnify the extent of their time on Earth, and to symbolise the purity of their love. Two vampire lovers who have been together for over a thousand years, who have witnessed the world change staggeringly in their time, and now as we meet them, they are fatigued and forlorn with an ever changing world, governed by technology and human madness. The lovers, played by Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton so brilliantly are presented as two mad, incestuous, pretentious, upper-middle-class, aristocratic, hipster, artsy snobs, who have grown reclusive and distant from the world and now only understand and take solace in their love for one another. Anything outside their relationship is tainted and to be met with condemnation and disdain.

Surprisingly for a Jarmusch picture, ‘Lovers’ is very funny, utterly deadpan lines always brilliantly delivered by both Hiddleston and Swinton. They are couple who are incredibly fun to hang out with, it is what makes the film so enjoyable to watch, because the characters are so great you don’t want to leave them. The absurdity of their lives in the modern world is so enjoyable to witness the film goes by so quickly. From picking up blood bags in the hospital, to the nonchalant disposal of the body of Adam’s only human friend, there is great humour throughout, despite being a film about real melancholy and disconnection from the world. Adam, desperate to die rather than carry on living in the madness of the 21^st Century, is a tragic figure, who no matter how amusing he may be to us, is suffering and has grown tired of life.

The film at its heart is a metaphorical love affair with antiquity. A love letter to the simplicity of life as it was once led, a cautionary tale as to how mad the world has become, if only we could see it through the eyes of vampires. Everything in the film illustrates this point, Adams love of music and old guitars and recording equipment. His preciousness about his work reflects the attitude of the sanctity of the artist and his work, unwilling to share it with the world as we do now, his work means the world to him and it isn't somehow devalued if he doesn't desire to share it with everybody. Adam’s love of science and logic in its purest form before it became over complicated and misconstrued, his admiration for his heroes, all framed in his study include: William S Burroughs, Edgar Allen Poe, Iggy Pop and Billie Holiday, all artists who hark back to a time gone by, of great artistic achievements in a tangible analogue world. This is reinforced by the humorous reference to Jack White, as White himself is a connoisseur of all things antique and pre-technology, a preserver of the inane but beautiful, an admirer of all that has been created through human endeavour and not of technological means.  

There is true beauty to be found in ‘Lovers’ and is confidently one of Jarmusch’s greatest films, standing tall against ‘Dead Man’ and ‘Down by Law’. Never has a film of such poetic fragility been so humorously executed, Jarmusch himself has never produced a film funnier and more enjoyable to watch. There is real sorrow and drama to be found in the characters. For all their humour and wit, Adam and Eve are seriously unhappy in the world they live in, though their love for each other remains pure. Having lived over a thousand years these two lovers have descended into a mad love that can only be nurtured if they are apart. In order to let their love thrive Eve chooses to live in Tangiers, far away, so that they're love can grow fonder, like a drug, boiling away within them, calling for them to reach out and reunite. And when they do they are ferocious, savouring the touch by staying in bed for an eternity.

‘Lovers’ is also a very successful vampire film. In an age where the vampire genre and the greater horror genre in general have been devalued and diluted by teen-pop interpretations, Jarmusch has created a film of delicate beauty that encapsulates the eroticism and salacious qualities of the vampire, as well as the animal side of the creature; the gothic nature of a nocturnal creature destined to survive on human blood in the dark shadows of our world. Jarmusch captures the inherent swagger and coolness that vampires ought have, not since ‘The Lost Boys’ have vampires looked so cool, playing guitar, with long dark hair, brooding and sulking but as a tortured artist not as a sissy. The vampires depicted in ‘Lovers’ are real, believable and frightening. The whole film rests on the performances of Hiddleston and Swinton, which thankfully are flawless, delicate yet visceral.

Jarmusch, who in recent years is not as prominent a filmmaker as he was in the 90's, has with this film re-emerged with new life, more vital now than ever. He has always been a true American voice, with his own warped depiction of a post industrialised America, soulless and derelict, vast and spacious, beautiful yet aching. His America is distinct and entirely his own, his films throughout the 90's made him the king of independent cinema and it is still good to see that that crown remains his, without a doubt. True American cinema is under threat from the marginalised ever growing blight of the corporate, studio, Hollywood juggernaut, and it is worrying that such great filmmakers like Jarmusch are struggling so much to get their projects made. This is echoed throughout Adam's character in the film, his disdain for LA and the internet, or anything of the modern age, reflect perhaps Jarmusch has grown cynical of making art in the 21st century. However despite this, real cinema has never been in a better place, though it may be harder to create real cinematic art in the 21^st Century, films of this quality and filmmakers this brilliant will always find a way to be seen by those who truly understand.