Watching: Only Lovers Left Alive

Only Lovers Left Alive

I already wrote about this movie when I wrote about my summer film fest, but I've watched it twice since then, and keep thinking about it a lot.  I thought about this movie on and off all summer, particularly as some of the themes are pertinent to the novel I'm writing.

So.  As I wrote before, the movie is almost without plot, and is mostly just a long, slow meditation on art, music, literature, math, and science with a love story at its core.  The two lovers, Adam and Eve, have been married for centuries, and they are still madly, passionately in love.  They don't live together all the time, but they do need each other very much.  I love watching the two of them together, because the dynamic is so interesting.

I loved all the details that Jarmush brought out in those slow scenes, of Adam and Eve being together and obviously enjoying each other's company.  These two people are very different, but they seem to relish the differences between them, and find those differences helpful to their dynamic as a couple.
Adam is very dark and aloof, and tends toward melancholy, seeing the worst in the things, whereas Eve is light and warm, and curious about the world.  She's half full, he's half empty.  Their relationship has a physicality, but it is almost all off-camera, implied rather than shown.  Their physical relationship is instead shown in a high degree of bodily intimacy.  They are so vulnerable with each other, and so conscious of caring for the other person.  You can tell they've been through a lot together.  I found it all fascinating and endearing.

There are some funny literary and musical references sprinkled throughout, mostly of the alternative history variety--I love the fact that one of the side characters is a vampire called Christopher Marlowe (brilliantly played by John Hurt).  It gives the movie some levity.

I kind of have a girl crush on Tilda Swinton now.  I always liked her as an actress, but I couldn't take my eyes off her in this movie.  She lights up every scene she's in.  She's interesting to watch, and her face is so expressive.  I appreciate the fact that she is very comfortable in her skin.  I love that she just doesn't care about so-called body standards in the industry (and by extension, society).  I read somewhere that she said there's really no reason to get fussed up about bodies.  Everyone has one, and they are all different.  So what.  Or something like that.  It was a very body-positive statement.  I'm not in a body positive place right now, so I especially appreciate it.

My only complaint about the film as a story is that (as one other reviewer noted) the last few scenes seemed a little rushed, and I would have liked another 30 minutes to round out the storyline in a leisurely manner.  I could have used a little less language throughout the film as well.  It doesn't really add anything to the characters and the story would have been fine without it.

A couple of notes about the film for sensitive viewers: there is a fair amount of language throughout the film, so if that bothers you, I'd give this one a miss.  There is also one short scene with nudity, but it is fairly brief and shown in an artsy way--like a still life.  There is also a short scene in the middle related to vampirism that some viewers might find off-putting.  The movie is primarily about the relationship between Adam and Eve, however, and not about being a vampire.  It's almost incidental.

That's on my mind today.  I seem to be a in rhythm of writing a lot for a few days, then percolating for a day or two, then writing a bunch at night, then percolating a day or two, then writing more during the day.  I'm almost always thinking about something related to the story, throwing things into the mental pot and giving it a stir to see what flavors come out.

I did worry briefly a few weeks ago that I was going to run out of scene ideas before I ran out of story, but I don't think that is going to be a problem.  I have sticky notes everywhere with ideas for scenes I haven't written yet, and I still have fully realized scenes pop into my head unexpectedly, as happened last night at about 10:00 p.m.  I spent an hour writing in bed just to get it on paper before I went to sleep.  It feels good, this writing.  It's also hard work!  The characters have peeled away from me enough to have their own lives and make their own decisions, and now I have to follow where they go, to an extent.  I have questions about the storyline that I don't have obvious answers to right now because I honestly don't know what the characters are going to do when we all get there.  It is part of the adventure, I guess!