Give new meaning to the phrase “long-term relationship” with these remaining licensed fragrances from Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, starring the inestimable Tilda Swinton and (recent Golden Globe winner) Tom Hiddleston.
oops, I forgot to list movie, that was part of it.
1. Those wigs gotta go. They….kind of….worked for Eve, making her look like an antique doll with dusty, tangled hair; but looked like a dead animal on Adam, 10/10 horrible mess.
2. the zombie references were annoying, it seemed like such a juvenile thing for a 200 year old vampire to say, especially one that supposed to be so intellectual.
3. Ian didn’t have to melt away in the water/acid, the CGI for it wasn’t that great, and it was a bit of gore that was mostly absent from the rest of the film, and it interrupted the flow of an otherwise very consistent style.
4. I liked that vampires could be killed by drinking diseased blood, but it didn’t have to be played out, it could have just been mentioned/referenced.
5. Tom Hiddleston has the least beleivable vampire smile I’ve ever seen (I have seen a lot) and it ruined an otherwise great closing shot. I understand that we’ve been prying into their private lives the entire film, and having them come towards the camera like that at the end was almost like saying “we can only learn so much and live,” putting us in the place of their victims: we’ve witnessed it, we can’t be allowed to share this. But…ugh…maybe no fangs? Maybe less snarl? I have no idea how to fix that, but I cringe every time I see it. Tilda’s as awesome though, she makes an exceptionally convincing vampire.
bonus: Adam plays the entire No. 5 instead of just a minute of it becuase that solo….daaaaaaaamn. Also pls fuck the whole MARLOWE IS SHAKESPEARE bullshit with a chainsaw. I love this film enough that I can ignore it, but why. Why.
Send me a book/movie/tv show and I’ll tell you five thing’s I’d change/
#Perfect just perfect! For you, @annabellioncourt since u loved it so much lol…
[^X Lestat de Valois and Nicolas de Lenfent by @kumiho5]
I think some ppl love Nicolas specifically bc, while he is mentioned, he doesn’t exist in later canon, he’s not as thoroughly explored, there’s more room for the reader to have our own interpretation of him.
As a side note: I really didn’t realize there was so much love for Nicolas until I got on tumblr! I think he represents this generation’s disillusionment with society at large better than Lestat does, Nicolas’ rebellion is a modern-era grunge rebellion, bc he HAS TALENT, and is angry with the way it’s recognized, angry with so much about the way the world runs on autopilot, angry with societal ideals of success. He probably does have some mental issues, too, and I think this generation is more comfortable “coming out” with BPD, or manic-depression, etc. than in 18th century France or at the time TVL was written… with some counseling and/or medication, he might have had a better life.
The reason I love Only Lovers Left Alive is it shows that a character (Adam) can be severely mentally ill, in this case depressed and suicidal, and still be seen as lovable and capable of being loved and loving in return without being “cured” of their mental illness, and that a mentally ill character can have other attributes aside from being mentally ill while still showing the impact being mentally ill has on his personality.
Adam from OLLA is an extremely important character to me you guys.
Those movies came out within a year of eachother (Byzantium in 2012 and OLLA in 2013) so it makes sense to like them both, they both had good cinematography and they both aimed to make their own mark on the vampiring mythology and physiology.
I didn’t like Byzantium, sadly, and I’d rather not dwell on the reasons why since it’s one of your fave movies.
OLLA, on the other hand, is almost the VC movie we’ve deserved for a long time and I loved it! Definitely one of my faves, too. It’s humorous, sensuous, clever, dramatic, all built on a strong foundation of the characters’ chemistry w/ each other. Not alot actually HAPPENS, plot-wise, but it doesn’t need to. We’re getting a slice of life of these characters. It’s mostly a collection of charming subtle moments, like Adam trying Eve’s new “cuisine” for the first time:
^Yes, this moment has a sexiness to it *drool* but more than that, he is almost childlike in both his resistance to *~and his curiosity about~* this New Thing bc he won’t let Eve know she can improve his mood so easily bc Adam is a SERYUS Brooding Musician ffs.
Then of course there are the obvious comparisons to IWTV (and IDK if these were intentional or not but the dynamic works as well here as it does in IWTV), which makes it a little bit of a VC AU:
^Never in the house you naughty girls!
^Little sisters to big bro/sis/makers: “We are going to have S O M U C H fun”
So yes, I loooooved OLLA. So many questions about those characters! I want the backstory on all of them. WHAT HAPPENED IN PARIS 87 YRS AGO?
^Some bad shit went down in Paris for our faves, too.
I-want-my-IWTV 