Only Lovers Left Alive

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) is about two vampires who have lived for centuries and are both very tired. Adam lives in an abandoned house in Detroit; he makes music, wants no recognition, and circulates his recordings secretly. Eve lives in Tangier, reads, and is in better shape. When he sinks into depression she flies to him. Blood is no longer taken by hunting; both of them buy clean blood from hospitals because human blood has become contaminated. That is the film's most open joke. There is almost no plot. They drive around Detroit at night, looking at abandoned factories and empty cinemas. The city is as old and as exhausted as a vampire. The real subject is culture. Adam talks about the people he met across centuries; he has a guitar collection, and Eve can tell the age of a book by touching it. For them immortality is not power but accumulated memory. Jim Jarmusch directed and his own band contributed to the music. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton star. Mia Wasikowska plays Eve's sister, who ruins everything. John Hurt plays Christopher Marlowe and implies he wrote Shakespeare's plays. The pace is deliberately very slow; the film does not intend to arrive anywhere. It runs 123 minutes. Good for: Jarmusch, vampire films, and atmosphere. Less good for: there is almost no plot and the pace is very heavy.