Fresh blood in a tired subgenre

Imagine a vampire movie in which bloodsucking takes a backseat, the Gothic castle in East Europe is replaced by a dilapidated Queen Anne-style home in Detroit, and the undead are rockstar hipsters. That pretty much sums up Only Lovers Left Alive, a 2013 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch that offers a hypnotic and atmospheric take on this horror subgenre. The narrative centers on Adam (Tom Hiddleston), a reclusive and melancholic musician in Detroit, and his centuries-old lover, Eve (Tilda Swinton), who resides in Tangier. As Adam sinks deeper into despair over the state of the modern world, Eve journeys to be with him, rekindling their love and shared reverence for art, history, and human culture. Their tranquil existence is upended by the arrival of Eve’s wild and impulsive younger sister, Ava (Mia Wasikowska), whose reckless behavior throws their world into disarray. John Hurt appears as Christopher Marlowe, a fellow vampire and Eve’s trusted confidant, while Anton Yelchin plays Ian, a mortal who aids Adam in acquiring rare instruments.

To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of Only Lovers Left Alive, conducted last week, click here.

Jarmusch and his collaborators suffuse the vampire mythos with fresh and fascinating ideas, including vampires as connoisseurs of art, culture, and coolness; vampire soulmates who truly love each other emotionally, intellectually, and physically; world-weary members of the undead who experience ennui and suicidal thoughts; and nosferatu who look upon actual bloodsucking for sustenance as primitive, choosing instead to curate only the finest available supply of intoxicating red corpuscles via the black market.

The concept of undying characters who acquire vast knowledge and appreciation for the true masterminds of science, literature, music, and the arts – and who can also instantly identify modern-day prodigies – is one of the most thought-provoking aspects of Only Lovers Left Alive.

As is true of many Jarmusch movies, not much happens here. This is more a film about the feels, about luxuriating in gothy Bohemian spaces with finely cultured dagger-toothed dandies who happen to be vampires and the artistic and erudite accouterment they prefer surrounding themselves with. The pace is unapologetically languid, but the chill tone, shadowy cinematography, and fully inhabited performances more than make up for a skeletal narrative.

This is less a genre film or horror feature than a romantic character study. Yes, there are forays into vampiric lore, including the need to drink blood and avoid sunlight. And Jarmusch even introduces a new trope in nosferatu mythology: the wearing of leather gloves outside of the vampire’s habitat. However, the horror elements play second fiddle to the fascinating romance dynamic and personality contrasts between Adam and Eve: He’s often clad in black and she in white, suggesting their oppositeness.

Jarmusch was quoted in an interview saying: “Obviously, it’s not a horror movie, as most vampire movies are…I think it’s just the overview that it allowed, because they’ve been alive so long, to show a love story that spans that amount of time… To be able to see their perception of history over long period of times, was really interactive to me. And their own love story, to span that amount of time, was what drew me to it.”

The filmmakers are aware that Adam and Eve are fair game for criticism by viewers as cold and snobbishly unrelatable highbrows; but Ava calling them out on this behavior as she’s kicked out of their home helps defuse this criticism.

What’s Only Lovers Left Alive really about? Societal and cultural decay, of course. This vampire duo represents an enlightened, aristocratic, and elitist pair who, thanks to their immortality, can accurately observe both progress and devolution on Earth. They refer to mortals as “zombies,” the relatively uneducated proletariat who have allowed the world to decline and who don’t appreciate the fine details of nature nor the works of geniuses that history has often overlooked.

But more than that, this is a testament to timeless love and commitment. Adam and Eve have been married since 1868 and remain loyal and devoted to each other, even though they often spend long spans apart separated by continents. They resonate as empathetic romantics who eschew traditional vampire violence, defying the typical trope of the selfish, predatory, and barbaric bloodsucker.

Takeaway #3? Creativity, curiosity, and a thirst for knowledge fuel the drive to survive and thrive. We see how much Eve treasures her favorite books and authors and maintains a wondrous curiosity about even the smallest details in nature, such as mushrooms growing where they shouldn’t be. Adam is motivated by the desire to experiment with music, an inquisitiveness that compels him to seek out and play antique instruments – which suggests that part of the secret to successful innovation is to respect the past and its pioneers. Perhaps what prevents Adam from killing himself with the wooden bullet, besides his love for Eve, is his passion for music.

Slate critic Sharan Shetty believes appreciating Eve is the key to better understanding what he believes is this film’s central tenet: “Jarmusch skeptics may mistake vampire Adam’s incessant odes to dead artists and thinkers as a surrogate for the director’s own high-minded nostalgia. But Only Lovers is not a lament for the way things were; it’s a paean to Eve, to a hope for the future. Swinton’s character is inspiring, her worship of the world all the more surprising because it flows not from a curious child but from a centuries-old creature of the night. She should be more jaded; she is not. She at times seems like the only lover, anywhere, who is actually alive.”

Similar works

• The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) – A melancholic, existential sci-fi film starring David Bowie as an alien trapped on Earth
• The Hunger (1983) – A stylish and melancholic vampire film starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon
• Wings of Desire (1987) – A poetic film about angels observing human life, capturing a similar longing and detachment
• Three Colors: Blue (1993), and Three Colors: Red (1994)
• Let the Right One In (2008) – A haunting and poetic Swedish vampire film about loneliness and connection
• Thirst (2009) – Park Chan-wook’s dark, sensual, and philosophical take on the vampire myth
• Byzantium (2012) – a gothic vampire film about two immortal women hiding their past because it threatens their survival
• Under the Skin (2013) – A slow, eerie sci-fi film starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien hunting humans
• A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) – An Iranian black-and-white vampire film with a dreamy, arthouse feel
• I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) – a surreal psychological horror-drama about reality unraveling during a tense visit to a farmhouse

Other films by Jim Jarmusch

• Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
• Down by Law (1986)
• Mystery Train (1989)
• Night on Earth (1991)
• Dead Man (1995)
• Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
• Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
• Broken Flowers (2005)
• The Dead Don't Die (2019)