WORDS Aine O’Connell

Bohemian culture, vampires and romance seems like an odd combination, but director Jim Jarmusch successfully melds the three in his latest feature, Only Lovers Left Alive. Starring a kooky yet accessible Tilda Swinton as an ancient vampire and a moody Tom Hiddleston as her great love, the film tells their story. Later on, a wild Mia Wasikowska brings life to a film that occasionally teeters into pretentious ridiculousness. The film is a loving ode to art and the avant-garde, mixing music and style with heavy references to pioneering writers and musicians.

Hiddleston and Swinton’s Adam and Eve seem like typical bohemians — a musician and a lover of books, living in urban Detroit and exotic Tangiers respectively. Dependent on “clean blood” to survive, the film attempts to make a political point here about drug culture, but this gets lost in the narrative. In fact, blood actually operates as a substitute to heroin for these creatures, resulting in a drug-like fuzz that also hangs over the film. This prevents the viewer from really connecting with the narrative, but nonetheless keeps them pretty damn happy. Plot development is slow and inconclusive and one is really unsure what the film is about. This matters not, however. The best way to watch Only Lovers Left Alive is to dive in and soak up the magical world Jarmusch creates.

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