Film Review: Only Lovers Left Alive (15) (U.K/Germany/France/Cyprus/U.S.A. 2013) (Director: Jim Jarmusch),  The Cameo Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Friday 14.02.2014, 23:30 (PREVIEW SCREENING - NOT ON GENERAL RELEASE UNTIL 21.02.2014)

This is a very un-vampiric vampire film. There is only a single scene regarding bloodsucking, and it deals with the aftermath. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston play Eve & Adam respectively. Adam is by far the younger being merely hundreds of years old, whereas Eve has existed for millenia. They are a couple who spend most of their time apart, Eve in Tangier and Adam in Detroit. 

There is not really any plot to speak of. Though there are archly amusing moments and the entire tone in terms of costume, lighting, music & dialogue, I found to be very queasy though also highly enticing and attractive. The film could be accused of that most dreadful of things, being a 'mood piece'.   

The vampiric element does not really matter in terms of what I feel the film is about. The central characters are bohemian and proponents against mediocrity. The films speaks of the importance of art as opposed to mainstream entertainment. It also portrays how in long lasting relationships it becomes important to allow each other space and to remember the small things that matter to the other.

In reflection on the time since seeing the film, I have found myself reflecting back upon it quite a lot, though it is more the tone of the film as opposed to anything else that I am recalling. 

This is a film I feel almost haunted by, though in a good way. I would find it difficult to recommend to others as don't feel entirely clear as to why I feel so taken by it, though if you are endeared by the bohemian and the arch....

Rating: 09/10.