Adam, an underground musician reunites with his lover for centuries, Eve, after he becomes depressed and tired with the direction human society has taken. But Eve’s wild, uncontrollable younger sister interrupts their reunion.  imdb

Jim Jarmusch has always been the most rock ‘n’ roll of movie directors, living a life as indie and cool as any character he has created. So cool that he is the founding member of the Sons of Lee Marvin, according to his imdb trivia page. The only prerequisite to membership being enough of a resemblance to Marvin that you might be his son. Nick Cave is also, apparently, a member.

Even if this story is not true it is the sort of cool legend that surrounds this … well, he hates the word ‘quirky’ and ‘indie’ may be passé so let’s call him an ‘underground’ director. His films can be unsettling, focusing on details we would usually skip over, or even obsessive but they can never be merely dismissed – Coffee and Cigarettes, Ghost Dog, Dead Man.

Now he has taken on what used to be a niche genre but is now, thanks to Buffy and those sparkly pretenders, fully mainstream: vampires.

But this is the thinking person’s bloodsucker – a being who has been alive for so long that they have forgotten haste and move at a glacial pace, so long that they have learnt true caution in the face of modern forensics – so long that modern blood can poison them. Exactly how is never explained and this is something else delicious about the film – Jarmusch, who also wrote it, assumes a level of intelligence in the viewer.

However this could never, ever be classed as an action film. As Jarmusch has said:

“The beauty of life is in small details, not in big events.”

I enjoyed every insouciant frame of it but I will admit there is little that actually happens. In fact, some action was shot and when it was suggested that Jarmusch add more, he promptly removed the action scene. Man don’t take orders from no one!

What is left is a film of conversations, of beautifully framed shots and elegantly wasted beauty. Tom Hiddleston is perfect as a true Goth – as in being old enough to be with the Shelleys and Byron when the first Gothic novel (Frankenstein) was written. And nowadays that comes off, of course, as him being a rock god (is he ever going to play a mere mortal??)

He has had time to master dozens of musical instruments and is fascinated by science, belonging to the ‘Tesla was robbed’ school. In interviews Hiddleston has commented that Adam is interested in the things that fascinate Jarmusch and he thinks this may be the closest the director has come to putting himself on screen.

And I suggest he has thought about this story a lot. A lot.

There are elements of Ann Rice’s Lestat, a little Keith Richards and post punk disillusion in the mix but I could see a lot of ideas, even random thoughts incorporated into the story that spoke to an independent mind behind it. So rare today and so enjoyable.

He has created an unforgettable character in Eve, with Tilda Swinton note perfect in the role. He loves this woman. Now I do too – she is ancient, she is a survivor, she is so in touch with the natural world, so incredibly well read, so tough and sensitive … and funny. She has the best lines and really cool hair. Even John Hurt’s hair has a sort of rat-infested cool about it. Seems vampires have eschewed brushes and combs but I have to say it works for them. Hurt, by the way, plays Christopher Marlowe – the real one.

Other characters, like Jeffrey Wright, Anton Yelchin and Mia Wasikowska wander through, briefly, giving light and shade to the story but the film belongs to Tilda and Tom and their wonderful characters.