Only Lovers Left Alive
Capsule Film Review #12
This is the twelfth in a series of short pieces (max. 250 words) about films. They appear weekly, in addition to my regular essays.
Life is futility, a deeply terrible experience, but the really serious thing is reading.
Or so says Mickey Sabbath, the title character in Philip Roth’s great novel. For all his defiant undeludedness, Sabbath is obviously exaggerating: after all, listening to music and watching films are serious as well.
Granted the dubious gift of terrestrial immortality, Adam and Eve—the vampire couple in Only Lovers Left Alive (2013, d. Jim Jarmusch)—fill their days with such serious things. The world is crumbling: he in his decaying mansion in Detroit; she in her decaying flat in Tangiers. Money, politics, progress, fame, social media: these are for the people whom Adam calls zombies: the modern mortals, whose blood is too dirty to drink. When he falls into depression, Eve visits him, packing nothing in her suitcases but books.
Books matter to the vampires, as does achieved art of any kind, from Ariosto to Rodney Dangerfield. So do vinyl B-sides, Gibson guitars, Old Hollywood, trad jazz, chamber music… So too does their marriage, as they cling to each other’s naked bodies. But what better way is there to spend the centuries?
And yes, our zombies will splutter with rage, as always: they say such nihilism (so-called) causes harm. The vampires know better. Everything causes harm—and anyway, look at the news. Those who cling to each other, who turn away from the hateful world, who escape into books and screens and dreams—are we the ones, really, who are causing the most harm?
We don't talk enough about Mickey Sabbath. That quote reminded me of this one from Houellebecq: “The texture of the world is painful, inadequate; unalterable, or so it seems to me. Really, I believe that an entire life spent reading would have suited me best. Such a life has not been granted me.”
This is so beautiful! I would say, not only do they cause less harm; the love we give another, give books, music, and maybe films as well, gives nutrition to a higher life -- puts flesh on someone growing in a further dimension.