Byzantium (2013)

Excellent adaptation.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

its basic virtue - to remind the flavor, force, game of dark and light of old Gothic stories. to propose a theme with subtle, precise use of nuances. to have the perfect actors for a trip on the bridge between present and past. to propose the right solutions and to ignore, in wise manner, the frontier between bad and good. one of films who reminds not exactly the rules of a genre but a rich tradition who, in the last two decades, was , in many senses, with many occasions, ignored. references to myths and legends. atmosphere of XIX century and slices from contemporary educational system. and Saoirse Ronan doing an impressive role. not the least - a smart use of cliché. who saves even the predictable end and propose an interesting way to a popular trend.

Director Neil Jordan is a diverse guy who is no stranger to the supernatural side of things, making interesting ventures regarding vampires (Interview With The Vampire), werewolves (The Company Of Wolves), metaphysics (In Dreams), and even ghosts (High Spirits). With Byzantium he makes a unique and stylish return to the world of bloodsuckers, weaving a story that spans many centuries, focusing on two vampires sisters (Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton) who navigate the gulf of time as lost scavengers, dodging dangerous humans and trying to keep a low profile over the years. Clara (Arterton) is the brash, assertive one, using her femininity as a steely weapon of both survival and opportunity. Eleanor (Ronan), is younger, precocious and naive, relying on Clara for both guidance and support, as she was turned at a very young age in horrible circumstances. The story spans from the 1700's to a modern day seaside town on the English coast, where the two of them purchase a decaying building and turn it into an opulent brothel, aptly named Byzantium. Eleanor falls in love with a shy local boy (Caleb Landry Jones) and a mysterious detective (the excellent Sam Riley) who bears a striking resemblance to a man from far in their past is hot on their trail. This film treats vampirism as a karmic curse, trading Gothic romanticism for blunt truths, their affliction a sly allegory for the obstacles women have faced over the centuries in society. Arterton is a lush beauty who inhabits every aspect of Clara with hot blooded ferocity, and Ronan the perfect counterpart as a girl eternally stuck in the budding phase of awakening, corrupted by their disease and therefore very confused. Johnny Lee Miller plays a despicable, disgusting man they come across, and there's a scene stealing cameo from Tom Hollander as well. The film is strikingly beautiful, every frame accented by distinctly placed color and composition until the shots are so specific and pleasing they look like a work of Rembrandt in motion. Unconventional is the word for Jordan, and here he's working with no source material, free to take his mythos anywhere he pleases. He beckons you to places you never saw coming, and throws artistic curveballs whenever given the chance. One of the very best in his filmography, and the vampire genre.

Since seeing his Neo-Noir work get praised on IMDb's Film Noir board,and also catching clips of 1999's The End of the Affair,I've been meaning to take a look at director Neil Jordan's work,but have for some reason have never found the perfect moment.Joining an event being held on IMDb's Film Festival page,I was delighted to find that one of the titles chosen for the event was Jordan's latest title,which led to me getting ready to visit Byzantium.The plot:Angering a vampire group called the Brethren,mum and daughter vampires Eleanor & Clara Webb attempt to avoid the Brethren by staying hidden in the shadows.Feeling agitated over Clara's demands to keep her vampire life secret,Eleanor begins writing and telling people about her "past life",which leads to Clara's having to kill the humans who find out their secrets.Getting sacked from her job as a stripper,Clara becomes a prostitute.Showing some empathy towards a client called Noel.Clara uses her vampire seduction skills to get Noel to let her and Eleanor stay in a hotel that his mum ran called Byzantium.Arriving at the hotel,Clara starts to turn the hotel into a brothel,as Eleanor starts to step out of her mums blood-drenched shadow.View on the film:Left sitting on the shelf for 2 years after filming,director Neil Jordan & cinematographer Sean Bobbitt stop the movie from appearing dusty by wrapping it in stylised brooding elegance. Transferring each line in Eleanor's "life story" onto the screen,Jordan and Bobbitt dip the film into silk Gothic Melodrama,with the flashbacks spanning the beautiful high seas and mountains on Ireland,which are joined by an earthy, bruised crimson which unveils the pain and torment that Clara suffered during her vampire "birth." Getting between Clara & Eleanor for the "present",Jordan brilliantly uses eye-catching tracking shots to subtly display the gap developing between the Clara and Eleanor. Bringing Clara onto the screen with a fantastic strip club dance,Jordan unleashes bubbling Gothic Horror claret across the screen,as the memory of a "river of blood" is revived by Clara trying to keep Eleanor's fangs hidden away in the neon-lit outskirts.Adapting his own play,the screenplay by Moira Buffini gives Clara and Eleanor to distinctive set of fangs,with Clara's long fangs of history allowing Buffini to bite into black comedy with a bloody relish,whilst Eleanor's young fang desire to be a free from her family history allows Buffini to cast a sweeping Gothic romance across the title. Throwing some unlucky humans to the girls,Buffini pulls up the Gothic Horror veins by giving the troubled mother/daughter relationship between Eleanor & Clara a tense,fragile atmosphere,as Eleanor tries to enter adulthood whilst also fighting with Clara over how a vampire should be.Looking stunning in her stripper entrance, Gemma Arterton gives an excellent performance as Clara,with Arterton dressing Clara in Punk leather,whose deadly off-the-cuff remarks are a taster to Clara's deep red fangs. Attempting to rebel against her own rebellious mother,the elegant Saoirse Ronan impressively keeps Eleanor away from appearing sappy,thanks to Ronan giving Eleanor a firm, determined bite,as Clara and Eleanor enter Byantium.

This movie lacks a good story and good sense. It has good actors and a nice mood but it's just not enough. It treats the subject of sexual abuse and forced prostitution in a scandalously offhand manner as something that adds "spice" and "feist" to a pretty female character. Really, zero sensitivity or thought went into that whole back story presented for the purpose of male viewer titillation. It also takes a cartoonish view of female teenage depression which is presented as some sort of vaguely romantic, trembling lower lip melancholy with the ultimate goal of landing a suitable young man (which, of course, is the miraculous cure). When you remove the blatantly insulting bits you're left with a very mediocre, rehashed vampire story set in an ugly, nowhere town.