Jim Jarmusch Director’S Statement
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Only Lovers Left ALive A FILM BY JIM JARMUSCH Director’s Statement ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is an blood to survive. But they now live in the unconventional love story between a man world of the 21st century where biting the and a woman, Adam and Eve. (My script was neck of a stranger would be reckless and partially inspired by the last book published regressive -- for survival, they must be certain by Mark Twain: The Diaries of Adam and Eve the blood that sustains them is pure and free -- though no direct reference to the book of disease or contamination. And, almost is made other than the character’s names.) like shadows, they have learned long ago to Synopsis These two lovers are archetypal outsiders, deftly avoid the attention of any authorities. classic bohemians, extremely intelligent and Set against the romantic desolation of Detroit and Tangier, sophisticated -- yet still in full possession of For our fi lm, the vampire is a resonant an underground musician, deeply depressed by the direction of their animal instincts. They have traveled the metaphor -- a way to frame the deeper world and experienced many remarkable intentions of the story. This is a love story, human activities, reunites with his resilient and enigmatic lover. things, always inhabiting the shadowed but also the story of two exceptional margins of society. And, like their own love outsiders who, given their unusual Their love story has already endured several centuries at least, story, their particular perspective on human circumstances, have a vast overview of history spans centuries -- because they human and natural history, including but their debauched idyll is soon disrupted by her wild and happen to be vampires. stunning achievements and tragic and brutal uncontrollable younger sister. failures. Adam and Eve are themselves But this is not your usual vampire story. metaphors for the present state of human Set in the very distinct cities of Detroit and life -- they are fragile and endangered, Can these wise but fragile outsiders continue to survive as the Tangier, and taking place almost entirely susceptible to natural forces, and to the modern world collapses around them? at night, Adam and Eve must have human shortsighted behavior of those in power. CHARACTERS AVA MARLOWE Ava is Eve’s younger “sister”. She is extremely Marlowe is an older man, but striking; his pale, and appears “related” to Eve. She is eyes assured, but cautious. He is thin and at least a decade younger, with a petulant, wears a trimmed beard and an odd mixture of mischievous face. She is big trouble. clothing representing both the late Sixteenth and late Twentieth centuries. He is in fact She wears very trendy and somewhat the great poet and playwright, Christopher revealing clothing including a very short Marlowe, having evidently been turned into a polka-dot dress and platform shoes. She vampire at his present age some three and a is from the UK but has been living in Los half centuries ago. Angeles prior to appearing at Adam’s house and has picked up some almost “Valley-girl” Marlowe is wise and extremely loyal, but also attributes, which Adam fi nds very annoying. opinionated and volatile. In his surly way he clearly adores Eve and Adam. Marlowe has Ava acts childlike as a way to manipulate lived a bohemian existence in Tangiers for a others, especially Eve. Ava did something very very long time, where he owns a bar/café, and bad in the past (in Paris in 1926) implicating has a devoted and longtime Moroccan lover, human imagination when he is in doubt. ADAM Adam and Eve, which neither have forgotten, a male. It is revealed that Marlowe continues She also possesses the uncanny ability to Adam is pale and thin and appears to be in his and which Adam will never forgive. to write, and is secretly the author of much of determine the age of any object with a brief early or mid 30’s, but with an ageless, almost the works the world erroneously attributes to touch of her delicate fi ngertips. preserved quality. He possesses a strong Shakespeare. personality with tendencies towards a moody and brooding, Hamlet-like disposition. Eve is graceful, luminous and impeccably dressed. She wears western boots and Adam’s clothes are a time-warp from the mid hats, and vintage white denim jackets with ‘60s London rock’n’roll style, with dark, messy matching slim jeans. Her hair is pale blonde, hair (ala Sid Barrett). In contradiction, his her skin nearly translucent white, and her lips delicate white hands may cradle a renaissance often colored deep red with lipstick. lute across his lap, or a vintage electric guitar: he surrounds himself with stringed Several thousand years older than Adam, instruments as well as a wealth of vintage Eve possesses an exuberant appreciation electronics and recording equipment. for eternal consciousness. She believes their immortality is a great gift not to be Though particularly highly perceptive of sound squandered and that life, though precarious and music, Adam’s interest and knowledge in and fragile, is too far precious to be wasted. the arts, science, literature, history, medicine and mathematics is expansive even for someone of his age -- at least several hundred years old. While he is a true believer in the gifts of human expression, Adam feels that the greatest tragedy is humanity’s lack of a true appreciation for the imagination and its many manifestations, as well as its inability to apply and develop some of mankind’s most innovative discoveries. EVE Slightly older than Adam, Eve appears to be in her late 30’s or early 40’s but, like Adam, there is something ageless about her. They both appear as eccentric outsiders, from another place, time, or even planet. She is the irreplaceable yin to Adam’s yang, bringing his mood up when he grows weary or depressed, and restoring his faith in the JIM JARMUSCH international cinema. DOWN BY LAW (1986) Jarmusch’s “neo-beat- noir-comedy” was a further exploration of America from the outside-in and marked the beginning of a long collaboration between European Film Awards, 1996 Jarmusch and esteemed Dutch director of photography, Robby Müller. YEAR OF THE HORSE, 1997 Filmography 107 minutes, color and black & white In 1987 Jarmusch was the recipient of a German DAAD fellowship and spent half FEATURE FILMS GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI, a year living and writing in Berlin. There he 1999 conceived the initial idea for his next fi lm, PERMANENT VACATION, 1980 116 minutes, color MYSTERY TRAIN (1989), a kind of “minimalist’s 80 minutes, color Cesar Nomination, Best Foreign Film, 1999 version of the Canterbury Tales” in which an The Josef von Sternberg Prize, Mannheim, W. Independent Spirit Award Nomination, Best Englishman, an Italian woman and a Japanese Germany, 1980 Picture, 2000 couple each make pilgrimages to Memphis, International Critics Prize, Figueira da Foz, Tennessee. Portugal, 1982 COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, 2003 96 minutes, black & white With NIGHT ON EARTH (1991) Jarmusch STRANGER THAN PARADISE, 1984 Offi cial Selection, Venice International Film Jim Jarmusch has long been considered turned his attention to moments often 90 minutes, black & white Festival, 2003 a seminal fi gure in American independent overlooked in cinema -- the taxi journey Camera D’Or, Cannes Film Festival, 1984 Offi cial Selection, Toronto International Film cinema. His fi lms are often noted for their between places -- and shot entirely on Golden Leopard, Locarno International Film Festival, 2003 transcendent minimalism and upturning of location inside moving taxicabs in New York, Festival, 1984 Offi cial Selection, Tribeca Film Festival, 2003 traditional genres such as the road movie, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome and Helsinki, with Best Picture, National Society of Film Critics Offi cial Selection, Moscow Film Festival, 2004 western, crime-fi lm, and detective story. world-renowned actors from each city. Award, 1984 Independent Spirit Award Nomination, Best Best Foreign Film, Japan, 1986 Supporting Female (Cate Blanchett), 2005 Born in Akron, Ohio, Jarmusch attended Jarmusch reinterpreted conventional Columbia University where he studied genres with DEAD MAN (1995) and GHOST DOWN BY LAW, 1986 BROKEN FLOWERS, 2005 literature and poetry with renowned New DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI (1999) 106 minutes, black & white 106 minutes, color York School poets Kenneth Koch and David and emerged with a “psychedelic western” Amanda Award for Best Foreign Film, Grand Prix, Cannes International Film Shapiro. But it was a semester abroad in Paris and a hip-hop gangster samurai fi lm which Norway, 1987 Festival, 2005 frequenting the Cinémathèque Française that have since developed incredibly strong cult Bodil Award for Non-European Film, Audience Award, Cambridge Film Festival ignited Jarmusch’s passion for fi lmmaking. followings. Denmark, 1987 2005 Upon his return to the US, Jarmusch enrolled Best Actor, Roberto Benigni, Italy, 1987 Best Foreign Film Award, Cesky Lev 2006 in the esteemed fi lmmaking program at New In 2003 Jarmusch completed and released Best Actor, Roberto Benigni, Denmark, 1987 Czech Lion, Best Foreign Language Film, York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. the critically acclaimed COFFEE AND Best Foreign Film, Israel, 1987 2006 There he assisted Hollywood legend Nicholas CIGARETTES, a series of comic vignettes Best Supporting Actor Award (Jeffrey Ray and wrote and directed his fi rst fi lm, shot over the course of two decades, with MYSTERY TRAIN, 1989 Wright), San Diego Film Critics Society, 2006 PERMANENT VACATION (1980). an extremely eclectic group of extraordinary 110 minutes, color Independent Spirit Award Nomination, Best actors and musicians portraying an equally Prize for Highest Artistic Achievement, Supporting Male (Jeffrey Wright), 2006 Set in downtown Manhattan, PERMANENT eclectic collection of oddballs.