Byzantium (15)
Director: Neil Jordan
Screenplay: Moira Buffini
Starring: Soairse Ronan, Gemma Arterton
Screenplay: Moira Buffini
Starring: Soairse Ronan, Gemma Arterton
Irresistable. Immoral. Immortal
Accomplished film director Neil Jordan has flitted in and out of the horror genre throughout his varied career. He started with the sublime and gory fairy-tale that was “The Company of Wolves” (1984). Then there was the oddly old-fashioned comedy spook story that was “High Spirits” (1988). Most of all though, there was his ambitious and successful take on Anne Rice’s novel “Interview with the Vampire”(1994), within which Tom Cruise proved everybody wrong (including Anne Rice!) and produced a credible performance as the iconic vampire Lestat . Time has moved on, and he has now returned to the horror genre with “Byzantium”. The screenplay is based on a play/story from playwright Moira Buffini called “A Vampire Story”. Released in UK cinemas on May 31st, and due for release in the USA on June 28th, we take a look at the film.
“Byzantium” opens with Clara Webb (Gemma Arterton) giving a punter in a club, a comely lap-dance, before belting him in the face and stealing his money. Meanwhile, Eleanor Webb (Saoirse Ronan) has been writing her memoirs and (literally) throwing the pages into the wind. Having seen the secret pages, an old man has surmised her secret and asked her back to his home. There Eleanor draws his blood as per his wishes, and drinks from his wound until he dies. When she returns to the flat she shares with Clara, she finds the bloody aftermath of a battle between her and a stranger. They both realise that they must find a new home. It soon becomes apparent (if you haven’t guessed, or read the film synopsis anywhere), that these two women are vampires. Although posing as a 24 year old (Clara) and a 16 year old (Eleanor), and pretending to be sisters, they are in fact mother and daughter, and are hundreds of years old. These are not “Hammer”-type vampires though, which is neatly demonstrated when they sit watching “Dracula – Prince of Darkness”. Neither exhibiting super-strength nor an aversion to sunlight, their only real inhuman quality is to remain ageless and immortal. The fangs aren’t in evidence either, as they rely on talon-like protuberances from their fingers, to perforate skin and sup on the juices therein. As they reach a seaside town, the difference between Mother and Daughter becomes more obvious.
Clara is obsessed with using her “talents” to prey on those that she deems to be deserving of death, and she’s not averse to using her sexuality to do so. Eleanor is more of a reclusive individual, tortured by keeping her secret; she only preys on those that actually “ask” for the release of death. After running into Noel (Daniel Mays), a troubled man who has just lost his Mother and owns a local run-down Hotel (well, it’s described as run-down, but it looks pretty lush to me!) called “Byzantium”. Clara is used to selling her body, and saving others from the clutches of degenerate pimps so they open a make-shift brothel. Eleanor meanwhile, falls in love with a sick (as in ill, not psycho) young student called Frank (Caleb Landry Jones from “Anti-Viral”), and tries to tell him her story. As we experience flashbacks to their past, we realise that the two women are not the only vampires, and they face a constant threat that has nearly caught up to them…
This is a gorgeous and sumptuous looking movie. The cinematography constantly juggles moody grey skylines and buildings, with blood-red colours and eye-catching orange set designs. This is none-more evident than the blood-waterfall that occurs intermittently in the story. Many scenes really capture the beauty of the Irish landscape, and that strange, melancholic quality that English seaside towns seem to have (it’s Hastings, in case you were wondering…).
The performances are all uniformly good, but the film really belongs (and revolves around) to Saoirse Ronan. With her soulful electric-blue eyes, she manages that uncanny quality to appear young and vulnerable, and yet possessed of an older soul with unnatural wisdom. Gemma Arterton is good, but with her overbearing attitude, her cockney brogue, and her annoying habit for breaking into music-hall songs, you’d swear she’d be at home in the Queen Vic in BBC’s “Eastenders”! (I’m allowed to say that, as I’m a Cockney myself...). Incidentally, between the fruity language in this and “Hansel & Gretel”, I’m beginning to think that Arterton has Tourette’s syndrome or something... Another cast member worthy of mention is (a completely unrecognisable) Jonny Lee Miller as a complete bastard who “introduces” Clara to prostitution. However the character of Frank (Jones) just seems far too drippy and needy to attract Eleanor. I’m afraid I tend agree with Clara who states he is; “Earnest, clueless, and about as sexy as a pair of shoes!”
There are some frustrating things about the movie though. For a start the origin of the vampirism is startlingly vague and surreal. Even though you see several people “turned” you won’t be none the wiser as to how/why it happens. Elements of the “condition” are annoyingly random as well. For instance, it’s hinted that vampires still have to be “invited” into a home to enter it, but not elaborated on. What happens if they don’t drink blood regularly? Why do they need a map for somewhere they’ve been before? The idea of a vampiric illuminati is intriguing and yet goes absolutely nowhere. For me, the most annoying element was that, although these two women have lived for at least 200 years, why do they still act as though they’ve only been this way for a few years? Eleanor even says that her attitude is influence by her 16 years in an orphanage. 16 years out of 200? And she’s still acting like a bit of a stroppy teenager? And her Mum still speaks like a cockney strumpet? Doesn’t ring true. The speech is over-flowery as well, in the type of stage-speak that nobody uses in real-life. “Kiss me and celebrate my wickedness” says Clara to a bemused fairground pimp.
Overall, the film is more about style than substance. The plot revolves more around the opposing values and relationships of the mother and daughter than the vampire element. Some may find the pace of the story a little too languid and slow-moving to be really involving. There are moments of brutal violence (including some graphic decapitations), but for me the movie only really hit the perfect stride during the flash-backs to Clara’s origins, and the climatic scenes between the duo and … well … some other like-minded individuals.
Your enjoyment of the film will depend on what you expect to get from it. Some genre fans will find themselves looking at their watches, but others may be caught up in the style and beauty of the film. In my humble opinion, it is a worthy film, but there was so much more that could have been done with the genre side, without impacting upon the human story. But at the very least it does prove that “Twilight” hasn’t irreversibly destroyed the vamp and they don’t have to bloody sparkle to make an impact!
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