THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014
lifestyle
Review: ‘Only
“T
M u s i c
&
M o v i e s
Lovers’ a moody vampire movie
he Thin Man” with blood cocktails, an ode
to hipsterism through the ages, a mainline
shot of cool and a playful tribute to artistic
fetishism, Jim Jarmusch’s vampire romance “Only
Lovers Left Alive” is an addictive mood and tone piece,
a nocturnal reverie that incidentally celebrates a marriage that has lasted untold centuries. Almost nothing
happens in this minor-key drift through a desolate,
imperiled modern world, and yet it is the perennial
downtown filmmaker’s best work in many years,
probably since 1995’s “Dead Man,” with which it shares
a sense of quiet, heady, perilous passage.
Vampire stories come in all shapes and sizes and
the blessed and afflicted couple here is well-dressed,
madly sophisticated, has impeccable taste in music
and literature (the couple’s closest friend is
Christopher Marlowe) and is still in love like newlyweds. The woman’s younger sister considers them
condescending snobs, but perhaps that’s just a negative way of acknowledging that, given hundreds of
years of years of exposure to art and culture, one
would be a fool not to have developed a high level of
discrimination in such matters.
‘The good stuff’
Adam (Tom Hiddleston) has become quite the
recluse. Holed up in an old house in an abandoned
part of Detroit, he plays vinyl classics and collects rare
vintage guitars brought to him by roadie type Ian
(Anton Yelchin). In the not quite as depopulated
streets of Tangier, Eve (Tilda Swinton) seeks out
Marlowe (John Hurt), whose Shakespeare connection
is bandied about. More to the point, however, is his
value as a source of “the good stuff” - purified blood
their kind can reliably consume now that human - aka
“zombie” - blood has become dangerously contaminated.
This represents an unambiguous drug addiction
reference, to be sure, but it also casts these vampires
as an endangered species and, increasingly, as potential tragic figures, avatars of cultivation, sophistication
and monogamous devotion that put average humans
to shame but may be doomed now that their food
supply has been ruined. For his part, Adam sometimes receives “good stuff” from a medical facility supplier, Dr Watson (Jeffrey Wright).
When, at the 40-minute point, Eve returns to Adam
in Detroit, there is instant rapture, a perpetuation of
the presumed longest love affair in the world (a photo
documents their third wedding, in 1868). With the
spirited Eve the driving force in the relationship more
than the laid-back Adam, the two British-accented
connoisseurs loll around the house, listen to great
music, drink great blood, speak about old acquaintances (Lord Byron, Mary Wollstonecraft), are looked
down upon by a photo gallery of artistic heroes
(Buster Keaton, Mark Twain) and take a nighttime tour
in Adam’s old Jaguar coupe of decimated Detroit.
Ancient pair
To Adam’s irritation, they are soon joined by Eve’s
wild girl imp of a sister, Ava (Mia Wasikowska), whose
reckless vampiric ways so disrupt their domestic tranquility that the couple decides to decamp back to
Tangier, where Eve can count on a continued supply
of good stuff. When this is compromised, a thimble of
doubt and suspense enters the equation, as the
ancient pair contemplate their fate. Will this be the
end, or might they actually have to deign to descend
from their tower of refinement and rejoin the hunt?
Swinton is quite wonderful and unusually accessible here in a generous, emotional, tender performance. With a recessive partner mostly devoted to interior experiences, Eve must do most of the work to animate their relationship and Swinton, wearing long,
nearly platinum-blond hair, gives herself to this enterprise without going over the top. Hiddleston, with the
longhaired look of a rock star, is required to be far
more withdrawn but is a credible bohemian for the
ages. Wasikowska supplies antic, intentionally grating
abandon as the dangerous sister, Yelchin is sweet as
Adam’s flunky and Hurt presents his 16th century
playwright as a crusty old wise man. Physically and
musically, the film is lovely. “Only Lovers Left Alive,” a
Sony Pictures Classic release, is rated R by the Motion
Picture Association of America for “language and brief
nudity.”
Running time: 123 minutes. MPAA rating definition
for R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying
parent or adult guardian. — AP
This image released by
Sony Pictures Classics
shows Tilda Swinton in a
scene from ‘Only Lovers
Left Alive.’—AP
‘Game of Thrones’ renewed
for two more seasons
H
it HBO television show “Games of Thrones” was renewed
for two more seasons Tuesday, two days after its latest
series opened with a bang that crashed the broadcaster’s
online app. Sunday’s fourth season debut drew 6.6 million viewers, the most for the pay-channel since the finale of HBO cult hit
“The Sopranos” was watched by 11.9 million people in 2007, the
broadcaster said. “‘Game of Thrones’ is a phenomenon like no other,” said HBO Programming boss Michael Lombardo, announcing
that HBO had renewed it for a fifth and sixth season. Its creators
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss “along with their talented collaborators, continue to surpass themselves, and we look forward to
more of their dazzling storytelling,” he said. HBO Go, an online app
that allows viewers to watch shows any time, crashed Sunday as
tens of thousands tried to log on to watch the show, which provides a jaw-dropping mix of sex, violence and vengeance.
Since its debut in 2011, the HBO drama based on George R.R.
Martin’s best-selling novels about a struggle for power between
feuding clans in seven mythical kingdoms has won a devoted
global fan base-President Barack Obama reportedly among
them-to establish itself as the star of the US cable channel’s stable.
The series has wowed critics with its densely-layered plot, lavish production values and a readiness to kill off, invariably in gruesome fashion, protagonists who had hither to seem integral to
the show. Four words-”No one is safe”-have become the unofficial
catchphrase for devotees of the series. Guessing which character
may soon meet his or her maker is all part of the fun.
An infamously bloody episode in Season 3, involving a massacre at a wedding party, was one of the most talked about and
tweeted television events of 2013. YouTube videos capturing the
shock of unsuspecting viewers watching as the on-screen slaughter unfolded rapidly went viral. All the signs are that fans of the
show will not be disappointed by the 10-episode Season 4, which
debuted in the US on Sunday before being screened in different
markets worldwide over the following days and weeks. — AFP
Kiss not the first to tell Rock Hall to kiss off
G
raciousness is not always high on the list of attributes you
find in successful rock ‘n’ roll stars. Because of this, the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame inductions have sometimes brought
out the worst in its inductees, whether continuing once-private
feuds in public or launching criticism at the hall itself. This year it’s
Kiss that’s angry, its members upset over the organization’s decision only to induct original members Paul Stanley, Gene
Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley while excluding members
who joined later.
As a result, the makeup-wearing rockers won’t be wearing
makeup or rocking at Thursday’s ceremony at the Barclays Center
in Brooklyn when they’re inducted with Nirvana, Peter Gabriel,
Linda Ronstadt, Hall and Oates, Yes, Cat Stevens, late Beatles manager Brian Epstein and former Rolling Stones manager Andrew
Loog Oldham, who also is boycotting this year’s show over dissatisfaction with his role.
Here’s a quick look at seven other acts who chose to make the
ceremony uncomfortable for everyone else or just skipped it altogether:
1. The guys in Guns N’ Roses are at a point now where they can
sometimes play nice together, but that was not the case
when the Los Angeles rockers were inducted in 2012.
Frontman Axl Rose decided to skip the ceremony because it
didn’t “appear to be somewhere I’m actually wanted or
respected.” Guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagen and drummer Steve Adler, however, did take the stage, performing
together for the first time in nearly two decades. Myles
Kennedy served as the stand-in for Rose.
2. There was nary a Van Halen during the towering rock band’s
induction. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen chose to enter rehab the
week before the 2007 ceremony - a pretty rock-solid excuse.
But his drummer brother Alex also chose not to attend. And
original lead singer David Lee Roth pulled a very Roth-like
maneuver and pulled out at the last minute in a huff over
what song he’d perform at the event. That left bassist Michael
Anthony and second singer Sammy Hagar as the only official
attendees. They were reduced to performing with Paul
Shaffer’s house band.
3. John Fogerty also faced the prospects of a put-together band
when he refused to play with surviving Creedence Clearwater
Revival members, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug
Clifford. He rallied with a couple of all-stars - Bruce
Springsteen and The Band’s Robbie Robertson - to back him
on stage, but the rift became oh so public when Cook and
In this May 8, 2008 file photo, members of Kiss, from left, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer, Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer,
poses for a photograph during a news conference to promote the start of their KISS Alive/35 European Tour in
Oberhausen, Germany. — AP photos
Clifford left the room while Fogerty played. The band split in
1972 and Fogerty was still holding grudges at the 1993 induction, telling Cook and Clifford he wouldn’t play with them
ever again when they showed up for rehearsal earlier in the
day. Cook and Clifford returned when the lights came back
up, with a forlorn Cook holding the bass he’d hoped to play.
4. The Sex Pistols were among the first and most notorious punk
rock bands and fittingly extended a metaphorical middle finger to the hall of fame when finally inducted in 2007 - six
years after it was first eligible. The British band, which featured
lead singer Johnny Rotten and late bassist Sid Vicious, said in
a hand-written and ungrammatical note posted on its website that the hall was like “urine in wine” selling “old famous”:
“Were not coming. Were not your monkeys and so what?”
Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner read the letter
in its entirety, and invited the band to pick up their trophies
anyway: “If they want to smash them into bits, they can do
that, too.”
5. Members of Blondie added even more bad blood to the 2007
ceremony as a division between founding members Debbie
Harry and Chris Stein and Frank Infante and Nigel Harrison
spilled onto the stage. Harry and Stein had begun performing
together in 1999 without the band’s other three members
and Infante and Harrison sued unsuccessfully to rejoin the
band. Infante continued to lobby Harry onstage at the ceremony: “Debbie, are we allowed?” She declined and the band
went on to play its three biggest hits with stand-ins. “They
wrote themselves out of the band history, as far as I’m concerned,” Stein said backstage. “They should have a little bit of
honor. This is supposed to be rock ‘n’ roll. This is supposed to
be friendly. This is like going through the trenches together.”
6. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr recently reunited to celebrate
the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first trip to the US. But
things weren’t always so copacetic, as McCartney showed
when he failed to show up to the group’s induction in 1988.
He explained the decision through a publicist: “After 20 years,
the Beatles still have some business differences. I would feel
like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a
fake reunion.”—AP
This April 15, 2012 file photo shows Guns N’ Roses, from left, Matt Sorum, Duff McKagan, Slash and Steven Adler, after
their performance following induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland.