Film | The Hunger, 1983

The Hunger | 1983

Some stories have an unexpected  impact on you… The Hunger (1983) was precisely this kind of film. 

I was not expecting much of the movie at all. I wanted to watch it because it was a vampire movie I had never seen, and because it featured David Bowie. That was all. 

 The plot was very original… I generally prefer classic vampire stories, in which vampires have fangs and are wounded by sunlight, but I really, really enjoyed this one, even though it was anything but traditional. Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) is the vampire. She turned her husband, John (David Bowie) over 100 years ago, and they have been together ever since. The movie begins with the two of them feeding on the “young and beautiful of New York City”, at the sound of "Bella Lugosi is dead", in a wonderful sequence that ended with a beautiful shower scene between the two main characters. They don`t have fangs, none that we are able to see, at least. Instead they use a piece of jewellery shaped like an Egyptian ankh to pierce the victim's necks and drain them of their blood. Blood flows from the wounds, mixed with water, down the drains… It is a beautiful opening scene. 

In spite of the originality of the plot - and the disregard for common vampire elements such as the deadly power of the sun -  The Hunger preserves the feeling of a vampire story, and the emotional content of one... In particular the weightiness of forever, and the promise of everlasting love. 

"Forever and ever"

It doesn't take long, however, for it to become clear that John is aging, and aging fast. He is losing his hair… There are wrinkles around his eyes… And as it turns out, he is expecting this to happen… There have been others. It`s Miriam's gift, and her curse, that she can give others the gift of immortality, but it never lasts… After a hundred years or so, they start to age and decay… 

When that happens she looks for another companion… There have been so many up until John… She hopes and wishes that this time it will be different, that she will never have to loose him… but wishing for a thing does not make it so. And with John fading fast she is going to need a new companion… That’s where Sarah (Susan Sarandon) comes in.

The cinematography is beautiful and it is filled with scenes that rely on silhouettes against closed curtains, which I think really works for the movie. The way the characters interact, the way the camera captures them, in front of each other or moving around one another… It is beautifully done…

The music is fantastic. John is a cellist (yes, David Bowie's character is a cellist… It's like they made the movie with me in mind :P), and the movie features the first suite for cello solo (how could it not?) and the Flower duet from Lakmé (the perfect soundtrack for Miriam and Sara) 

The Hunger is a story about loneliness and isolation… It really spoke to me, and it transported me in an afternoon in which my mind needed to be taken elsewhere… I loved the aesthetics, and the story, and I didn`t even mind the ending… I will definitely watch to this one again… 

The beautiful shower scene, right at the beginning...

I love the way the movie plays with light and color and silhouettes

Bowie at the cello... And to think I was practicing this morning...

This movie has a beautiful relationship with music... Like in this scene in which Miriam is at the piano, playing the flower duet... Sarah also has a wonderful moment, figuring our her place in the room, throwing one leg over the arm of the chair, listening the music that Miriam plays...

Sarah spilled some cherry on her white t-shirt... I love the way the camera captures the movements of these characters around one another, the way Mirian moves, almost as if she was courting Sarah in a dance floor.

The Hunger, 1983 | Directed by Tony Scott | Written by Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas | Based on The Hunger, by Whitley Strieber | Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon

Film | The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer

I have recently watched to The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer... There is a lot I could say about this movie (like how fun it was to see Cary Grant wearing an actual suit of armor...), but there was one line so perfect is stayed in my mind days after I watched the movie. It happened during a dance:

"You feel nice in my arms" 

Film | A Rainy Day in New York

There is something about watching to the right movie at the right time… 

It is the perfect time for me to watch to A rainy day in New York. I was having a perfect day… After weeks of stress and consternation, I finally had a well deserved break. Well,…

not a break exactly. I was still expected at the hospital, I still had a meeting to attend to, but still… There were no deadlines weighting on me, and the meeting was over quickly. There was enough time for me to make my way to one of my favourite movie theatres, listening to “Mystery of Love”. I actually wanted to watch to Parasite, since it had been so highly recommended. But I had been warned it was a downer and it felt right to watch to something lighter after that. I didn’t really know what kind of a movie A rainy day in New York was, but I had a feeling it would be just the kind of movie I needed… That turned out to be spot on… 

 

The movie follows a young college guy named Gatsby (I know, not very subtle) and his girlfriend on a weekend trip to New York City. Gatsby grew up in the city, but after being kicked out of some posh Ivy league school he was enrolled in Yardley (a liberal arts college upstate), and that’s where he met Ashleigh, budding journalist and former miss Arizona. From the start they seem to come from different worlds, but Gatsby is madly in love with the girl and is looking forward to showing her the city. The girl has landed an interview with a big-shot movie director in New York, and that’s why they are going, although Gatsby is really looking forward to showing her all his favourite spots when the work part of the weekend is done. He is not even telling his mother he will be in town, just so he won’t have to stop by one of her boring, uptight parties. He has many romantic ideas of what they are going to do together, but New York, as it turns out, has its own plans for the two youngsters, and every single one of his plans gets flipped upside down. 

The Met is one of the places I wanna visit the most when i am in New York...

I have watched to quite a few of Woody Allen movies by now… I still remember the first one I ever watched, Midnight in Paris, in the movie theatre, years and years ago… I know that he has a special relationship with the settings of his movies, he really captures some sort of essence of the cities in which it happens… This time, however, it was so different… I mean… Midnight in Paris had many scenic visions of the city of lights… Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona dived in the architecture of Gaudi and the sounds of Spanish Guitar… But the New York City I saw in this movie was not… obvious… by any means… There were no shots of the statue of liberty or the top of the Empire state building… Instead, I was shown the city from the interior of the apartments of New Yorkers… the walks through small, nonchalant streets,… the rain, the everlasting rain on the windows of yellow cabs and hotel rooms… 

The director Ashleigh was supposed to interview takes an interest in the girl. And then there’s the writer… And then an actor… One thing leads to another and she goes on an adventure of her own, completely separate from her nerdy boyfriend. Which of course frees Gatsby to adventures of his own… And as he runs into several of his former colleagues, all of which are enrolled in New York schools, he realizes that he has no business being anywhere else. This is where he belongs. 

It was a delicious movie to watch, particularly now… And it was a movie so clearly made by people who love cinema… The references to classic movies were everywhere… They really spoke to me… Not to mention how nice it is to spend a couple of hours with a character who thinks in the same frequency as oneself… Someone who thinks of being at the top of the Empire state building… When it’s raining… In black and white… 

And of course there was the rain, everywhere… I so love those grey skies… 

How perfect my day was...