Fave Films of the Century So Far - 2013 - Byzantium

Clara (Gemma Arterton) and Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) are a mother and daughter on the run. They've ended up in a run down coastal town in England and Clara has resorted to desperate means for money. The men after them have been chasing them for 200 years n......wait. 200 years? Oh yes i forgot to mention that mother and daughter are vampires.

Neil Jordan's second sojourn into this genre is rather different to his 1994 mega hit Interview With The Vampire but at the same time they share a couple of similar themes. The way society expects you to act and one big and very unglamorous side of immortality. The horror of seeing people and places grow old and die while you stay the same age.

Below is Eleanor's coming out moment. An essay about her past written for a friend results in her spilling her guts all over the page. Her teacher sees the story and is disturbed & we get a quite different coming out scene than you'd usually see.

The misery of being immortal. The loneliness. The pain clear in her eyes. Her implications towards her teacher (Maria Doyle Kennedy). The moment teach realises the truth. A fantastic 2 minutes in the middle of a full blooded horror in the best sense of the word. A horror that rewrites the rules of the vampire. Fangs are replaced with one sharp piercing finger nail. The transformation involves deserted islands and bloody waterfalls. It's a movie chock full of imagination and striking imagery along side the constant sense of dread and foreboding. Add that to a pair of stunning performances from Gemma Arterton & Saoirse Ronan and you have my favourite film of 2013. It's far from fun but jesus it's good.

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