Byzantium

We watched Neil Jordan's little seen vampire flick on DVD. It is the tale of a mother and daughter revanant and their attempts to survive a hostile modern world. The story is set in a dilapidated seaside town and was filmed in Hastings in East Sussex. I have visited the aforesaid and it is an atmospheric locale.

The vampire pony has been flogged to its knees by the Twilight saga and various post modern iterations. Bram Stoker's Dracula has been largely forgotten along with the primal fears triggered by the original tale. Byzantium itself is beautiful looking, well performed but ultimately hollow. The fault may not lie with the creators . Mr. Jordan is a talented filmmaker and writer with a sophisticated sensibility . He has made modern fairy tales like The Company of Wolves and Mona Lisa . The problem may lie with the audience and changing viewing habits. The practice of going to the cinema for adult entertainment may be in terminal decline. Home cinema and the Internet could leave the multiplex the provenance of the 3D spectacle or the teenager with various men in tights flicks.

In the past Hollywood did accommodate diverse sensibilities. The American Paul Schrader wrote or directed award winning films like Raging Bull . He was not drawn to cinema by nostalgia - his parents were religious and forbade his going to the movies. He saw his first movie at 18.His latest film The Canyons may be a portent for the future. He had to finance the film by crowd sourcing though the Kick Starter web site. He ended with a budget that was a small percentage of his studio features, a limited cinema release and viewed mostly over the Internet. I have not seen the movie so I cannot comment on its qualities. I have read about it and seen the trailer. It begins with a montage of abandoned film theatres and a lament for the demise of the seventh art form.

Mr. Jordan's film never explains why it is called Byzantium but I forgive the conceit. Byzantium is a beautiful word.