The Hunger

Bry

at 2:33 am

To understate my impression, this is perhaps one of the most engrossing films i’ve seen in years. Every second was captivating, not only were the characters portrayed well by an excellent cast and script, but the sceens were beautyfull and the camera work unique.

The plot centers around a couple, they’re immortal vampires living in New York in the early 1980’s, they’re very chic and their house is filled with an atmosphere like a mausoleum for the rich. This film captured the superficial edge of the decade with a glitering vision of fashion and style, all mixed in with the desire to never age. However, it isn’t self indulgent with the topic, and it never favours any of the characters, instead it shows how lonely and detached they have become over the centurys. The plot moves slow, and some people have criticized it because of this, but if it were fast the whole atmosphere wouldn’t work.

I won’t spoil any of the plot, but you will be suprised by it and the twists it takes before the end…
Rating: 5 / 5

Jason Parkes

at 5:02 am

I hadn’t seen this since 1990ish, when everyone seemed to be listening to Bauhuas for some reason. Following a recent rediscovery of Bowie, I found myself enjoying both THe Man Who Fell to Earth & Christiane F- added to that I’ve got a thing about Buffy/Angel and films like Martin (George Romero) & The Addiction (Abel Ferrera). Plus, at this price it would be rude not to own this (and like the Terror Vision issue of The Haunting, you get three postcards- though two are of Deneuve; would have liked a Sarandon one!).

I think The Hunger, along with Revenge and True Romance, is one of Scott’s finest (the gung-ho homoerotica of Top Gun is tiring)- Scott demonstrating what Paul Schrader calls the ‘high style’ in Schrader on Schrader (1990, Faber). This is located somewhere between the high design and lighting styles dictating excess in 1930’s/40’s Hollywood (and a little more in musicals like An American in Paris, or Minelli films like Two Weeks in Another Town) and was seen by Schrader to be reborn in Bertolucci’s influential THe Conformist.

The 1980’s saw this high style exist with imagery of subcultures (goths, homosexuals) and fuse with a sheen that would be found in much advertising. A big influence on this shift would be Don Simpson (see the book High Concept)- many films of the 1980’s began to look wonderful in terms of colour, editing and use of music- this is the new high style evident in films like American Gigolo, Cat People (a relative of this on other levels also), Flashdance, Breathless and of course, Top Gun. This use of extreme colour and mindblowing design would continue into subsequent great works of American cinema: Blue Velvet, The Age of Innocence, Eyes Wide Shut…

This is just one aspect of The Hunger that I admire, Scott cutting between eras and bodies to music , creating a classic mise-en-scene. The Hunger also takes a fresh angle towards the vampire myth- the Blaylock’s killing with an ankh-shaped knife that appears to be analogous to the crucifix. What else?- well the on-screen disintegration of John Blaylock is as moving and disturbing as that found in David Cronenberg’s The Fly a few years later.

The music is great, the opening Bela Lugosi’s Dead by Bauhaus is a classic of a kind and perfectly suited to this film (plus Peter Murphy was in an advert, so this makes sense on another level); while the music of Ravel adds to the deliscious surface of this film (and would find its way into a BA-advert a few years later…). The other great thing, that I feel is missing from films like The Lost Boys, Near Dark & Francis Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is that this film is erotic; as a vampire should be. The brilliantly shot love scene between Denueuve & Sarandon is wonderful, reminding you a little of Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (as does the stream of blood over paper that recurs throughout the film). Finally, this is one of the best Bowie performances this side of The Man Who Fell to Earth (couldn’t buy him in Merry Xmas- probably because Conti, Kitano & Sakamoto acted him off the screen/though I love Labyrinth, as you do…).

The Hunger is a more than interesting addition to the vampire genre and one that I feel has dated wondefully and attained classic status…
Rating: 5 / 5