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The Long Goodbye, Robert Altman’s classic movie, can be summarised as a song and a feeling. The song has the same title as the movie and was composed by John Williams. It plays throughout the movie and changes in accordance with the characters that it plays over the top of (or underneath of). It reflects the central message throughout many of Altman’s films: that all individuals are part of a collective interpersonal web, and individuality is an abstraction resting over the top of fundamental interconnection of thought and action. Partly due to the Long Goodbye being based on a book by Raymond Chandler, at first glance there appears to be a central character: private-eye Philip Marlowe played by Elliot Gould. Gould works perfectly in this role, as his laid back, and at times almost non-existent demeanor, allows him to fade into the background of the omnipotent feeling that soaks through the film. It works that Marlowe is a private eye: like all of us, he tries to figure out a w

I avoided this film at the film festival as it was fronted as a “vampire film” and I wanted to give a wide berth between myself and a genre at-the-time associated with the Twilight fanfare. However, to label this as a vampire film is to grossly undermine the mastery and style of Jim Jarmusch. The story is essentially about the lives of two lovers. The film takes you on a dream-like journey, reminiscent of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love with dark and colourful surrounding and light, and a pacey soundtrack. Vampires have eternal life, unless killed with a stake to the heart. This concept of eternity introduces spiritual, perhaps, Buddhist perspectives. The question the film asks is: what is the best way to live through eternity? The theme of universality is also reflected in the names of the lovers; Adam and Eve (Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton). For Eve, she uses her time to learn and experience the continuously changing world, to enjoy and savour what is good an