Nadja (1994)

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nTitle: Nadja (1994)

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nDirector: Michael Almereyda

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nCast: Peter Fonda, Galaxy Craze, Jared Harris, ElinanLowensohn

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nVampires by way of David Lynch? Sign me up! So you get DavidnLynch to not only produce your vampire movie but to cameo in it as well? Younlucky bastards you! So anyhow, here we have an art house vampire flick; whichnis not the rarity you might think it is. True, there are many crappy vampirenfilms being produced every day (way too many if you ask me) but you’d be surprisednat just how many ‘art-house’ vampire flicks are out there as well.  I remember na few of them, let see, there’s Blood for Dracula (1974), made artfulnsimply by the fact that it was directed by Andy Warhol himself, then we havenTony Scott’s The Hunger (1983), Blood and Donuts (1995), Romero’s Martin (1976),nDel Toro’s Cronos (1993) to mention just a few of the most prominent examples.nThese are vampire films that don’t concentrate so much on the gore and guts; rather,nthey focus on presenting us with a more artful and original takes on thenvampire genre.

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nNadja does the same thing that a lot of contemporary vampirenmovies do, they play out their story in a modern setting, but it essentiallynplays with all the characters and situations presented on Bram Stoker’s famousnnovel. So on Nadja we have a Dracula, a Dr. Van Helsing, a Lucy, a Reinfeld andnso on. But don’t mistake Nadja for just another retelling of Bram Stoker’snnovel, instead, the film plays like a day in the life of the Dracula family.nYou see, according to this film, Dracula had many children over the centuries,nand now they roam the earth, feeding on humans. Nadja is the daughter ofnDracula, and when we first meet her, she is on her way to meet her brother, tonlet him know that their father has truly died. Along the way, Nadja falls fornand seduces a blond girl by the name of ‘Lucy’ and after their lustfulnencounter, Lucy can’t forget her. Will Lucy turn into a full vampire? Or cannVan Helsing and his nephew save her from the clutches of the vampire family?

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nSo first things first, Nadja is not only artsy fartsy, it isnextremely artsy-fartsy! Starting by the fact that the film is in black andnwhite, which by the way I found very pleasing to the eye. I am not a black andnwhite hater, in fact, for certain projects I say it fits perfectly, for examplenin Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City (2005) the black and white augments the sense ofnfilm noir and the feeling of reading one of Frank Miller’s black and whitencomic books. The black and white goes with Nadja because the filmmakersnobviously display a certain admiration for old school horror movies like WhitenZombie (1932) and Dracula (1931), going as far as actually using some scenesnfrom White Zombie as part of the film; which brings to mind how Nadja turned out to be a straight forwardnvampire film, I was expecting even more subtlety with the vampire themes, butnnope, it’s pretty straight forward. It might as well have been called Daughternof Dracula or something! In Nadja we meet Dracula’s daughter and she’s this slicknlady who loves to smoke her cigarettes by the pale moon light walking aroundnthe city looking all sorts of mysterious and sexy. The black and white alsongives Nadja the feel of an experimental film, which in many ways it is.

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nFor example, the director decided to use a blurry visionneffect to demonstrate how it would feel to be under the power of a vampire.nDuring these scenes, the image of the films looks as if it’s being filterednthrough some sort of really low definition camera that’s out of focus as well,nso we see these blurry images. I say this effect works within the context ofnwhat the director is trying to achieve, but I also think he over used it; fornexample there were various scenes in which I was digging the crisp black andnwhite imagery and suddenly the director would switch back to the blurry visionnthing, to me it got in the way of enjoying the black and white cinematographynwhich was beautiful; though I will admit the blurry effect also adds to thenstrangeness of the film. Nadja certainly exudes a strange vibe, that feeling ofnbeing somewhere in the middle of the city during the deep hours of the night, whennthe freaks come out. So just be ready for a film that takes many risks byntrying different visual techniques like these.  

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nLike many vampires who have walked for eons upon the earth,nthe vampires in Nadja like to philosophize about life and muse about the waynthings are, it’s one of the things I liked about the film. Something might benhappening and suddenly one of the vampires starts philosophizing, handing outngolden nuggets of wisdom. They say things like “The pain I feel is the pain ofnfleeting joy” referring to her passing relationships. And speaking ofnrelationships, this is yet another lesbian vampire film to add to the list.nNadja likes the ladies and falls for one of her victims, just like in VampyrosLesbos (1971), Daughters of Darkness (1971) and Vampire Lovers (1970). In fact,nat times Nadja felt like a remake of Vampyros Lesbos with regards to thencharacter of Lucy and the relationship that develops between her and Nadja.nThey meet in a bar, hit it off and end up having a crazy night together thatnends in seduction. The day after, Lucy can’t think of anything else but beingnwith Nadja! Same thing happens with the two romantically entangled ladynvampires in Vampyros Lesbos. But this shouldn’t surprise anyone, vampires havenalways been the embodiment of seduction.  

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nThe actress who plays Nadja, Elina Lowensohn is so beautifulnand exotic looking, I add her to that roster of actresses who’s look is so otherworldlynthat they light the screen on fire whenever they appear. Elina Lowensohn’snperformance as Nadja brought to mind the equally seductive performances of actressesnlike Nastassja Kinski in Cat People (1982) or Anne Parillaud in Innoncent Bloodn(1992), you know sexy, dangerous, exotic looking female fatales. Bottom linenwith Nadja is that it’s a very somber film, with lots of serious vampiresnsmoking cigarettes and musing about life. At its core is a story centered on familyn“as you get older you begin to realize that family is the only thing thatnmatters” and relationships but told through the filter of the whole Draculanmythology. During the film we follow Dracula’s siblings and discover they’ve beennfeuding for years; can they deal with each other after years of avoidance, especially now that their father’s death has brought them together? Atnthe same time, you’ll find some comedy squeezed in between all the seriousness;nbut it’s very subtle, never in your face. Peter Fonda’s Dr. Van Helsing is annamusing performance, he offers up some of those subtle yet effective comedic moments. Thenthing with a movie like this is that you gotta be in a very mellow vibe tonwatch it; you gotta want to watch a slow, quiet film about brooding sadnvampires. Save it for one of those nights when you want to see something different,nartful and experimental in nature, hey it was produced by David Lynch (he even cameos in it!) what’dnyou expect? Normality?

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nRating: 3 out of 5   

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