Now the first thing to know about this film is that, if you're a subtitle purist like I try to be, you're going to have to sit through the frustrating experience of NOT BEING ABLE to find an English subtitled version through any legal channels. It seems the dub is all that is available in iTunes, Netflix, etc. If you can speak German then you're in luck and able to watch this film in its original form. Otherwise, you'll likely have to suffer through mediocre dubbing. On the other hand, even if your ears are suffering, you will be treated to some amazing eye candy throughout the film.
Seriously, this film is gorgeous: lush and stylized and colorful. I never would have imagined a vampire movie that looked quite like this. Not since Interview with the Vampire have I seen a film about vampires that so clearly knows the worlds it wants to draw viewers into and how that world should look.
Also like Interview, this film follows a reluctant vampire and its hedonistic and vicious maker/sire. But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves.
The film's protagonist is Lena, a goth-boyish-computer-hacker-thief who seems to have been plucked straight out of a Steig Larsson novel.
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| Pictured: the poor man's Lisbeth Salander |
She is on the run from an Abercrombie-model cop who the movie almost painfully foreshadows will be her love interest by the film's end. Yes, for all its beauty, Wir Sind die Nacht isn't the most original or subtle film when it comes to plot...
Lena's world changes drastically when she is found by elder vampire Louise, who is searching for a new female companion with beautiful eyes. Lena apparently makes the cut and she is bitten, goes through the typical beat-for-beat vampire movie transformation (almost exactly the same in every vampire film from The Brotherhood to Near Dark to Kiss of the Damned) but now with even more shiny camera angles and artiness. This film also steals, er, pays homage to the Interview with the Vampire with the shift into a vampire restoring a person's body and hair to it's natural and "ideal" state.
(Note: okay, well this YouTube clip has English subs at least!)
After her transformation, Louise draws Lena into her world of late night partying, fast cars, and glamour. Louise and her two other vampire prodigies, Nora and Charlotte, all wear expensive clothes, stay in fancy hotels, string along casual lovers, and do shots of blood out of crystal glasses.
It seems like an amazing (un)life and one which clearly agrees with hungry Louise, as well as younger party-girl vampire Nora. However, the bookish Charlotte lives in a state of ennui and seems always on the verge of committing suicide via sunrise. Lena, meanwhile, is hesitant about her new state and vacillates between revealing in her new power and feeling horrified and guilty about drinking human blood. (Yes, a fairly typical state for our newly-turned protagonist. See: Interview with the Vampire, Near Dark, etc.)
Despite the predictable arc for the protagonist, the other characters in this film are lush, just like the look. There is enough mystery to draw the audience in, but enough detail so that every vampiress feels like a round and dynamic person. I say vampire-ess because one of the other details about this film's mythos is that, in this world, there are only female vampires.
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| Therefore, we get scenes like... well... I'll just leave this here. |
This creates a very interesting world and dynamic between and around the characters. Questions of friendship, love, motherhood, and loyalty are necessarily viewed differently than they were in the mostly male dominated Interview with the Vampire, and with both "hero" and "villain" being women, this is one of the few vampire films which doesn't victimize female characters.
That's not to say that I think the depictions and messages of the film are perfect. It is explained that male vampires were supposedly killed off long ago because they were too bloodthirsty and destructive. The audience is clearly supposed to question this given the level of death and destruction the vampires, especially Louise, cause throughout the movie. In fact, the thesis of the film seems to almost be that women have the potential to be the more destructive ones... and that we should all be thankful for Abercrombie-cops.
Yes, that's ultimately what bugged me most about this film. For all of the lovely awesomeness of the vampire world, for how empowered Lena seems to grow from these new abilities and friends, ultimately the reason she rebels against the "evil" Louise doesn't seem to be just for her own sake or because of a clear moral stance, but because she is heterosexually infatuated with the ultimate symbol of milk-toast patriarchal authority. Um... hooray?
While visually stunning and full of interesting characters, the end of this movie just left a bad taste in my mouth. The conclusion is a restoration of order which felt as unsettling as Shakespeare's most problematic tragicomedies (e.g. Measure for Measure, where a nun is asked to give up her life's goal to marry a duke, who she barely knows, and it is presented as a fulfilling and "happy" ending).
However, this film is still absolutely worth seeing for any vampire movie fan! Also like Interview, which (while completely different in tone and feel) I seem to be unable to stop comparing this film to, a more-interesting-than-the-protagonist-vampre gets the chance to deliver one of the most satisfying verbal-take-downs of the whiny and "good" protagonist. While Lestat gave us the iconic "Still whining, Louis?", Wir Sind die Nacht gives the elegant Charlotte the almost as satisfying and snappy, "Accept who you are and stop being dramatic!" when Lena tries to refuse to drink human blood. It made me smile and love the film even more. This one is definitely worth your time, even if I did ultimately wish that the whole movie was just about Charlotte and Nora...
Rating: a very stylish 4 out of 5 bites
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