Immortality
by Po-Chih Leong
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Colin Salmon, Elina Löwensohn, Jack Davenport, Jude Law, Timothy SpallDirector: Po-Chih Leong
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
Producer: Carolyn Choa
Producer: David Lascelles
Producer: Dorothy Berwin
Producer: Laura Julian
Producer: Nigel Stafford-Clark
Producer: Scott Meek
Writer: Paul Hoffman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
Published: 2001-03-01
DVD Release Date: 2001-03-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax
Product features:
- To all appearances, Steven Grlscz (Jude Law) is the man who has everything he is handsome, successful, witty and generous. He masterfully seduces the women he selects by analyzing them and swiftly winning their trust. For him, this is not a game. It is a lonely and desperate pursuit for a woman s love he literally cannot live without. When the body of his latest conquest is found at sea, Steven
Movie Reviews of Immortality
Movie Review: Difficult, isn't it? Doing the right thing.
Summary: 5 Stars
After watching the arty, ethereal "Nadja," I was on the prowl for any other movies with:
a) vampires
b) Elina Löwensohn
c) all of the above
Fortunately, there was a movie that neatly fit the third option: "Immortality," aka "The The Wisdom of Crocodiles." This slow-moving, sensual little movie explores a love affair between an elusive bloodsucker and the mortal woman who manages to capture his fancy -- and while it's slow-moving, both Jude Law and Löwensohn turn out simply brilliant performances.
Steven Grlscz (Jude Law) is a vampire -- he woos lonely women, makes them fall passionately in love with him, and then kills them as he drinks their blood. After the body of one of his victims is found, police Inspector Healey (Timothy Spall) begins to suspect that Steven may have murdered her, especially since one of his previous girlfriends died in a bizarre car crash.
At the same time, Steven meets a beautiful Anne Levels (Elina Löwensohn), a quirky, independent woman with a fondness for chopsticks, drawing and obscure sayings. As she falls in love with him, he begins to fall in love with her as well... despite the fact that he needs the the emotions in her blood. Will he be willing to die for her, or will he kill her instead?
"Immortality" has one of the most inscrutable vampires in ages -- you're never sure if he's a tormented lonely slave to his thirst, or whether he's a predator luring in his prey. It's never entirely clear what's going on behind that charming smile, right up to the end. No matter how handsome or nice he is, director Po-Chih Leong doesn't fall into the cliche of the emo-bloodsucker-with-a-heart-of-gold who just needs the Right Woman to redeem him.
For that matter, the movie dances around the question of what the vampire is -- is he a true immortal with a need for blood to stay alive (and an immunity to crosses), or does he have a strange disease? We're never really sure, and I do wish screenwriter Paul Hoffman had made it clearer what had happened in Steven's boyhood.
Fortunately, Law does a brilliant job as Steven -- he's smooth, enchanting, romantic and sophisticated, but he also has a serial-killerish streak (he keeps a book of information and mementos for each woman he's killed). And while most love-interests are overshadowed by the vampire, Löwensohn is a presence as powerful as Law's -- she's an exotic, no-nonsense woman with countless quirks and talents. It would be amazing to have her as a friend.
The movie is somewhat slow, but Leong makes a rich experience anyway -- a chilly, perpetually cloudy London is the setting, . And he loads down the story with lots of symbolism: "The Song of Solomon," the metal chopstick, the "emotion" crystals, and the gold crucifix. Two of the most moving scenes are actually about characters acting in reverse to what Steven does -- in one scene, the inspector is baptised, washing away his sins even as the vampire begins to struggle with his conscience; in another, Anna gives a crude tracheotomy to a wounded man, piercing his throat to save rather than kill him.
"Immortality" is a bit too slow at times, but it's a rich and thought-provoking vampire movie. Those who require kung-fu, sparkles or black leather need not apply -- this one requires a brain.
Summary of Immortality
IMMORTALITY - DVD MovieJude Law makes the term emotional vampire literal in this somber, restrained tale of a modern-day bloodsucker in London. As the improbably named medical researcher Steven Grlscz (pronounced "grilsh"), he's a cool charmer who woos lonely women and feeds off them at the height of their emotional intensity. He begins his seduction of Elina Löwensohn (who played a vampire herself in Nadja) just as relentless police detective Timothy Spall starts an investigation of him for the murder of his former lover Kerry Fox. It's the start of an unusual battle of wits.
Equal parts AIDS metaphor, ancient myth with a modern twist, and shrewd mind game, Immortality (originally released as The Wisdom of Crocodiles) is an art-movie interpretation of the vampire myth, too chic and bloodless to be compelling but curiously fascinating in its way. Leong Po-chih directs with clockwork precision and emotional restraint, elegantly creating a handsome but impersonal world where Grlscz's painful need for love is an extreme symptom of modern life. Law plays his part as a fascinating paradox, hiding his feelings and schemes behind a mask of impenetrable ennui that periodically bursts in a gush of sorrow and disappears just as fast, while Löwensohn is almost as hard to read with her angular face and unusual accent. The meticulous detail and cool images make this more a dispassionate mind game than a horror movie, where the ideas never quite come to life but become a curious enigma. --Sean Axmaker
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