Byzantium [Blu-ray]

Director: Neil Jordan Neil Jordan

Overview

Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan star in Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan's lavish yet decadent tale of a blood-sucking mother/daughter duo whose dark 200-year history threatens to catch up with them at a run-down hotel on the English coast. Their story begins during the Napoleonic Wars, when young Eleanor (Ronan) is abandoned as Clara (Arterton) falls into a passionate love affair. Two centuries later, demure Eleanor and extroverted Clara are on the run when they seek sanctuary in a dilapidated coastal resort. There, Clara sets her sights on a lonely soul named Noel (Daniel Mays), who has just inherited the Byzantium hotel, a once-thriving inn that has fallen into a sad state of disrepair. Before long, the elder vampire has transformed the Byzantium into a makeshift brothel where she and her young companion can quench their thirst for human blood while maintaining a low profile. Meanwhile, Eleanor falls for Frank (Caleb Landry Jones), a charming young waiter who unwittingly draws out the natural storyteller in her. Amidst a string of mysterious disappearances in the sleepy coastal town, Frank realizes that Eleanor's extraordinary tales are much more than simple fantasy. As Clara and Eleanor's sanguinary past slowly comes into focus, it's only a matter of time before the pair will be forced to either flee once again or face their fates with a sense of dark courage. Jonny Lee Miller and Sam Riley co-star.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/29/2013
UPC:	0030306191591
Original Release:	2012
Rating:	R
Source:	MPI HOME VIDEO
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:58:00
Sales rank:	25,680

Special Features

Interviews; Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Saoirse Ronan	Eleanor
Sam Riley	Darvell
Barry Cassin	Robert Fowlds
Warren Brown	Gareth
David Heap	Lap Dancing Client
Ruby Snape	Wendy
Thure Lindhardt	Werner
Jenny Kavanagh	Barmaid
Glenn Doherty	Steve
Edyta Budnik	Nadia
Gabriela Marcinkova	Anya
Caleb Landry Jones	Frank
Daniel Mays	Noel
Uri Gavriel	Savella
Jonny Lee Miller	Ruthven
Caroline Johns	Young Clara
Christine Marzano	Mrs. Strange
Kate Ashfield	Gabi
Jeff Mash	Mark
Ronnie Masterson	Old Lady in Hospital
Patricia Loveland	Old Lady in Hotel
Maria Doyle Kennedy	Morag
Javier Navarrete	Composer
Gabriela Marcinková	Actor

Technical Credits

Moira Buffini

Moira Buffini	Screenwriter
Neil Jordan	Director
Alan Moloney	Producer
Stephen Woolley	Producer
Sam Englebardt	Producer
William D. Johnson	Producer
Elizabeth Karlsen	Producer
Sharon Harel-Cohen	Executive Producer
Team FX	Special Effects
Sean Bobbitt	Camera Operator
Susie Figgis	Casting
Donal O'Farrell	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

Byzantium probably got the green light because it involves vampires, and vampires are hot right now. But don't let that scare you -- Byzantium is a cerebral, British indie film, too ruminative and atmospheric to be lumped in with the likes of the Twilight series. And while director Neil Jordan is no stranger to the realm of making movies about tragically attractive vampires -- having helmed Interview With the Vampire back in 1994 -- this film bears little resemblance to that franchise either, eschewing all that foppish, operatic pageantry in favor of a restrained but heartfelt narrative. The main characters are mother, Clara (Gemma Arterton) and daughter, Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan). The two may both look a bit too young to be separated by a generation, but keep in mind that 1. they are both mystical, immortal creatures, not bound to the same laws of physics and biology as the rest of us, and 2. Eleanor was born to Clara when she was a 13-year-old 18th century prostitute. We learn more and more about Clara and Eleanor's experiences back then as the story unfolds, but most of the film takes place in the present day, where Clara still uses the hardscrabble street smarts she's been employing for the past 200 years to keep her and her daughter out of the gutter, while the pensive Eleanor finds their existence increasingly troubling. One night, Clara is pulling a trick when she discovers that her goofy, uncomplicated john isn't really looking for sex, he's just in need of human contact, still grieving the recent death of his mother, who left him her long-neglected seaside hotel. Soon, Clara's disarming charms have the man wrapped around her finger, and mother and daughter have a new place to stay. A few things make this premise interesting from the start. For one, Clara and Eleanor aren't automatically rich and powerful, the way that vampires tend to be in movies and books. They still carry around the same dysfunctions as normal people, just stretched out over a longer period of time. Eleanor, stuck in the mother-daughter dynamic for two centuries, has grown up enough to be calm, honest, and contemplative, but still grapples with the stunted emotional maturity she's reaped from years of isolation. At one point, she enrolls in school (which is necessary, to keep up the ruse they've arranged to stay at the hotel), and is given a writing assignment to tell a true story about herself. She decides, for the first time ever, to tell the real story of herself and Clara and how they became vampires, out of sheer frustration. Her teachers read the haunting tale of abuse and magic, of lowly human tragedy and mystic immortality, and assume, as any sane person would, that this is a cry for help, an allegory from a teenage girl about a troubled background and difficult home life. The irony is that while the story being told to the teachers is meant to be literal, the story being told to us is indeed an adroit metaphor -- and one about a woman's coming of age, no less.