(Not Rated, see below)
OO1/2
I don't watch horror movies. I really never have. Not that I don't like a good scare once in a while, but most of what has passed for horror since I was a kid is really just about gore and guts. In my book there's a big difference between being frightened and being nauseated, and getting a sick feeling is not why I go to the movies. As a kid I was a big fan of the old Hammer Studios' Dracula movies staring Christopher Lee. They were standards on Saturday afternoon TV, and by and large were timid stuff. Over the years though vampire movies have moved in two basic directions. One is to turn them into tragic romances, with the vampire sometimes becoming a sympathetic character. This is not so off base since the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, the book that "started it all" if you will, was at it's core a Gothic romance. Nonetheless I like my vamps seductively menacing, not simply cute and sensitive. The other trend has been to turn them into slasher films; lots of blood, decapitations, and a high body count (I know this from reviews I've read; if I've heard a movie has excessive violence I usually walk away).
Needless to say I've pretty much given up on vampire movies. But I was lured into watching a German vampire film called We Are the Night, upon the recommendation of the critic Christy Lemire on Ebert Presents. Ms Lemire identified this movie as a "good little escape" and while this one does play it a bit lighter than most contemporary horror films, there is more going on here than simply the vampire fashion show she made it out to be. In spite of the hot cloths, fast cars and wild night life, these are some pretty angst ridden vamps.
The story follows a Berlin pick pocket, Lena (Karoline Herfurth) who is identified by the leader of a nest of female vampires, Louise (Nina Hoss), searching for her long lost love. Lena's transformation is stunning; she goes from being a reject from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to Germany's Next Top Model with one bite (followed by a beating at the hands of some Russian pimps and a ritualistic bath of some kind. Don't ask). But she never seems all in with this whole vampire business. The other two, Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) and Nora (Anna Fischer) have their own problems. The brooding Charlotte is guilt ridden over the husband and child she left behind ninety years ago, and Nora, though a gleefully murderous party vamp, laments that she can't form any lasting relationships. She claims that humans are emotionally fragile, but we see that she's really speaking about herself. Once the party stops we see four women who are trapped in perpetual night, lonely and isolated. They stay up to see the dawn from their patios, literally smoldering, retreating just before the sun's rays can harm them. They will live forever, or at least a really long time, and enjoy all the pleasures the world has to offer, though without the nasty side effects, but there is something missing that the eternal night can never give to them.
As for Lena she knows that there is something fundamentally wrong with the turn her life has taken. What makes her dilemma more cruel is that she didn't choose her fate, it was the domineering Louise who picked her out of the crowd and determined that she was the one based on nothing more than something she saw in her eyes. She reaches out to a cop (Max Riemelt), who's trying to figure out how those Russians ended up incinerated and how Lena got their car. There is a romantic spark between them. If she were still a mere pick pocket they might have had a chance at romance, but low, it can never be. Or can it?
The film's ending is typically European, leaving everything wide open and ambiguous. But unlike many films, both American and European, it questions the meaning of the nihilistic pleasure seeking that it seems to glorify. Life has a meaning beyond the flesh, that can never be discovered by carnal indulgences; they are limited, even for the undead. Meaning can only be discovered by opening one's self up to relationships that are free, mutually entered into and committed. The forced companionship and repetitiously self indulgent life Louise has trapped her companions in is a dead end.
To be honest, I'm not sure I saw the same movie as Ms Lemire. Yes, We Are The Night serves, for the most part, as a guilty pleasure, as she implies in her review. But there is more lurking in the dark than four party animals on a rampage. In the midst of the driving beat, endless partying and unmerciful bloodletting there is a longing for the sun that the night can never satisfy.
(The version streaming on Nextflix is dubbed into English, which is too bad. This is far from a must see affair, but if you've heard some buzz and just have to catch it, request the disc and hope it comes in the original subtitled German. The film is unrated, but I'd say it's an "R," though I wouldn't be surprised if it got a PG-13 in today's climate. There is no nudity, but the sexual overtones are strong. The action is bloody, but not over the top, at least not by today's standards. Most of the worst carnage takes place off camera, and we're shown the aftermath, often in shadows.)
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