Nadja (1994)

Written and Directed by Michael Almereyda
Details at the IMDB, US.IMDB

Welcome to Artflickia, land of the pretentious film.  You know the place.  It's the one where style is the primary natural resource.  Substance, meaning, and entertainment are discouraged -- too common, too petty.  It's a monetarily poor country, producing few marketable exports and subsisting on foreign aid from nouveau riche who think they are buying class by investing in modern art.  The Emperor of the realm is naked, and the denizens praise his robes.  When the children come out to play, they don't so much play as they do scream at nearby adults about how clever they are.

Not that I'm prejudiced against this sort of thing.

When visiting a foreign land, it helps to have a guide.  So when I rented this movie, I invited an acquaintance of mine called Todd A. O., a three-hundred pound starving artist who is familiar with the customs.  He, Mrs. Apostic, and I settled in for this feature.
  

The Plot

We open with some flashy triple exposures that include moving images of night in "the city," blur shots from a Fisher-Price cam (known to some as Pixel-Vision), and close-ups of Nadja (Elina Löwensohn).  (Which city?  Well, it could be the City of New York, but that would be stereotypical -- pretentious art film made in NYC.)  Fade to regular film with Nadja in a nightclub philosophizing to a man about the cultural differences between nighttime urban America and Europe.  This scene, like the rest of the movie, is filmed in stark black and white.  She explains she's wealthy and ethically upset about her lot in life.

Cut to Nadja and the man making out in a car.  The medium switches to Fisher-Price cam which either means a voyeuristic kid is in the car with them or RoboCop is watching from nearby.  (Todd said it's there because it looks really-really cool and it says something weird is happening.  As far as I could tell, it means the director had gone pixelated.)  We find out that Nadja's a vampire.  She puts the bite on the guy.  After she's done, she has a (Pixel-) vision of someone in a cape (Peter Fonda) writhing around with a stake in his chest.  "My father," says Nadja.

The story introduces Jim (Martin Donovan), who is sparring in a boxing ring at a gym.  Lucy (Galaxy Craze) distracts him, and the other boxer knocks him out of the ring.  Lucy leans in tight, and we get Jim's point of view of her; the foreground is out of focus.  ("Brilliant!" exclaimed Todd. "It shows the character's inability to connect with her."  I thought it was just that Jim was having a mild concussion, but to be fair, I know more about getting hit on the head than I do modern art.)  Lucy tells Jim that his uncle has killed someone.  Drop cut an image of someone driving a stake into someone.  Jim goes to get his uncle.

Meanwhile (based on how you gauge time), Nadja and her friend Renfield (Karl Geary) arrive at a morgue and pester the security officer (David Lynch) for a body.  Cut to Jim and Van Helsing (Fonda again) in a coffee shop.  Van Helsing is comparing the vampire he has killed to Elvis; the magic was gone, and the vampire was just going through the motions.  (Todd loved that line.  But given what we'd seen of this story so far, I wasn't so sure the movie should finger anyone for just going through the motions.)

Cut to someone lighting a magic snake firework.  (Hey, maybe that's where the magic went.)  Nadja plays the piano while explaining to Renfield how she doesn't care for her (un)life.  Later, she goes out on the town and picks up Lucy.  During their conversation, Nadja explains she's looking for her brother who's in Brooklyn.  (Could've been hanging out with Eddie Murphy's character from another movie that year.)  While Nadja and Lucy make small talk, several flowing lines scroll down the screen.  (Todd was moved by this surprising effect which indicated the subtle shifts in the reality of their relationship.  Actually, this was bad tracking on the tape, possibly caused by several renters turning the movie off at this point, but I let it go.)

Fade to Jim and Van Helsing having a conversation on a rooftop.  Van Helsing sounds slightly demented.  While he talks about how vampires are everywhere, the picture shows jump-cut accelerated footage of people in the city during the day.  (Huh?)  Van Helsing then talks about the early days of the vampire he's killed, and we are treated to stock footage of Bela Lugosi in White Zombie (1932).

Back at Lucy and Jim's place, Lucy and Nadja make small talk about Lucy's pet tarantula Bela (who may also have been in White Zombie).  The scene goes to Fisher-Price cam, Nadja and Lucy begin to frolic about, and some subtle music cues up.  Nadja and Lucy begin to have an erotic episode.  (Todd was deeply excited by the subtle sound of raspy, rhythmic breathing, which was a brilliant addition by the director to enhance the primal energy of the moment.  I glanced over at the couch; Mrs. Apostic was blissfully snoring.  I let it go.)  Nadja puts the bite on Lucy.

Next morning, Jim arrives with some roses and finds Lucy curled up in the corner.  She doesn't feel well and says it's her period.  Jim mumbles about his uncle's instability.  Lucy begins to bleed at the nose.  She looks at a mirror and sees Nadja.  Later, Van Helsing shows up and wants to talk.  The body has disappeared from the morgue, and Van Helsing knows the children have taken it.  (Todd sensed shadowy doom hanging over their conversation.  To me, doom looked like a boom mike; I let it go.)  They find some photographs of Nadja in the apartment.

Elsewhere, Nadja and Renfield drop in on Nadja's brother Edgar and his nurse Cassandra.  While Edgar lies there suffering, Nadja whines about having to eat whipped butter as a child.  The conversation and picture become distorted.  Suddenly, Ingmar Bergman runs into the room and jack-slaps everyone for ripping off his style.  No, wait, I think I nodded off and dreamed that bit.  While Nadja moves Edgar to her father's apartment, Lucy freaks out on Jim.  Van Helsing encourages a confrontation with the vampires.
  

The Good Stuff

I asked Todd to write this part of the review, but he's too busy with his job as a poodle washer and spirit guide, so I'll take a crack at it.

This film has several interesting film techniques.  Jump cuts, cross cuts, time lapse cuts, multiple exposures, selective focus, polarization, reverse polarization, unusual recording media, they're all here.  Scene composition takes advantage of the stark potential of black & white film.

Peter Fonda does a good job as the slightly deranged Van Helsing, even when it starts looking too much like an impression of Hunter S. Thompson.  Funny how both he and the other lead of Easy Rider (1969) have been playing insane characters.
  

The Bad Stuff

Since this seems to be primarily a showcase for film techniques, not much else is showcased, certainly not an original script and interesting characters.  I'd go so far as to suggest that a list of film techniques to be used dictated the script, not the other way around.

There are several parts I suspect were intended to be funny, but I'm not sure.  As mentioned in the plot above, Nadja talks about being forced to eat whipped butter as a child leading to her hatred of her father.  I honestly could not tell if that was supposed to be a funny line.  Maybe it was, in which case the director may wish to learn how to tell a joke.

This film runs for about two hours.  As a half-hour short, it might've been a good package.  But about halfway through the runtime, when Nadja says things like "I want to die" and "I want this to end," I was mumbling, "Amen, sister!"  Film experiments that run for two hours should be confined to MST3K. Hey….

  
Notes on Cast and Crew

Michael Almereyda (writer, director) has done mostly arthouse stylings.  He won a special citation innovation use of the Fisher-Price camera from the National Society of Film Critics for his film Another Girl Another Planet (1992).  (I'd assume that, two years later, his reuse of this medium should no longer be thought of as innovative.)  Nadja earned him the best director award at the Catalonian International Film Festival.

Elina Löwensohn (Nadja) has been in several small-scale art productions, including another vampire film called The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998).  Several critics (including Todd) have said her presence in Nadja is deeply erotic and sensual.  But tastes may vary.  I personally found her as alluring as Bengt Ekerot as Death in The Seventh Seal.

Avant-garde David Lynch (Morgue Attendant, Executive Producer) needs no introduction here.  I'm not sure what he was doing here besides encouraging disturbing filmmaking in black and white, as in his own Eraserhead (1977).  However, it should be noted that Lynch's hand on the stark black and white in Eraserhead is more certain, and his disturbing images are more original.

Roots, Shoots, and Other Compares

The original, some transplanted vampires, and high art vampires

Dracula's Daughter (1936) -- Immediately after Van Helsing stakes Dracula in the first movie of the same name, he's arrested for murder and the count's daughter shows up.  Nadja is a remake of this one.  Gloria Holden does an excellent job as the sensual and damned title character.  It has a script with interesting characters and a sense of originality.

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) -- Roman Polanski's satire on the genre about a bungling elder vampire hunter and his apprentice.  And it has a script with interesting characters and a sense of originality.

Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) -- Vampire sets up house in California, and locals respond credibly according to character.  Oh, the script has interesting characters and sense of originality.

The Night Stalker (1971) -- A reporter discovers a vampire in urban Las Vegas.  Interesting characters and sense of originality.

Blood for Dracula (1974) -- Andy Warhol backed this tale of Dracula (who is a "wampire") moving to Italy in search of "wirgins."  This count can't hold down blood from non-wirgins and he encounters several girls who aren't wirgins, so things get messy.  Oh, and it has a script with you-know-what by now.
  

The Bottom Line.

Art film showcasing a catalogue of the director's excellently executed film techniques.  Not meant for human consumption.  Recommended for film composition instructors looking for examples of techniques, techno club movie wranglers looking for big screen fodder, and insomniacs.

Originally submitted to the B-Movie Mailing List on 2 August 1999.
Republished in B-Notes on 2 May 2003 .