Nadja (1994)

interesting, but ultimately boring, horrror art film

Nadja is a difficult film to review, if reviews are meant to guide others, partly because others' reactions will vary wildly. Cinephiles and Goths may regard Nadja as a profound masterpiece, whereas Fangorians might think it turgid crud.

A black & white vampire film, Nadja falls into that small but intriguing category: the horror art film (e.g., Blood and Roses, Spirits of the Dead, The Company of Wolves, Gothic). Its cast includes such Hal Hartley alums as Rumanian-born Elina Lvwensohn (Flirt, Amateur, Basquiat, Schindler's List) and Martin Donovan (Flirt, Amateur, The Opposite of Sex), and is executive produced by David Lynch (who cameos as a morgue attendant).

Nadja's plot is a lethargic (some would say moody) retelling of the Dracula tale in contemporary Manhattan. Lvwensohn stars as Nadja Dracul, Dracula's daughter. Early in the film, Nadja senses Van Helsing destroy Dracula, both roles played by a long-haired but balding Peter Fonda. In effect, Fonda "kills himself." I don't know what this is meant to symbolize, if anything, but throughout most of the film Fonda plays Van Helsing, as Dracula is now truly dead (except in flashbacks).

And there are flashbacks aplenty. Every film school/art house gimmick is on display. The black & white photography is variously beautiful, rich, stark, stunning, moody, sumptuous, smoky, blurry -- everything an Anne Rice fan on acid could desire. Images are framed from every conceivable angle. Rainwater drips on the camera lens. Some scenes are shot with a toy Pixelvision video camera. (Yes, there are slow motion shots.)

The soundtrack features diverse musical styles and discordant nondiegetic noises, sometimes fading in and out, sometimes cutting in and out with jarring abruptness. The black & white photography, discordant noises, and languid pace all evoke David Lynch's Eraserhead. (Yes, there are voiceovers.)

Lvwensohn begins one voiceover amid sound effects while in her castle. We cut to events outside, and although her voiceover continues seamlessly, all else is silenced. Moments later, the sound effects fade back up. No real reason for this audio gimmickry, but some viewers may think it eerie. Some may even regard it profound.

If it sounds like I'm reviewing form rather than content, it's because Nadja is about style rather than substance. This film is to be watched rather than understood. Its story is as disjointed as its editing. (Yes, there are jump cuts.)

Characters flitter about aimlessly; only Van Helsing is consistently driven. Van Helsing destroys Dracula, then wants to destroy Nadja. He enlists Jim (Martin Donovan), who's sort of married to the boyish Lucy (Galaxy Craze), who is seduced by Nadja. (Lucy, as in Stoker's Dracula -- get it?) There's also a Renfield (Karl Geary), Nadja's "slave." Nadja also wants to nurse her non-vampire brother with blood plasma. Instead, Nadja seduces his lover/nurse Cassandra (Suzy Amis, of Titanic). (Yes, there are lesbian vampire sex scenes.)

Nadja is burdened with flashbacks and jump cuts and torpid pacing and vapid dialogue, obfuscating a thin story. Many will be too bored to prune away all the pretty padding and make an effort to follow the story. Nonsense lines abound, often spoken in a monotone, Hal Hartley style. Jim stares blankly at Lucy while he expounds his love for her to Van Helsing. Lucy responds: "Tuesday I ate two diet cokes and a bit of pizza. Today I had some M&Ms." She's under Nadja's spell, but she's not all that different for it. Her conversations with Jim are both fatalistic and trite. (Yes, there's enough fatalism and pessimism and gloom in this film to delight a whole mausoleum-ful of Goths.)

The story ends in Nadja's Transylvanian castle, which looks like an abandoned New Jersey tenement; the walls are brick rather than large cut stone. That's okay, it's an old low-budget trick. And the tracking shot of a Rumanian map is a stylishly nostalgic manner in which to depict the characters' travels. Goths especially will love the darkly draped bed Nadja shares with Cassandra.

There is a "surprise twist" ending, but I saw it coming. So should anyone who is familiar with Roger Vadim's Blood and Roses (a retelling of Carmilla, and a far better film). Since Nadja features a female vampire, one may argue that it too is informed by Carmilla rather than Dracula, but Nadja's character names are lifted from Stoker's novel, not Le Fanu's.

There are some trendy modern themes. Nadja laments her dysfunctional family. Seems Dracula was a lousy dad. That, and the gender-bender lesbian sex, the long-haired puffy-shirted men, the vapid philosophizing that sounds profound if you don't think about it, and a film textbook's worth of cinematic stylistics, makes for a film that many an Anne Rice fan could stare at for endless hours, imagining that they were watching some insightful statement on transcendent love, or whatever. Others will be screaming: "Get on with it!"

Nadja's story could easily have been compressed into a half hour short, resulting in a quicker pace without losing any substance. Its lavish stylistics are impressive, but its slight story, silly dialogue, lack of philosophical insight, and lethargic pace are a drag on the film. Nadja will enthrall some, bore others. I presume you, dear reader, know which camp you're likely to fall into. June 15, 2008

Showed potential

Here is a vampire movie that had potential, yet was ultimately ruined by some poor choices. It is a tale involving two offspring of Count Dracula, who has recently been stabbed with a wooden spike. The two, Nadja and Edgar, endeavor to retrieve the body so they can return it to his native soil. Showing up so he can try to stop them is a relative of van Helsing, also known as Dr. van Helsing. Why the filmmakers thought they needed to retain Dracula as their vampire character is puzzling, though not nearly as puzzling as the decision to include Lucy, van Helsing and Renfield characters. Are these the only characters from vampire lore they could think of? For me, it only seemed to make the film contrived, less authentic and less appealing. Footage from the Lugosi "Dracula" film is also briefly used for some reason, as though we do not know who Dracula is. As Dr. van Helsing, Peter Fonda's performance is sporadic at best; he looks intermittently embarrassed and acts as though he did not take his role seriously. I cannot really blame him though, since the film's budget is noticeably very low. As with most other vampire films, the low budget does not hinder the production very much. There really aren't any special effects and, this being set in the present, the sets are not elaborate. It becomes rather humorous, however, toward the climax of the film, which is supposed to be at Dracula's castle in Romania. One scene, which supposedly takes place at the foot of the castle, was obviously shot at night in some non-descript countryside. The next scene is supposed to be under the castle, though it looks as though it was shot in a drainage ditch. The scenes inside the castle consist of one room, which doesn't really look like a castle.

It is not all bad news, though, as Elina Loewensohn looks and acts very much the part of Dracula's daughter. As Lucy, Galaxy Craze (I swear I did not make that up) is delectable; she is quite competent for an unknown actress and brings a convincing naïveté, which is consistent with the character. Too bad she has not been in more films. Also, the decision to film in black and white was gutsy and, I think, a good one. It is sometimes beautiful and works tremendously to the film's advantage with use of shadows, etc. Unfortunately, the overall look of the film is really cheapened and ruined by the use of pixel vision. I have NO IDEA why this was employed, as it renders the onscreen action indistinct and utterly incapable of viewing.

David Lynch, who also had a hand in producing this film, shows up in a cameo. Just don't expect Lynch's usual stamp of bizarre, humorous entertainment. If you really want to see this film, I would strongly recommend renting before buying.
December 19, 2007

Casts a blurry spell

As soon as I saw David Lynch produced this, I knew I was in for a mixed bag. It's not that I don't think the man has talent, it's just that he always pushes the artistry and existentialism of the viewing experience to the point that the film ceases to entertain and devolves into a near-nonsensical, unfocused mess. Still, Lynch didn't direct "Nadja" and it never goes that far, though it veers into that territory from time to time.

This is a film custom made for philosophical, art-house vampire fans; the kind who listen to The Cure and Morrissey, not Marilyn Manson and Type O Negative. The action is thin, the sexuality brief, and the story difficult to accurately portray in mere words. This film is a bit of a remake of the sequel to the original "Dracula", entitled "Dracula's Daughter". Nadja plays the daughter in question, one half of a pair of fraternal twins. Dracula has had many children through rape, but Nadja and her brother Edgar were the only born from love; thus all of the rest were born hideous idiots allowing them to blend into the population (now THAT's black humor!).

Nadja is a sexy vampire maiden of perpetual sorrow, enveloped by the sadness of "fleeting joy"; everything she loves disappears in the end. Her brother, thinking them monsters, wants her dead and is ill from not feeding, her "cold and distant" father has just been killed by Dr. Van Helsing (an unsual performance by Peter Fonda) who's now aiming for her, and then there's that whole vampire thing, immortality and blood drinking and all that. Her desire for a fresh start in life and inability to break old habits can be a metaphor for many things; drug addiction and bad romantic choices being the two that strike me as relevant. The black and white picture is quite beautiful, the music is unique and evocative, and this is definitely a film to see if you're into artistic horror. That's the good.

The bad is that after the first half, the film tries too hard and is often inconsistent in both the vampire mythos and the overall quality. The biggest loser of points is the unique use of a blurry, pixelated camera view used in scenes where Nadja uses her vampiric influence to blur her victims' minds. A great idea in theory, but it looks terrible in practice, inducing headaches in the lengthier scenes and making the onscreen action hard to follow in others. I actually wondered if the DVD was defective for a minute, but then I remembered David Lynch was involved and let out a little sigh. More good artistic intentions gone bad. And let's face it, when two beautiful women are kissing passionately onscreen or the protagonist is fighting for her life, nobody needs a blurry picture. Some of the dialogue is a bit distracting as well, with the use of phrases like "psychic fax" -used to explain the telepathic link between vampires- breaking the sophisticated and otherworldly feel of the film. Some of the plot points are of the "WTF" variety and the climax is more of an anticlimax, though the ending is somewhat fitting for the character.

The bottom line is this: if you're looking for the orgy of sex and violence that the back of the box promises, you may as well go buy a coaster because that's all this DVD will be good for; but if you want a thoughtfully different approach to vampires on film give this one a try. It will never be my favorite vampire film, being a hardcore horror fan and all, but it is surely a worthy addition to my library. August 10, 2007

Existential Vampire Flick

"Nadja" is not like any other vampire movie ever made.

It is creepy, thoughtful, and very funny. This movie has viewers divided. Obviously the people who hate it did not get the humor, which is subtle and dark.

Nadja is the daughter of Dracula living in modern day New York. She describes her father as "a cruel and distant man." For the most part, this film is about the psychological damage caused by growing up in a single parent household with a vampire as the parent. She says things like "the pain I feel is the pain of fleeting joy." Instead of saying "I want to suck your blood," she says "I want to change my life" in a heavy Transyvanian accent.

Like all Dracula films, the arch nemesis is Van Helsing. In this film, he is the crazy uncle. He rides a bicycle and sleeps in a piano.

Nadja's crazy sidekick is Renfield, but we do not find that out until a third the way through the movie.

If you liked films like "Blade" and "Underworld," you are going to hate "Nadja." "Nadja" is for people who normally hate vampire films and looking for great dialog, stylish camera work, and have a quirky sense of humor.

This is easily my all time favorite vampire movie.
June 16, 2007

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