ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to explore the manner in which Jim Jarmusch's recent independent production Only Lovers Left Alive reinterprets the nocturnal figure of dread in a love story which transgresses time, space, and the expectations of the genre, by sidestepping the horror and the violence usually exploited by vampire tales. In Only Lovers Left Alive, Jarmusch's creative vision reaches beyond the conventions of the genre and crosses borders in more ways than one. Jarmusch's sophisticated and delicate pair of vampire lovers can be regarded as emblematic for the condition of the contemporary artist in an increasingly alienating world, arguably an Other trapped by an environment that nurtures limited possibilities of creation and regeneration. Proving that indeed "vampires are no respecters of boundaries" and that under the new pressures of an increasingly changing and interconnected world "the vampire has gone global", Jarmusch's vampire love story transgresses not only generic formulae but also geographic borders in a highly transnational production.