A Girl
Walks Home Alone at Night
(2014)
(SPOILERS) Ana Lily
Amirpour’s “Iranian vampire spaghetti western”
(presumably the latter two references for the Morricone-esque music
accompanying one scene), is something of a hoodwink, since, although its
Persian-language and is set in the fictional Iranian town of Bad City, it was
shot in California and Amirpour is Anglo-American. On the other hand, such
background gives a fair indication of the medley of influences informing this
stylish, witty little picture.
The
black-and-white photography and empty streets put me most in mind of ‘80s
period Jim Jarmusch (with even a touch of Hal Hartley), but the pop culture
persuasion Amirpour exhibits is more prevalent than Jarmusch’s idiosyncratic
fixations. You can see echoes of Let the
Right One In in Sheila Vand’s lonely vampire, befriended by Arash (Arash
Marandi). And there are some similarities, albeit less abstractly, with (also
2014) Under the Skin.
But
Amirpour’s keen sense of humour keeps this from becoming too derivative;
Arash’s James Dean-wannabe dresses up as Dracula to go to a party, leading to a
winningly oddball scene where the drug-addled Dracula holds an early hours conversation
with the hooded actual vampire. Vand, in her stripy top, appears to be
consciously referencing the American cultural vampirism of Godard’s Breathless, in which Jean Seberg also wears
a stripy top, while all around are wannabe gangsters (Dominic Rains’ drug
dealer Saeed), overt musical influences (the soundtrack is superb, mixing Arab
electronica with ‘80s grooves) and decadent western fast food (“I’ve never met someone who doesn’t like
hamburgers”).
Admittedly,
the inclusion of drug addiction in a vampire movie is overly passé at this
point, even if that addict is Arash’s father. The picture also takes a good 20
minutes-plus to find its feet, but once it does it’s full of lovely strange little
moments. It also features the most marvellous performance by Masuka the Cat, making
up for several rather unfortunate cat-related movies of late (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inside Llewyn Davis).
I’m not
entirely sure how we’ll see Amirpour as a filmmaker a few years down the line.
Certainly, someone who describes their films in pitch meeting speak (“Road Warrior meets Pretty in Pink”, “El Topo meets Dirty Dancing”) should
probably be approached with caution as a sub-Tarantino type who favours cool
over content. But, on the evidence of A
Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, she has style, wit and smarts to spare,
even if forthcoming cannibal love story The
Bad Batch sounds like sophomore folly. Girl
may not be that original under the hood (even the “What happens next?” non-ending
feels appropriated), but its gorgeously shot, quietly affecting and charmingly
performed.
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