Byzantium

  • November 1, 2017 / 19:00
  • November 5, 2017 / 13:00

Director: Neil Jordan
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Sam Riley, Warren Brown
UK, USA, Ireland, 2012, 118', color
English with Turkish subtitles
 

Neil Jordan’s first exploration into the realm of vampirism began in 1996 with Interview with the Vampire. Now he immerses us in this lurid world via the plight of two willful women, perfectly played by Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton. The film combines a traditional gothic horror story (though not one that sticks to traditional vampire law), social history and a realistic account of dealing with authentic physical distress. Neil Jordan has created this florid, preposterous but watchable soap opera of the undead; it’s a dark fantasy that contains a trace of his slight weakness for whimsy, but in some ways it’s his most effective film for some time, adapted for the screen by Moira Buffini from her stage play A Vampire Story. Byzantium fuses the polished and alluring with the vicious brutality that accompanies all great vampire films. Neil Jordan skillfully weaves romance with the gothic and gory, producing a seductive story with stunning spectral scenes.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Rabid

Rabid

Near Dark

Near Dark

Cronos

Cronos

Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In

Byzantium

Byzantium

Only Lovers Left Alive

Only Lovers Left Alive

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

What We Do in the Shadows

What We Do in the Shadows

The Lure

The Lure

The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration

Chlebowski’s Sultan

Chlebowski’s Sultan

This is one of Stanisław Chlebowski’s larger canvasses dealing with themes other than battles; only Ottoman Life at the Sweet Waters now at the Istanbul Military Museum can compare with it in size.

Girl in a Blue Dress

Girl in a Blue Dress

This life-size portrait of a girl is a fine example of the British art of portrait painting in the early 18th century. The child is shown posing on a terrace, which is enclosed at the right foreground by the plinth of a pillar; the background is mainly filled with trees and shrubs. 

The Ottoman Way of Serving Coffee

The Ottoman Way of Serving Coffee

Coffee was served with much splendor at the harems of the Ottoman palace and mansions. First, sweets (usually jam) was served on silverware, followed by coffee serving. The coffee jug would be placed in a sitil (brazier), which had three chains on its sides for carrying, had cinders in the middle, and was made of tombac, silver or brass. The sitil had a satin or silk cover embroidered with silver thread, tinsel, sequin or even pearls and diamonds.