Byzantium (2012)

Residents of a coastal town learn, with deathly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought shelter at a local resort.

Director:

Neil Jordan

Writers:

Moira Buffini (screenplay), Moira Buffini (play)

Stars:

Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Sam Riley

2 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Saoirse Ronan	...	Eleanor
Barry Cassin	...	Robert Fowlds
Gemma Arterton	...	Clara
David Heap	...	Lap Dancing Client
Warren Brown	...	Gareth
Ruby Snape	...	Wendy
Thure Lindhardt	...	Werner
Jenny Kavanagh	...	Barmaid
Glenn Doherty	...	Steve
Edyta Budnik	...	Nadia
Gabriela Marcinková	...	Anya (as Gabriela Marcinkova)
Caleb Landry Jones	...	Frank
Daniel Mays	...	Noel
Uri Gavriel	...	Savella
Sam Riley	...	Darvell

Storyline

Two mysterious women seek refuge in a run-down coastal resort. Clara (Gemma Arterton) meets lonely Noel (Daniel Mays), who provides shelter in his deserted guesthouse, Byzantium. Schoolgirl Eleanor "Ella" Webb (Saoirse Ronan) befriends Frank (Caleb Landry Jones) and tells him their lethal secret. They were born two hundred years ago and survive on human blood. As knowledge of their secret spreads, their past catches up on them with deathly consequence.

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Plot Keywords:

vampire | female vampire | playing piano | decapitation | female in a shower | 

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody violence, sexual content and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

In 1816, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in the fabled "haunted summer", which has been depicted in several movies. In a drug and alcohol-induced frenzy, they engaged in a contest to see who could write the best ghost story. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley produced "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus". Byron began a vampire story, but abandoned it out of boredom. Polidori picked it up and created "The Vampyre" (the forerunner to "Bram Stoker's Dracula"), whose title character, Ruthven, was modelled on Byron. Jonny Lee Miller portrayed a character named "Ruthven" in this movie and the title role in the biopic, Byron (2003).

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Goofs

When Carla is about to perform oral sex on Noel at the carnival she only manages to unbuckle his belt before he interrupts her, in the following shots his pants are around his ankles.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Eleanor: My story can never be told. I write it over and over, wherever we find shelter. I write of what I cannot speak: the truth. I write all I know of it, then I throw the pages to the wind. Maybe the birds can read it.

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Connections

Featured in Projector: Byzantium (2013)

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Soundtracks

Nacht Und Traume, D.827
Written by Franz Schubert
Performed by Janet Baker (as Dame Janet Baker) and Geoffrey Parsons
Licensed courtesy of EMI Records Ltd (P) (1981)
Digital remastering courtesy of EMI Records Ltd (P) (1996)

User Reviews

The vampire genre gets another reinvention

A mother and daughter flee the mayhem they've caused in London and relocate on the Sussex coast. Clara (Gemma Arterton), a ruthless predator, opens a brothel on the top two floors of a Victorian sea-front hotel owned by a local weirdo (Daniel Mays) who's infatuated with her. Daughter Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan)befriends sickly teenager Frank (Caleb Landry Jones) and, to her mother's anger, tells him the truth about herself. A couple of creeps masquerading as cops are on the women's trail: in this revised vampire orthodoxy "The Brotherhood" doesn't allow lady members. Johnny Lee Miller plays Ruthven, a Georgian dandy who unintentionally recruited Clara 200 years ago. Tom Hollander has a thankless cameo as a New Age therapist.

Screenwriter Moira Buffini takes other liberties with the traditions of the Undead: instead of fangs they use an extending fingernail (borrowed from Wolverine?) to open up their victims. Much as he did in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, his previous foray into Bram Stoker territory, director Neil Jordan applies a highly individual approach to this "hallowed" (or should that be unhallowed?) ground. A glimpse of one of the more threadbare Hammer Dracula series on TV reminds us that things have moved on since Christopher Lee hung up his cape.

Inevitably we're going to compare this to Sweden's LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, the Swedish movie that reinvigorated the vampire genre a few years ago. The weakest link in BYZANTIUM is Gemma Arterton's performance: she plays Clara like an EastEnders barmaid (to be fair, the script encourages this interpretation: she's given some crudely modern lines), whereas Eleanor and Ruthven and the Brotherhood all seem to belong to the age in which they were spawned.

Still very worth seeing. Jordan's movie makes harmless Hastings (I lived there for five years) seem as spooky and dark as John Boulting's Brighton in the original BRIGHTON ROCK.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

UK Ireland

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 May 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

Byzantium

Filming Locations:

Trinity College, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Box Office

Budget:

GBP8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$16,643, 30 June 2013

Gross USA:

$89,237

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$828,284

Company Credits

Production Co:

Demarest Films, Lipsync Productions, Number 9 Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1