Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 132: Sat Sep 25

Nadja (Almeryeda, 1994): ICA Cinema, 6.30pm


Absent from UK screens since its original release Michael Almereyda’s stylised vampire film is a one-of-a-kind mix of André Breton, Dracula’s Daughter and 1990s existentialism by way of US independent filmmaking.
The 35mm print obtained for this screening is in English language with Spanish subtitles and is believed to be the only one in existence in Europe.

Time Out review:
Highly stylised b/w camerawork and Pixelvision, moody poeticism, and farcical genre parody merge to tantalising if not altogether coherent effect in Almereyda's quirky New York update on the Dracula story. The heavily Mittel-European persona of Löwensohn is used effectively as the Count's enigmatic, doomy daughter who hopes to tempt Lucy (Galaxy Craze) away from her husband (Martin Donovan), while desperately trying to get in touch with her own estranged twin brother. About blood, blood ties and breakdown (of familes, relationships and, perhaps, an entire society), it's an idiosyncratic film, admired by many for its strong atmosphere, and by this writer for its absurd(ist) casting of a barely recognisable Peter Fonda as Donovan's mad uncle Van Helsing.
Geoff Andrew

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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