Review of The Hunger (1983) by Stuart K — 02 Feb 2010
After following his brother into the world of advertising with his brother Ridley Scott, Tony Scott made his directorial debut with this adapation of Whitley Strieber's 1981 novel. It's visually very striking, it's very much a film of it's time, very 1980's, but it has a very good cast.
It follows Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve), an immortal human who lives on the blood of humans, and over the years, she's let a select few be her lovers, promising them eternal life. Her current lover is John (David Bowie), a cellist from the 18th Century.
They married in France back then and now live in New York as a Goth Rock couple. Only one problem, Miriam's lovers only live for a couple of centuries, and now John has started to age rapidly. He asks for help from Dr.
Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), who deals with aging disorders. She cannot help him, but she becomes friendly with Miriam, and the two begin a lesbian lover affair while John withers away, growing older and older.
It's a weird little film, and for his first film, Scott has borrowed many of the filmmaking techniques that his brother was using. It does end up being a bit silly, but the make-up on Bowie was amazing for it's time, it's just a pity there wasn't more of him in the film.
This review of The Hunger (1983) was written by Stuart K on 02 Feb 2010.
The Hunger has generally received positive reviews.
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