The Eternal
Screening on Film
Directed by Michael Almereyda.
With Alison Elliott, Jared Harris, Christopher Walken.
US, 1998, 35mm, color, 90 min.
With Alison Elliott, Jared Harris, Christopher Walken.
US, 1998, 35mm, color, 90 min.
A gothic film that reprises Nadja’s eerie predilection for the undead, The Eternal relates the story of an American couple who journey with their young son to Ireland and encounter a strange relative (Walken) who keeps a two-thousand-year-old corpse in the cellar. As in Kubrick’s The Shining, the child seems more attuned to what is going on than the adults, who are easily baffled by a shape-shifting Druid witch who is transformed into a body-double for the alcoholic wife. Lyrical underwater photography and strong performances (especially Elliott in a dual role) highlight this unusual production.