The Hunger (1997)

English

he Hunger is a British/Canadian television horror anthology series, co-produced by Scott Free Productions, Telescene Film Group Productions and the Canadian pay-TV channel The Movie Network. Though it shares a title with the feature film The Hunger the series has no direct plot or character connection to the film, and was created by Jeff Fazio.
Originally shown on the Sci Fi Channel in the UK, The Movie Network in Canada and Showtime in the US, the series was broadcast from 1997 to 2000, and is internally organized into two seasons. Each episode was based around an independent story introduced by the host; Terence Stamp hosted each episode for the first season, and was replaced in the second season by David Bowie. Stories tended to focus on themes of self-destructive desire and obsession, with a strong component of soft-core erotica; popular tropes for the stories included cannibalism, vampires, sex and poison.

Français

Les Prédateurs (The Hunger) est une série télévisée de Jeff Fazio, ayant connu deux saisons et 44 épisodes, diffusés entre 1997 et 2000. Elle reprend, en anglais comme en français, le titre du film Les Prédateurs, réalisé par Tony Scott en 1983. La série a en commun avec le film de mettre en scène des vampires dans un contexte contemporain, mais ne reprend pas les personnages ni le scénario du long-métrage. Tony Scott lui-même est co-producteur de la série via la société familiale Scott Free Productions, et a réalisé le premier épisode de chaque saison.
Cette série, à la réalisation particulièrement soignée, a bénéficié de moyens importants et dont certains épisodes sont réalisés par des grands noms de Hollywood : Christian Duguay (Planète hurlante, L'Art de la guerre) ou Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Les Contes de la crypte).
Les héros en sont des vampires, des hommes d'affaires véreux, des femmes fatales ou des fantômes lubriques. Tous sont de redoutables prédateurs, qui n'ont qu'un but : assouvir leur soif de pouvoir, d'argent, de sexe ou sang. Tout au long de cette saison 1, notre hôte est le comédien Terence Stamp. La deuxième saison est présentée par David Bowie, interprète principal masculin du film de 1983.

Italiano

The Hunger è una serie televisiva horror britannica creata da Jeff Fazio, ispirata dal film di Tony Scott Miriam si sveglia a mezzanotte.
Lo stesso Tony Scott e suo fratello Ridley sono tra i produttori della serie, che ha avuto ospiti illustri come Terence Stamp, presentatore della prima stagione e David Bowie, presentatore della seconda. Tra i vari attori che hanno preso parte alla serie sono presenti alcuni piuttosto noti: Daniel Craig, Jason Scott Lee, Joanna Cassidy, Giovanni Ribisi, Eric Roberts, Jennifer Beals, Brad Dourif e Anthony Michael Hall.

The Hunger (1983)

English

Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve) is a beautiful and dangerous immortal vampire, promising specially chosen humans eternal life as her vampire lovers. As the film begins, her vampire companion is John (David Bowie), a talented cellist she married in 18th century France. The films opens in a night club in New York to a live performance from Bauhaus. They live together in an elegant New York townhouse posing as a wealthy couple who teach classical music.
Periodically killing and feeding upon human victims, allows Miriam and John to possess eternal youth or at least that is what John was led to believe. John begins aging rapidly; he realizes that Miriam knew that this would happen and that her promise of "forever and ever" was only partially true. He will have eternal life but not eternal youth. Feeling betrayed, he seeks out the help of Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), who specializes in the study of premature aging, hoping she will be able to help reverse his accelerating decrepitude. Sarah assumes that John is a hypochondriac or mentally unbalanced and ignores his pleas for help. As John leaves the clinic in a rage, Sarah is horrified to see how rapidly John is aging. She tries to help, at which point John rebuffs her.
In a last attempt to regain his youth, John murders and attempts to feed upon a young female violin student of Miriam's, whom she was grooming to be her next consort when she came of age, to no avail. As John's aging advances, he begs Miriam to kill him and release him from the agony of his decrepit body. Weeping, Miriam tells him that there is no release. After John collapses, Miriam carries him into the attic and places him in a coffin. There are stacks of other coffins and Miriam asks them all to "be good to him tonight.". Miriam's former vampire lovers are doomed to suffer an eternal living death, helplessly moaning and trapped in their coffins...

Français

À New York, la belle et élégante Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve) mène une vie luxueuse et oisive au côté de son mari John (David Bowie). En réalité âgée de plus de 3 000  ans, elle doit, tous les 7 jours, boire du sang humain pour se préserver des atteintes du temps. Elle utilise, pour ce faire, un petit pendentif en forme de clé d'Ânkh qu'elle porte autour du cou et qui dissimule une lame acérée qui lui permet de trancher la gorge de ses victimes. Elle a offert, il y a trois cents ans, l’immortalité à son mari. Cependant, si elle peut donner l’immortalité à ceux et celles qu’elle a choisis, elle ne peut leur garantir de les aimer toujours, alors que l'amour est l'ultime ingrédient de l'alchimie subtile qui leur assure de ne pas vieillir. En cette fin de XX^e siècle, après trois siècles de vie commune et heureuse, John Blaylock commence à ressentir la réalité d’un vieillissement accéléré qui ne s’arrêtera plus, sans pour autant entraîner sa mort. En effet, Miriam est tombée sous le charme de la séduisante Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), médecin spécialiste du vieillissement, laquelle accède à une notoriété nouvelle grâce à son dernier ouvrage. John tente de la contacter pour essayer d'échapper à l'inéluctable.

Español

Miriam Blaylock colecciona no sólo arte del Renacimiento y colgantes del Antiguo Egipto sino, sobre todo, amantes y almas. Moderna y elegante, Miriam es un vampiro intemporal residente en Manhattan, bendecida con la belleza y maldecida con su sed de sangre.

Italiano

Miriam è una vampira che ogni due o tre secoli deve cambiare compagno perché quello che si è scelta perde inspiegabilmente la sua "eterna" giovinezza e deperisce fino a una sorta di letargo. Il suo attuale compagno, John, sta appunto deperendo e non valgono vittime a ripetizione a rinforzarlo. Sarah Roberts è una giovane dottoressa che, incuriosita dal caso di John, decide di far visita a casa di Miriam. Miriam si innamora della donna e, ricambiata, la seduce e durante il loro amplesso riesce a morderla al collo e sul braccio, facendola diventare una vampira. Sarah inizia ad avere strane visioni e alla fine scoprirà la vera natura di Miriam. Sarah si rifiuta di vivere cosi, si vergogna di quello che è diventata e quindi tenta di suicidarsi. Miriam porta Sarah in soffitta, dove giacciono i suoi ex, ma è in quel momento che gli ex si risvegliano e ormai cadaveri spaventano Miriam a tal punto da farla cadere nella tromba delle scale. Mentre Miraim sta morendo i corpi degli ex poco a poco si dissolvono, la loro maledizione è finalmente spezzata. L'ultima immagine ci regala invece Sarah, che ha ormai preso il posto di Miriam, che si affaccia, enigmatica, al balcone di un palazzo..