Filmed in rich black and white 35 mm and Pixelvision, Nadja is a visual trip. Sequences shot with the Fisher-Price 2XL 2000 (Pixelvision) take the audience into the hallucinatory mental landscape of Nadja and her nocturnal brethren. The look is hazy and raw, and suggests the primal instincts of the nosferatu. The influence of executive producer David Lynch is evident in the cinematography: that intense urban claustrophobia in Eraserhead and The Elephant Man is here suggested with slow, silent zoom and panning shots. The black and white film also makes for a sense of perpetual-night, an appropriate effect for this subject. But for all its sensual, visual appeal, what makes Nadja most entertaining is its comedy. Fonda's energetic performance as the vampireŠobsessed geek VanHelsing lends a nutty edge to an introspective story. VanHelsing's sleuth-like devotion to destroying the vampire siblings makes him more out of touch with reality than his prey. "Here, look in the glasses" he insists, trying to convince Jim that his wife makes no reflection, although she is most obviously still human. As for Jim and Lucy, they're like some silent film duo: Jim's bumbling willingness to help his uncle while looking after Lucy's mute zombiism is of high comic value. But the tongue-in-cheek quality of Nadja is most apparent in Nadja herself. She speaks of "the pain of fleeting joy" while the corner jukebox cranks out her song, and we can't help but laugh with this self-conscious shtick. Nonetheless, Lowensohn effectively conveys the soul searching for a new independence, a break from her father-dominated past.
Nadja's musical soundtrack is consistent with and complements the visual variety of the film. Besides a haunting classical score (Simon Fisher Turner), Portishead provides some moody and funked-out tracks that suggest the spiritual roller-coaster of the vampire experience. As for the Nadja experience, it is both mysterious and familiar, amusing and dramatic, like the soundtrack, like our own experience.