“Libera me, Domine, de vitae aeterna” - “Free me, Lord, from eternal life”: If a movie begins with a choir and boy soprano singing these words, in a requiem’s style and overlaying the camera’s sweeping disappear over nightly San Francisco bay, zooming in on a Victorian building’s top-floor window after having followed the life on the street below like a hunter follows its prey - if a movie begins like this, you know you’re not looking at your average flick, whatever its subject. (And if the first thing you gather is the Latin phrase’s grammatical mistake, this is probably not your kind of movie to originate with) .
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Much-discussed even before its release, due not least to Anne Rice’s temporary withdrawal of help and her no less sensational subsequent 180-degree turn, Neil Jordan’s adaptation of the “Vampire Chronicles”‘ first section, based on Rice’s acquire screenplay, is a sumptuous production awash in bright colors, pleasing period decor and costumes, rich fabrics, heavy crystal, delicate silverware and gallons of deeply scarlet blood, supremely photographed by Phillippe Rousselot, with a constant undercurrent of sensuality and seduction; an audiovisual orgy substantiated by one of fresh film history’s most ingenious scores (by Elliot Goldenthal) . Although the book only gained notoriety after the publication of its sequel “The Vampire Lestat,” followed in short order by the “Chronicles”‘ third installment, “The Queen of the Damned,” by the time this movie was produced, Rice had acquired a gargantuan and exact fan rank, who would have been ready to crawl it to shreds had it failed to meet their expectations. That this was not unanimously the case is in and of itself testimony to Neil Jordan’s worthy achievement (only underscored by the botched 2002 realization of “Queen of the Damned”) . Obvious, some decry the place changes vis-a-vis the original and the fact that some of the protagonists (particularly Louis and Armand) notice different from Rice’s description. But others have embraced the movie wholeheartedly; praising it for remaining faithful to the fundamentalities of Rice’s narrative and for its production values as such. I secure myself firmly in the latter corner; indeed, in some respects I mediate this one of the rare movies that are apt to their literary originals - primarily because the story’s two main characters, Louis and Lestat, find considerably in stature and complexity compared to Rice’s book.
While both film and current are narrated by Louis (Brad Pitt), giving an interview to a reporter (Christian Slater) in the hope of achieving some minimal atonement for 200 years of sin and guilt, and while Lestat (Tom Wing) appears on camouflage barely half the movie’s running time, Lestat is great more of a central character than in Rice’s novel; and vastly more tantalizing. For Anne Rice’s Lestat only comes into his enjoy in the “Chronicles”‘ second fraction, which is named for him and where we truly learn to indulge in him as the vampire world’s aristocratic, arrogant, horrible, smart and unscrupulous “brat prince,” who although completely lacking regret for any of his actions nevertheless shows occasional glimpses of caring, even if he would never admit thereto. *This*, however, is exactly the movie’s Lestat; not the comparatively uninformed and, all things considered, even somewhat brutish creature of Rice’s first original. It is no itsy-bitsy feat on Tom Cruise’s section to have accomplished this; and in my mind his portrayal has completely eclipsed the character’s unique view, which was reportedly based on Rutger Hauer’s Captain Navarre in “Ladyhawke.”
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Similarly, while every bit as guilt-ridden as the character created by Anne Rice, Brad Pitt’s Louis regains more inner strength - and more rapidly so - than the narrator of Rice’s book, rendering him more of an even foil for Lestat, and equally lending greater credibility to his initial selection as Lestat’s companion, his actions to ensure his and Claudia’s run to Europe, and his later decision not to discontinue with Armand. (Indeed, Louis’s and Armand’s separation after the burning of the Theatre of the Vampires makes perfect sense in the movie’s context; it would have undercut both characters’, but especially Louis’s credibility had they gone on to allotment years of companionship like in the book.)
Kirsten Dunst’s Claudia was not only this movie’s biggest discovery - not surprisingly, in an interview included on the DVD Dunst calls this “the most prominent role” of her career so far - she, too, embodies the novel’s child vampire to absolute perfection; capturing her eternally childlike features as well as her Lolitaesque seductiveness and the ruthless killer hidden under her doll-like appearance. Doubtlessly furthest from the novel’s character is Antonio Banderas’s remarkable and charismatic Armand: But while I do somewhat miss Rice’s auburn-haired “Botticelli angel,” I always had a predicament imagining him as the leader of the Paris coven, in control even of the quicksilver-like Santiago (marvelously portrayed by Stephen Rea in one of his most overtly theatrical performances) . Here, too, the movie - if anything - gives the narrative greater credibility; although it’s admittedly hard to reconcile with parts of the “Chronicles”‘ later installments, particularly Armand’s believe biography.
In interviews, Neil Jordan and Brad Pitt particularly have mentioned the emotional strain that this movie build on all its participants; due its almost exclusively nightly shooting schedule, and even more so because of its incessant exploration of guilt, damnation and, literally, hell on earth. Anne Rice’s vampires truly are the ultimate outsiders; no longer fraction of human society, they feed on it, can neither be harmed by sickness nor by methods the world has taken for granted ever since Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” (which are in fact merely “the outrageous fictions of a demented Irishman,” as Louis explains, simultaneously amused and contemptuous) and are thus, if not killed by fire and/or beheading, condemned to slide the earth forever, without any hope of redemption. It is primarily this element which has given Rice’s novels their lasting appeal, and which is perfectly rendered in Jordan’s adaptation. I’m collected not certain I’d ever want to meet them in person, though …
Also recommended:
Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Memoir of the body Thief)
The Vampire Companion
Ladyhawke
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Collector’s Edition)
Let me start by saying that I have not read the book and am judging the movie solely on its fill merits. “Interview with the Vampire” is a enjoyable, guilty pleasure of novel filmmaking, visually exquisite and with incredible performances by all (including Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas and Stephen Rea) . It follows the adventures of Louis de Pont du Lac (Brad Pitt), a 200-year-old vampire hailing from Louisiana, as he recounts the yarn of his life (and unlife) to interviewer Daniel Malloy (Christian Slater) . Along the method we meet his maker Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Sail), his “daughter” Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), and Armand (Antonio Banderas), leader of the Parisian vampires.
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Tom Fly, in my mind, perfectly portrays the elder vampire Lestat…sparkling, cunning, selfish, a seducer, many of the same qualities exhibit in Armand, and possesses an excess of shaded humour. Brad Pitt’s Louis serene clings to the last shreds of his humanity…his sense of upright and improper, the value of life, the apprehension of killing in order to survive (angstmaster Prick Knight from “Forever Knight” springs to mind) . There is a lack of onscreen romantic tension between Glide and Pitt…something that makes their relationship seem less immediate and binding. However, there is definitely a spark between Louis and Armand (Antonio Banderas), and it was easy to acquire that Louis was tempted to pause as a companion to such an colorful, shapely vampire who could shriek him the answers to his questions. Kirsten Dunst is phenomenal as Claudia, the vampire with the mind and desires of a woman eternally trapped in the body of a doll-child.
The visuals are lavish, fretful, stunningly intelligent, especially the world of 1800’s Unique Orleans with its brocades, silks, and define dresses. The atmosphere is appropriately murky, with plenty of fog and menacing nighttime damp. Elliot Goldenthal’s secure is string-driven, pulsing, tense, and underscores the action perfectly, the crowning section being “Libera Me”.
Yes, this film is graphic at times, including two very graphic scenes titillating mutilation, numerous “feedings,” homoeroticism, and brief nudity, but “Interview with the Vampire” is an unconventional drama that probes the meaning of life, death, fancy, seduction, and regret. More than anything Anne Rice’s vampires create us realize the conventions and trappings of humanity.
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