An Interview with the Vampire
Before Stephanie Meyer came along with the pre-teen tripe where an impossibly beautiful vampire falls in love with the blandest girl know to man, there was a more famous name in vampire books: Anne Rice. Her vampire chronicles with the vampire Lestat are best sellers that have been made into movies. Some good. Erm, some not that good.
If I were to tell you that there was a movie out there where Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are 19th Century Vampires who romp around the globe with a child Kirsten Dunst as they feed on the living and try to stop the wrath of vampire clans and monarchy, then I can practically hear your scoffing. But An Interview with the Vampire strangely works.
That is pretty much what An Interview with the Vampire is about. When reporter Danny (Christian Slater) meets with Louis de Pointe de Luc (we will call him Louis,) he is astounded when Louis claims to be a vampire, turned by Lestat after mourning the death of his wife and son. That is the basic premise. Louis tells about his adventures with Lestat, the trouble with killing humans, and clans of vampires who decide the fate of vampiredom (in some gruesome ways.) It’s all about vampires.
This is perhaps one of the few post eighties movies where an older Tom Cruise actually works well in the movie and that’s without insane amounts of running. Here he plays the ultra camp Lestat. And he is actually quite brilliant in it. Playing a somewhat villain, Lestat is a wonderful character in the film. Initially, Cruise was rejected as the character by author Anne Rice (who wrote the original screenplay too,) but seeing him play Lestat, she couldn’t be more wrong. He fits the role to a tea, infusing a delightful art to the twisted beast. It really is a fun role and Cruise makes it his own.
So, it may be a little weird seeing Pitt in a cravat and long hair but he is solemn and good as Louis. Supporting characters see the captivating Dunst as the tortured child vampire Claudia (who meets a tragic end) and the elusive Armand is greatly played by Antonio Banderas. This may seem like a random selection of cast to characters in an over the top vampire movie but somehow it makes an excellent movie that has generally good reviews.
It isn’t a brutal movie. An Interview with the Vampire may have its fair share of gore (there is a lot of blood) and frights. But it is by no way a monster movie. Instead, it focuses on the romanticism of the genre and the era. Making vampires terribly good looking, giving them a human side as well as it being stunning visually, An Interview with t heVampire is a surprisingly good movie. Nominated for Oscars in art direction, you can see how beautiful it is. Visually haunting, this streams through like a twisted dream.
TTFN
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