Oh wow, for sure! She has a really good mix of 70′s and 90′s to her, I think he’d be down to jam with her band sometime ;D She has a touch of Axl Rose, with her own unique vocal growl. Good lyrics, too.
“I am the fire I am burning brighter Roaring like a storm And I am the one I’ve been waiting for Screaming like a siren Alive and burning brighter I am the fire”
(I struggle to describe it to ppl, I usually cater the length and depth of my description based on my audience, for example, to describe it to my 7 yr old cousin (who loves vampires and was a vampire princess fairy for Halloween): “It’s mostly about a happy vampire family with 2 dads, and they don’t always get along with eachother or the world.”)
As Tom Cruise put it so eloquently, “The movie is not for everyone.” No value judgement there; it’s just not everyone’s cup of tea, so I don’t try to sell it.
I will try to describe the story in the language of tumblrland:
“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book…?”
“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?”
“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?”
“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?”
“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?”
You can also try my vc synopsis tag, but there be spoilers there!
….That last gif is also tribute to antoineandthepiano who loves that gif! And it’s appropriate here, bc if I think the person might actually like it, I do tell them to #READ THE BOOK in the hopes that I can make them one of us ❤
That’s great that you want to bring someone(s) into this with you! We can always use fresh blood ;D
TBH, tho, it’s not for everyone. Ppl who deliberately don’t read vampire lit bc of Twilight are not totally wrong. They might have valid personal reasons, maybe they don’t like blood/gore, maybe they don’t like the idea of biting or being bitten as erotic IRL, there are plenty of reasons before we even get anywhere NEAR the Problematic things that generally come up with vampire lit.
Don’t be disappoint if they won’t turn, the Dark Trick is not an exact science, and don’t look at it as a failure on your part.
I’ve been where you are many times, Anon, and in fact I lent the IWTV DVD to a mortal VERY recently, and he keeps RESISTING WATCHING IT but apparently he will TONIGHT “It’s gonna be an Interview with the Vampire night!” he said, without a trace of trepidation, but WE’LL SEE, WON’T WE, MR. EXCESSIVELY TALL PERSON!?
I think the best you can do to try to make new VC fledglings is to ask them to watch IWTV bc as far as adaptations go, yes it changes some things but it was intended to appeal to a wider audience than just the existing fans, and I think it was successful in that regard.
If you want your friend to read the books instead, give them the capsule reviews, which set this series so far from the other vampire lit. @high-fructose-lesbianism‘s capsule VC reviews are pretty gr9 [X]:
Lestat’s Adventures with a Progressive Family
Lestat’s Bisexual Adventures in 18th Century France
Lestat’s Adventures with the Queen of the Vampires
Lestat’s Adventures as a Human
Lestat’s Adventures with Satan
Lestat’s Adventures in a Coma
Lestat’s Adventures with Polyamory
Lestat’s Adventures in the Deep South
Lestat’s Adventures with Not Being There At All
Lestat’s Adventures with Witches and Other Weird Shit
Lestat’s adventures with Being the Vampire Head of State
Lestat’s Adventures with Literal Fucking Aliens
(Note, Pandora and Vittorio are technically stand-alone “New Tales of the Vampires” books, but Pandora would be No. 6 of the 13 book series).
You can check my #VC Synopsis tag, which has more capsule humorous summaries.
Canonically, we have Word of God from the author re: birthdays for 3 of them:
Lestat’s birthday is November 7, the birthday of Anne Rice’s late husband Stan (whom she partially modeled Lestat after).
Louis’ birthday is October 4, which is Anne’s birthday.
Claudia mentions her birthday in her diary (in QOTD) as beingSeptember 21, but she’s not sure if that’s really her birthday and her dads won’t explain it further (it’s probably the day she was turned, given the context of the diary entry). That’s Michele Rice’s birthday, Anne’s late daughter.
So that means (according to astrology-zodiac-signs.com, idk if it’s authoritative):
Lestat’s a Scorpio – the most lusty/sexual sign, brave, passionate, stubborn, violent, jealous, secretive, resentful, manipulative ✓YEP
Louis is a Libra – the scales, justice, contemplative, Cooperative,diplomatic, gracious, fair-minded, social, Indecisive, avoids confrontations, will carry a grudge, self-pity ✓YEP
Claudia is a Virgo – a virgin, strong, practical, detail-oriented ✓YEP
There’s fanon that Armand’s birthday is Nov. 11 (@auburnandamberangelposted about it last yr, but I think it’s a fanon thing as well), and I like that it would be that close to Lestat’s on the calendar, another source of contention between them, that they’d share the same zodiac sign >;}
Armand WOULD HATE following Lestat on the calendar, like, c’mon, Lestat would throw a HUGE BALL for himself (you KNOW he would), and then like 4 days later, Armand wants to have a big party… and everyone is like… ~Meh we just HAD one~… (They all went home already)(poor Armsy ;A;)
So Louis suggests to Lestat that he share! And have a bday party for both of them in between, on like 11/9. And Lestat is all pouty like “WHY SHOULD I SHARE WHEN MINES FIRST?? 11/9 WILL BE TOO LATE FOR MINE”
Oh definitely! And I think you’re right that Armand and Louis would have had their own little moments throughout the time they were together, the art, inventions, social progress, etc. of the early-mid 20th century… there would have been highlights for them, they would have taken little mementos or made records of these times* :,)
I think there’s a reason AR chose to have Lestat effectively sleep through that time period
(”sleep” isn’t quite right, as he was more or less conscious but he was basically in his own little bubble, hiding from the world, buried in comic books). There’s no way Lestat wouldn’t have gained notoriety of some kind if he’d been his usual, confident, glittery-murder-machine self! I think she wanted to skip to the era that fashion and art and all that had really reached a peak that it had been steadily growing towards, and then she would be able to slam it at Lestat in the avalanche that he expresses it is in TVL.
I mean, (skipping over the 1940′s bc WWII, and the world beginning to rebuild itself from war**) the fashion of the 50′s would have been very appealing, the music, the inventions, the art…
^Lestat would have LOVED Elvis’ music, and his iconic pink Cadillac, for sure. Aesthetically, that car was so organic (while also having a touch of space-age smoothness!) and sensuous curves, and the color being so unashamedly bright and joyful following such dark times re: WWII, it was a triumph of the human spirit. I pick this car as iconic of the ‘50′s bc I think it was part of the zeitgeist of that time and had international influence.
^And Elvis’ outfits (which got progressively more glamorous ok Lestat would have copied inspired ALL THOSE LOOKS)
^And then of course James Dean and the Bad Boy/Greaser appeal ;D
Lestat being underground through all this kind of reminds me of the whole god-of-the-grove thing that Marius described the druids imposed on their captive vampires, that the periods during which a vampire rests underground, malnourished, absorbing the world above in a dream-like state, are as natural and cyclical as having autumn & winter precede the vitality of spring & summer. When Lestat rose up in the mid-80s the world was a more vibrant place in many ways than when he’d gone to ground to hibernate, and he was ready to take it all in and join it.
A few more thoughts on all this under the cut, cut for length.
**I had to skip over the 40′s bc I think AR had Lestat out of the picture then for the general policy that she doesn’t address current political conflict in VC.
War is an abstract in the books and I don’t blame her for choosing not to have any of her vampires visibly suiting up for human wars. It would be a complicated thing to tackle, to say the least. How do you explain to your superiors that you have to sleep all day and can fight all night?! How do you choose which side to fight on when you’re providing such an unfair advantage in your preternatural abilities?
That’s partly what the whole confrontation with Akasha in QOTD was about, the VC vampires stating that they have no right to participate in mortal conflicts since they aren’t mortal anymore, and I have to agree on that. Daybreakers had vampire soldiers and idk if that really worked out all that well, I’d have to watch it again to have a proper opinion but I remember it feeling very cringey the whole time I was watching it 😛
^AR acknowledges that Lestat was reading comics from the 1940′s, and I’m sure he had his fave actors like Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart, and fave actresses (you KNOW HE LOVED JOAN CRAWFORD AND BETTE DAVIS LIKE C’MON). And it seemed like those comics helped to get his spark of lust for life back, he wanted to be the Good Guy he saw in those comics. I’m not well-read on those, but from what I understand about them, the Good Guy made mistakes, and was not necessarily all that civilized all the time, but he tried to be good, and usually succeeded. And he looked good doing it 😉
*Louis/Armand for 100 years: This was probably somewhat like what Armand later did with learning about the world with/through Daniel, but I think Armand held back with Louis for many reasons, partly bc it seemed like Louis/Armand was so fragile. Armand learned that holding back like that can weaken an already tenuous connection (what good did all that holding back really do for either of them?) so I think that’s why we see Armand being more outwardly curious/open-minded with Daniel; the reward for revealing yourself is that you give a person more reason to stay with you, as much as it is the risk of giving them more reason to leave you, but that’s partly how you strengthen the relationship ❤
Hmmm… I haven’t seen him act in anything so idk how he is as an actor, I watched the trailer for one of his upcoming movies, Lean on Pete, he plays a 15 yr old in that movie.
^These pics are from 2017, so they’re pretty recent. I think Charlie has an unconventional look, very unique features, with the wide nose, full lips, a prominent forehead and a soft jawline. Re: the mouth, specifically, Lestat describes his mouth as “well shaped but just a little too big for my face. It can look very mean, or extremely generous, my mouth.” Maybe Charlie’s would match that description?
The nose doesn’t match as Lestat has “a fairly short narrow nose”. Now, Tom Cruise wasn’t the right height and he did an amazing job, so sometimes talent outweighs physical deficiencies. But in Tom’s case, they could give him heels, an easier thing to adjust. Tom ALSO had a prominent nose, definitely not short or narrow. And it didn’t stop him from doing an acting job that earned him the glowing praise from Anne Rice herself, who had been very against his casting.
I don’t know if you find Charlie attractive physically, Anon, but there is a recent trend in casting unconventionally attractive actors. While I think the title is a little unnecessarily click-baity, in the article “MILLENNIAL’S GUIDE TO FILM: THE AGE OF THE UGLY ACTOR” Marina B. writes:
Sometimes there aren’t really words to explain why we find someone intriguing, they just have that je ne sais quoi that pretty boy actors can’t achieve. I feel like Adam Driver has that something special, and I’m not alone. Scorsese can back me up on this one. Scorsese can be quoted giving some serious admiration for Driver that he discovered when casting for Silence:
“I love the way he moves, his sense of himself on camera… he also has that remarkable baritone voice. He’s talented, of course, and very, very brave.” -Martin Scorsese
We also have growing antagonists. Caleb Landry Jones is for sure the go-to gross, delinquent star in film lately. He played the crazy brother in both Get Out and American Made. He goes absolutely ape shit with the roles he’s given; there is no amount of crazy that he isn’t willing to take on for a character.
^All that aside, I think Charlie Plummer looks a little too young to play Lestat yet, in both his face and his body. Lestat was a hunter in life, and had to have some muscle for that. We could get a trainer for our eventual actor for Lestat, tho!
Anon, while I always had Lestat in mind as being a conventionally attractive “pretty boy,” you might be onto something. A screen test would be the real determining factor 😉
I think there are many ways to make a character’s death really sad, and bc we can all have different feelings about a given character, any individual reader will be very sad about the death, when another reader might be totally indifferent (or even glad!). I’ve only written fanfic myself, and I know what makes me sad when I read/write character death, that’s about as informed as I am on the topic, DISCLAIMER: I’m not a professional writer and this is not professional advice.
💀 Some things that come to mind re: making a character’s death really sad: 💀
How they die,
How preventable their death was,
How other characters feel their loss and/or the loss of their potential,
And how much that character meant to the reader/audience, did they like the character?
I don’t know what specifically you’re doing in the Memnoch timeline… I won’t use any examples of deaths from that book in case of spoilers (Idk sometimes I’m more respectful about spoiling ppl than other times *shrugs*)
In IWTV, it was a very sad death when Claudia died. It’s portrayed differently in the book(s) and the movie, but I’m just going to address it re: the points above generally and drawing from both.
1. She died by sunlight exposure and it seemed extremely painful.
Louis would not have seen it, so he can’t describe the moment of her death in the book, but it’s shown in the movie. Leading up to the death, the tension builds and builds, all these moments where Louis, Claudia and Madeleine are hoping for Armand (or some other deux ex machina) to swoop in and save them all. It doesn’t happen. Probably one of the last shreds of hope they had was when the troupe pull Louis and Claudia apart, from that point on, he can no longer protect her ;A;
As it was so painfully underscored in Claudia’s Story, the last name Claudia hears Louis call for is “Armand,” bc calling her name won’t do them any good. But to her, it feels like a final betrayal, that he’s calling for Armand bc he cares more about him ;A;
Claudia and Madeleine get locked in the well, and when Claudia sees the sunlight approaching, she’s already starting to cry, trying to wake Madeleine to try to figure out a way out… there is none and then they can only brace themselves bc there IS NO ESCAPE ;A;!! The acceptance of their own deaths is part of the tragedy.
It’s a pretty universally nightmarish situation, even though sunlight is not fatal for ppl (most, anyway), but we can all relate to the experience. It’s like being pushed onto subway tracks and not being able to escape in time ;A;
2. Her death was a failure in diplomacy, basically. The Theatre des Vampires, led by Santiago, held a kangaroo court (although they may have felt that they were within their rights) in which they found Claudia guilty of attempted murder of her maker, and decided to punish her with the death penalty.
Louis tried to protect her from it as best he could, he tried to make a deal to save her life, but failed. In the book:
“ `Listen to me, Lestat,’ I began now. `You let her go, you free her… and I will… I’ll return to you,’ I said, the words sounding hollow, metallic.
3. It kills a part of Louis when Claudia dies. His immediate reaction is extremely sad (not even factoring in the revenge he takes after).
I have a more thorough commentary on this scene here. It’s in this moment that Louis has lost the most precious person, the one who’s told him what to do, someone he could worship and follow, someone who metered out his doses of happiness with her approval. In the movie, he calls her “my child,” Armand tries to correct him: “Your lover,” and Louis compromises with “My beloved.”
In the book, the next night, Louis finds Lestat clutching Claudia’s bloody dress and sobbing over her death, too. Even though he was the very person who testified against her! Even he could not prevent their “justice.”
“And then I saw the thing in [Lestat’s] hands. I knew what it was. And in an instant I’d ripped it from him and was staring at it, at the fragile silken thing that it was – Claudia’s. His hand rose to his lips, his face turned away. And the soft, subdued sobs broke from him as he sat back while I stared at him, while I stared at the dress. My fingers moved slowly over the tears in it, the stains of blood; my hands closing, trembling as I crushed it against my chest.
Louis was expecting Claudia to go on and live with Madeleine, that he would still be in touch with her and see her occasionally. So that potential continued relationship was destroyed, too ;A;
4. What did Claudia mean to the audience/reader…
I know I sympathized with her and very much enjoyed her overall, and I like to think that other readers/viewers agreed, and don’t totally blame her for her actions against Lestat… after all, she was a victim herself. Lestat doesn’t blame her when he speaks of her in canon. We saw the love they both had for her ❤
Is that enough to convince the readers/audience to care enough for her that her death is sad for them? All those factors help!
I-want-my-IWTV 