Yes, exactly ;A; I headcanon that Louis had this statue made in her likeness, I would think he was wealthy enough to do that, buuuuut it might also just be a generic angel statue…
Pretty sure the portrait Louis burns when burning down Pointe du Lac is of his wife, sort of like, a “Darling, I can’t live without you any longer, I’m on my way, I’ll see you soon…” gesture ;A;
I think they just didn’t have enough time to give us more, the movie is 2 hours long, and in 1994, I seem to remember movies being more in the 1.5 hour range.
But in the script, we get her name, age (28), and the name of the child, at least:
^BTW, I think the wife’s name is “Dianne” bc HELLO “Anne” Rice. “Die, Anne”? Maybe?
I think that’s definitely possible, in the context of the movie version of the story.* “[Lestat] knew me, he knew I would love her more than the waking world.” Very poetic *u*
Expecting a child doesn’t necessarily mean you love kids, BUT, Lestat could read minds, and perhaps he knew just how much being a father meant to Louis. Louis doesn’t speak much of his own father, when he died, Louis had to take over the family business at a relatively young age, so maybe Louis was really looking forward to being a better and more loving a father than the one he had grown up with ;A;
PLUS, it seems like it would have been Louis’s first child, making him a father for the first time. I can’t imagine what that must feel like, expecting to have your wife back in your arms, and a new baby to love and raise, and then get neither back, knowing your wife died in pain?? ;A;
Even if Louis wasn’t a kid person, I mean, how can you not love a super cute 5 yr old angel like Claudia was originally? Scooped out of abject poverty and sickness, someone you could lavish with gifts and who would be grateful for it, having known only the barest no-frills of a life before? Lestat knew Louis would feel protective of her, she could be something to inspire him to learn to live again. You can experience the world anew with them as they learn about it ❤
*In the book version, it’s a younger brother that Louis had lost recently, Paul, a brother Louis was very close to. The death sends Louis spiraling into guilt and depression bc he feels responsible for it (and others, including his own family, blame him for it directly).
When Paul died, Louis says: “my mother told everyone in the parish that something horrible had happened in my room which I would not reveal; and even the police questioned me, on the word of my own mother.”
That feeling of blame in the situation is part of what made that loss so devastating to him, the death was preventable, if only he had had more patience with his brother ;A;
But with the loss of a child and wife in childbirth, I can imagine the husband feeling responsible for that, too. After all, if not for him, well, she wouldn’t have been pregnant (we’re assuming it was definitely his baby!) 😛
I don’t know the real reason, I don’t know anyone who does. I don’t know if it was Anne Rice’s choice, or Neil Jordan’s.
I think there were a lot of factors that went into that decision, and it stirs up alot of issues and questions, alot has been written about it and alot more can be written about it!
TL;DR: 1) I think it was done to cut time, Louis being distraught about losing a wife and child is immediately understandable to anyone who hasn’t read the books. It starts off the film with Louis questioning the reasons of a God that could punish him for seemingly no reason at all.*
2) The other main issue is whether Louis is/was straight or if he actually was bisexual/homosexual/etc. as a mortal and Lestat entering the picture and pulling Louis into vampiring made it possible for Louis to let go of his preconceived ideas and social/religious/etc. repression and accept himself for what he really was. Neil Jordan probably wanted that left open-ended and unanswered.
(*It could have set up the whole Louis-frustrated-about-how-religion-plays-into-vampiring, but that was cut from the film, too.)
1) One of the audiobook recordings for IWTV has a runtime of 14 hours and 28 minutes [X] and that’s ALOT OF STORY to condense down into a movie that can’t be that long. Scenes have to be cut.
The movie we got is 2 hours long, and in 1994, I seem to remember movies being more in the 1.5 hour range. Titanic, clocking in at a little over 3 hours long, was kind of ridiculed by the critics for that lengthy runtime. These days, a 2-3 hour movie is not really as big a deal.
Building in the right amount of time/scenes to show the circumstances of Paul’s death and why Louis felt so responsible for it, that would have increased the runtime and delayed the amount of time we get to the actual vampiring. I can’t check the film right now but I think Lestat appears within the first 15 minutes of the movie, for good reason. To get the vampiring STARTED.
2)
In 1994, same-sex marriage was legal in zero states. Now it is the law of the land. Movie!IWTV was already pushing the envelope to suggest that Louis/Lestat were in a romantic relationship together. So, if Louis starts his story as having been married to a woman, it would appear that he’s established as being straight. On the surface.
HOWEVER! this is a Neil Jordan movie, and one of his previous movies, the Crying Game, Jordan had gender issues and sexual orientations as main concerns, so perhaps starting Louis off as SEEMING TO BE STRAIGHT and then having Lestat swoop in and now Louis is “with” Lestat somehow, experiences that moment of intense intimacy when he is given the Dark Gift… so Jordan seems to be asking the audience if Louis was actually bisexual or homosexual as a mortal and suppressed it? Since we never see Louis and Lestat actually make love on screen (aside from the Dark Gift happening), does it still count as a homosexual relationship?
^I think Neil Jordan wanted these questions left open-ended, and for that to be part of the exquisite torture that is the Louis/Lestat ship. Is it platonic or romantic? Jordan isn’t telling, and neither is Louis.
There is, as I said, a lot more to it than that, but these are the main issues that come to mind for me, and I’m also trying to be concise. Anyone can reblog/comment with more ideas.
Welcome! Yes, what you see here on my blog are only opinions, which are based on my own reading of the books, my experience of movie!IWTV, and conversations I’ve had with other fans for all these years. I’m glad people have their own ideas, their own interpretations, I’ve learned a lot!
So what if one of the reasons why Louis loved Claudia so much was because Claudia somewhat resembled Louis’ wife?
It’s quite possible! Since Louis doesn’t have a wife in the books, only in the movie, we can only speculate about her. But I like to think Louis’ wife resembled the statue over her grave. I would think that Louis would have commissioned it, or been the one to choose it, but then again, it might have been in his family cemetery already.
If we look at the script, (you can do the google and you’ll find it), we get Louis’ wife’s name, Dianne de Pointe du Lac:
^BTW, I think the wife’s name is “Dianne” bc HELLO “Anne” Rice. “Die, Anne”? Maybe?
In the movie we know Louis’ wife died in childbirth and that’s all we really know about her and we never saw what she looked like. Maybe she had blue eyes and soft curly blonde hair like Claudia?
That’s definitely possible! There is a fic out there that suggests that Lestat would introduce himself as Claudia’s mother’s brother, hence their strong resemblance, and that Louis was in fact Claudia’s biological father. And that Claudia’s mother had died, and that her loving uncle was helping to raise her ❤
Okay, I know that I already submitted stuff to you before, but I think I have discovered something really cool. It seems to me that it’s the original script for the movie. However, I have not dug deep research into it.
Anyways, it’s very VERY morbid compared to the movie and in some parts is more like the book (and others, especially in the beginning, aren’t but are intriguing??).
@i-want-my-iwtv replied: Yes! I’m aware of this version of the script, April 1992, second draft (allegedly, but I bet there were a lot more drafts). Pretty easy to find, and this is the one that is probably most commonly printed out for the actors to sign, when you see autographed copies up on eBay.
It is a really fun read, even w/ the slightly ooc dialogue at times, but I can understand that AR was trying to shoehorn in as much canon as she could and I can’t fault her for that goal! And yes, it includes scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut. Some weren’t even filmed 😛
It has little gems in it like the names of Louis’ wife and child who died:
“DIANNE DE POINTE DU LAC 1763 – 1791 INFANT JEAN MARIE – 1791”
^Dianne would have been a little older than Louis, if she died at 28 ;A; And really, “DiANNE”? Nice author cameo, AR. Very smooth ;]
Fortunately for us, some of the filmed scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut still had production stills taken which were used in pre-release publicity (collected them in my #cut scenes tag) like this one:
^I think this was another early Tryna-Get-This-Dumb-Fledgling-To-Kill-People scene, before Louis ran off to chill in the sewers for a bit.
This version of the script also has a rewrite of the Lestat/Gabrielle waking-up-inside-a-crowded-church scene, but Louis and Claudia w/Lestat instead of Gabrielle!
lunchiemunchies: #I WOULD’VE LOVED TO SEE THIS EXCHANGE #BECAUSE LOUIS IS LAUGHING AND THAT MAKES LESTAT WANT TO LAUGH #IT WOULD’VE BEEN SUCH A CUTE LITTLE MOMENT #AND A FUNNY SCENE SINCE THEY’D SCARE THE PEOPLE #INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
Ah, good question! WELL HAVE I GOT A TEENSY BIT OF INFO FOR YOU.
In the IWTV script of April ‘92, 2nd draft (btw there are a number of cut lines and scenes that are in there, too), there is the mention of her name, and the child’s name:
Beyond that, no, I don’t have any other info… I also can’t recall any fanfic that honors that wife situation, bc most fanfic seems to work more from book!IWTV w/ the death of Louis’ brother Paul.
P.S. I think the wife’s name is Dianne bc HELLO Anne Rice. Die Anne? Maybe?
I-want-my-IWTV 