Interview with the Vampire (1994) dir. Neil Jordan
one of the greatest performances ever
I’m in love with this film for Tom Cruise ‘s performance and the fabulous long hairstyle of Brad Pitt.
Definitely one of my fave scenes. There’s so much going on here. Lestat bursts in and immediately looks around to see if he can salvage anything out of this, but knows he can only save Louis, and still has time to have this thorny little exchange bc he’ll be damned if he isn’t going to take this as an opportunity to lay in a little verbal smackdown. “Have us sleeping in the field like cattle!” He has this subtle pain in his eyes, as if Louis was actually trying to usurp his role as the captain of this ship, not that he was in fact trying to commit suicide. It doesn’t even cross Lestat’s mind to remark on the fact that that’s what this was, a suicide attempt. Or maybe it does, and in not giving Louis the choice to go down with his fiery mansion, Lestat has made a renewed internal vow to guide Louis into becoming the vampire he knows he can be.
Lestat could have easily just let Louis burn up with the house.Except that he loves him. Even though this was an act of ENORMOUS REBELLION it only makes Lestat love Louis more, bc only a BAMF like Louis could do something like this, try to destroy everything an apparently materialistic creature like Lestat has ever wanted, and not care about the consequences. But that’s not who Lestat really is, that’s all just retail therapy, hoarding shiny things to fill a void, and they both know it. Having stripped away Lestat’s treasured hoard, Louis’ face is 99% sexual ecstasy, he’s so satisfied with himself here.
Louis didn’t do this to rile Lestat, he did it to win, and finally do away with himself. But seeing his maker there, clearly to rescue Louis, the most precious thing to Lestat in the whole place, had to touch something in Louis. Because he lets Lestat save him without putting up a fight, and he doesn’t run away as soon as he’s capable. He stays with Lestat. As much as he doesn’t like his methods or philosophy, he’s captivated by Lestat. He trusts Lestat.
They’re both helplessly bound together in how much they want and need each other ;A;
Part of what makes them so shippable is how much Lestat wants to own Louis, and how not-for-sale Louis is, but how much he is drawn to Lestat against his own better judgment, like a moth to flame.
Ricean vampires, unfortunately, are condemned to enjoy the Deathsleep which renders them unconscious for the daylight hours. The plus side being: no snoring can wake them! Not that they can snore, since they don’t breathe. But still.
Louis, IWTV: “Numbness came over my limbs, and then the paralysis of oblivion.“
Louis, IWTV: “You see, I wasn’t sure then why I awoke each evening when I did, whether it was automatic when the deathlike sleep left me, and why it happened sometimes earlier than at other times.”
In movie!IWTV, yes, Claudia is awake right at dawn and seems fully conscious, as she tiptoes carefully around the sunlight.
^It was too perfect a moment not to include in a movie about lonely ppl, that singular act of a daughter climbing into bed w/ her mommy!Louis (bc we all know he’s the mom) rather than sleep alone! ❤ And purely platonic at that point in the movie.
There is a fic out there that suggests that Ricean vampires do awaken during the day when they are under extreme emotional duress, and it’s a very disorienting state to be in, they can’t function very rationally, as nocturnal animals also act erratically in daylight.
Hit the jump for a bit moar, and spoilers.
(Similarly, Louis seems to be painfully awake as Claudia and Madeleine burn in the sunlight ;A;)
When movie!Louis takes revenge on the Theatre des Vampires, it’s right before dawn, and he is perfectly able to function right up until he leaves the safety of the theatre, and it’s the sunlight more than the fact that it’s daytime that saps him of any functionality. But that was part of the plan, revenge, then suicide.
Ricean vampires can, however, fight in that unconscious state: Lestat says Gabrielle defended herself in her sleep: “And those mortals who did find us during the daylight hours, unless they exposed us to the sun at once, were doomed. For example, outside Palermo she had slept in a cellar far below an abandoned house, and when she had awakened, her eyes and face were burning as if they had been scalded, and she had in her right hand a mortal, quite dead, who had apparently attempted to disturb her rest.”
Amount of sleep needed seems to be related to the age and/or power of the vampire, and Louis, being weaker, needs more beauty sleep than the older and stronger ones.
Even in a place like Alaska in which nighttime extends during the winter months, Ricean vampires are still susceptible and want to fall into a reasonable Deathsleep rhythm.
In QOTD, Akasha purposely chases the night around the world, preventing Lestat from falling into the Deathsleep. Whether it was bc she had too much to do in too little time, or she was purposely using sleep deprivation as another means of controlling him (or both), we don’t know, but Lestat reflects on it:
“We’d been following the night around the world, perhaps, or rather moving at random in it, as Akasha maybe didn’t need at all to sleep.
I needed it, that was obvious. But I was too curious not to want to be awake. And frankly too miserable.”
Akasha tells him, a little bit later, that he requires sleep for his upgrades: “But you must sleep now. You are young still and fragile. My blood’s working on you, changing you, perfecting you.”
Vampires in other media, like Only Lovers Left Alive for example, CAN stay awake during the daylight hours if they feel like it, and they do sleep in beds. Are they trying to imitate mortals? Maybe!
“It was as if the empty nights were made for thinking of him. And sometimes I found myself so vividly aware of him it was as if he had only just left the room and the ring of his voice were still there. And somehow, there was a disturbing comfort in that, and, despite myself, I’d envision his face.” Interview with the Vampire – (1994)
“Even in his cruelest moments, Louis touched
the tenderness in me, seducing me with his staggering dependence, his
infatuation with my every gesture and every spoken word.” – The Vampire Lestat
That feel when you’d rather answer questions all day in a state of weird and pleasurable natural – albeit caffeinated – high rather than attempt to do any real productive Work for your Job.
I just want to mention, and please take this completely w/o attitude bc I do not intend any attitude here: I get a number of VC Casting ideas on a regular basis, and I do enjoy them a lot! But if you don’t see an answer for yours it’s either bc:
I haven’t had a chance to research the actor yet;
I researched the actor and they don’t reeeally work for me and I’m trying to come up with another role for them so I can still answer publicly; or,
I researched the actor and they don’t work for me and I can’t think of another role for them, so I might have to let it go unanswered or just delete it.
If you haven’t seen your Ask answered, and it’s been a long time, it may have been a #3 sacrifice. Not every male violinist can be the illustrious Nicolas de Lenfent! But you are more than welcome to post your own casting ideas, and tag them #VC Casting, and I will be tracking that tag so I might reblog from your blog ;D
(I’m only talking about casting in terms of the physical attributes of the actors and their acting abilities, not their personal lives.)
As we all know, casting is highly subjective, and “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” What a terribly boring world it would be if we all fell for the exact same faces!
The whole thing stirs up beauty as a concept. We argue whether Louis’s hair is long and straight, and chestnut in color, like in movie!IWTV, or that it’s shoulder-length, wavy and raven black as described in canon. In some fanart it’s drawn just long and black and silky straight, in some, it’s short and curly!
In considering VC Casting, we will have to make compromises, it’s unlikely that whoever is cast will look or be styled sufficiently to please everyone. I have my own subjective ideals for beauty and how the characters should look, don’t take any of my opinions personally (unless you want to agree with me!), I would never want to cause anyone discomfort simply because I disagree with their choice.
Whoever is finally cast, let’s try to give the actors a chance to do their jobs and try to keep in mind that these are fictional characters, and the movie people want us to enjoy their product, and buy the BluRay of it, and make a cult classic out of it, and all that jazz.
More on beauty under the cut.
My 8 year old cousin just told me on Saturday night, right in the middle of a lovely collage session in which we were cutting up models from Seventeen and making fashion plates, that she wished she had “straight blonde hair.” She said curly hair was ugly. Her hair is perfect Louis de Pointe du Lac hair to me, brunette and maybe a little lighter than his, but silky and slightly wavy to her shoulders, then descending like a little bubbling waterfall into the most perfect little shining curls for about 4 inches. Oooh purple prose! But I had to paint a picture since I can’t post one here, so let me be briefly flowery just for the sake of description, ok?
I knew I didn’t have a satisfactory answer for her concern, because telling her “But you have beautiful French girl hair!” “But mine is just like yours! Is mine ugly?” would have meant nothing in the face of a culture that forces certain ideals of beauty at us from such an early age. She said “I wish my hair was straight and blonde,” as if that would solve all her major problems, so that she could then go on to tackle the important ones.
She then followed it up with “- like my dance teacher Lilly.” Ah! Now it was clear! She wanted to look like someone she deeply respects and appreciates! Hopefully that’s really where it’s coming from and not the mass media trying to convince us all from an early age that our inadequacies are many and can only be overcome with dye, paint, etc. I admit that I wear makeup, but for me, it’s more like war paint, and bc I enjoy the art of it.
I told her anyway, “My best friend has straight black hair, and she told me that many girls like her get their hair professionally curled, they pay a lot of money to try to get their hair curly like yours.”
“Really?” said my 8 year old cousin.
“Really.” I said.
She seemed somewhat pleased with this factoid and we went back to our art project, but still… It just brought up this whole beauty topic. It’s not resolved, the conversation is far from over, but at least we started it.
Hard not to notice that I’ve been putting out more Lestat casting ideas than any other, hm? They’re alternatives for a particularly divisive option that I’d honestly rather the Powers That Be not choose. If it were MY choice, I wouldn’t want to contaminate the entire project w/ such negative baggage on our Lestat (if you don’t know what I’m referring to, sorry, but I refuse to answer publicly any further on it, you can try to find it in my #vc casting tag, tho).
But yes, always important to consider Nicolas! Half the duo? Well, yes, in a way, bc I do agree Nicolas gave Lestat his first long-term loving relationship, despite its flaws. It shaped him in a very powerful way, for better and worse. Mostly better ❤ I do think it’s some of Nicolas’ brand of sass that Lestat displays towards his loved ones in IWTV ;] But since Nicolas does not occur in later canon as a living character, I don’t consider him “half the duo” currently.
AND YES we don’t have nearly enough characters with brown eyes, dark brown eyes, that you can lose yourself in. Tender and sometimes scary depths. MORE LOVE FOR BROWN EYES.
Ben Barnes, okay, so I looked at some pics and gifs bc I haven’t seen his movies, and he’s won me over! I think there was an RPer using him as a face claim here, and I don’t remember their url, but those are usually still images so I didn’t really see it until now. He would probably make a fine Nicolas and he has my vote!
Fun facts on his IMDB page under the cut but for now ONTO SOME GIFS.
^“I don’t believe it, ” Nicolas said bitterly. “He wouldn’t be ashamed
of us.” There was a suppressed rage in his voice, an ugly grief. “And
why did he leave the way he did? I heard him calling me! The window
was smashed to pieces! I tell you I was half awake, and I heard his
voice… Lestat would spit in the face of anyone who would
be ashamed of us!” ;A;
^Nicolas being forced to dress up to deliver the red velvet cloak but HE’S NOT GONNA SHAVE U CAN’T MAKE HIM. I actually prefer him with this scruff.
^Willing to kiss dudes is a major plus. Not that I personally need it for any kind of nefarious reasons! maybe a little bit, but I do think it’s relevant that Nicolas and Lestat are very gay for each other, and it would be nice to have that loving relationship on screen to contrast how bitter the loss of it is for both of them ;A; Also his hair is perfect here.
Hit the jump for moar. Cut for length and moar opinions.
^Did I mention he looks great in period costume? He DOES. Also his hair is perfect here. Maybe a bit short.
^He has tons of excellent smiles and I just had to settle on one, this is good stuff ❤
^
“Oh, not goodness again,” he said. “You and your malady of
mortality, and your malady of goodness. “He had been looking at the
fire and he turned to me with a deliberately scornful expression.
“We’re a pack of actors and entertainers who can’t even be buried in
consecrated ground. We’re outcasts." Nicki you mean bastard >:[
^He even looks good flushed like this.
Fun facts on his IMDB page:
“He can also sing, play drums and piano,” which means we could train him to play violin! Obviously has some musical inclination, can probably read sheet music.
“Was in the short lived boy band Hyrise; his band performed their song, "Leading Me On” in 2004 for Eurovision Song Contest.” – Okay ex-boy band, to me, reads, Has sense of fun and theatrical performance over and above regular character acting. Which would be gr9 bc I would love to see a little more Theatre des Vampires action than we got in movie!IWTV, especially the moment it was born!
“His father is a psychiatrist and his mother is a therapist.” – They are probably great resources for him as an actor. And as the son of such, he probably knows all too well what it’s like to be over-analyzed and rebel against it!
Supports Make-a-Wish Foundation.- ok well my heart. THIS is the kind of baggage I like on an actor, HAPPY baggage!
Was one of the four finalists for the role of “Edward Cullen” in Twilight (2008). – SO WE KNOW HE WAS WILLING TO PLAY A VAMPIRE BEFORE
This seems like a Nicolas quote, it’s Ben Barnes from his IMDB page: “I don’t wear underpants in bed. They are really uncomfortable. I don’t wear anything in bed. I like girls to wear the same as me. His ‘n’ hers matching invisible outfits. But I think I am a gentleman in bed.”
As a side note, It shouldn’t be surprising to me that so many newer ppl to the fandom seem to gravitate towards Nicolas, but it does surprise me. Why is he of interest now? Lestat does reach back and mention him at times, but I just don’t remember there being so much interest in him 10 yrs ago.
It seems like in general, it’s more of a current fandom thing to pick up and care for these characters the author has handled less than the main characters, almost as if the readers have more blank space to fill in for them. So that makes sense.
I also think Nicolas reflects this generation of young adults better than any other VC character, with his disillusionment, his struggles with religion, and his anguish at how much talent he has and how little chance of success there is available to him in life in general, and defining what is success? What is contentment? He also may have some undiagnosed mental illness, which is another thing that’s much more out in the open these days than it was even 10 years ago.
The only character I can think of that could come close to all of ^that would be Armand, but he is a much more able to center himself and much more in control of his outward display of emotions than Nicolas. Armand was a coven master, a director, accustomed to being in a position of power, and Nicolas is more truly a performer, and artist, an open heart with little self-defense other than his rapier wit and scathing sass.
There is some fanon headcanon that his Mind Gift is too strong for him to really control, and that was another thing that drove him more deeply mad after he was turned.
Obsession fuels it, I can usually remember the scene I want when I have a good joke or text post to go with it. Then it’s a matter of slapping the images and text together.
I have *~a particular skill set~* w/ enough photo and video editing training that I can pull frames from my DVD copy of IWTV but it’s gotten a lot easier over time for just about anyone with even the most basic knowledge of apps to do some of what I can do here and sometimes I have to resort to more basic programs when I don’t have access to my higher-powered stuff at home.
There are tutorials on Youtube for grabbing images and making gifs in various ways. That’s how I learned to make gifs. I would include links here but there are too many to choose from! And it depends on what software you have and how much photo and video editing you already know.
I use Adobe Premiere to capture frames, and Photoshop to manipulate them and add text. I pay for both legally. I recommend that so that you can have a clear conscience and also you can call Adobe for support!
You can also do it with MSWord, MSPaint, and there is free screencap software out there (I think the Snipping Tool is already installed and free w/ the Windows operating system), just get a copy of the movie so you can pause it and pull your screencaps!
^Yes I spend my free time and design skills making graphics re: a movie (that was made 20+ years ago) for a series started 40+ years ago I HAVE NO SHAME AND NO REGERTS ;u;
I-want-my-IWTV 