“The Kubrick Stare, sometimes referred to as the Kubrick Glare, is a common camera shot of an actor in most of Stanley Kubrick’s films. The Kubrick Glare has been called the “heavy-browed look of insanity”. It symbolizes that the character in question is either really, really pissed or really becoming deranged, and the person they’re looking at is really, really screwed. Other times—usually when combined with a smile—it means they’re feeling really, really clever. Either way, it’s really creepy and ominous.”
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.
Jurassic World is close to us, so I wanted to take a moment to remember someone that won’t be here to see it happens.
Meet Stan Winston.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s the guy that worked on every non-CGI dinosaur from Jurassic Park/The Lost World/Jurassic Park III. And many don’t even realize how many there were!
Oh, but that is not all.
He is also the guy that created and gave ”life” to some other movie stars…
The characters of The Wiz? Stan Winston.
The Dog-Thing from The Thing? Stan Winston.
The Terminators of the original Terminator trilogy? PLUS Terminator Salvation? Stan Winston.
The Alien-Queen of Aliens? Stan Winston.
All the monsters of The Monster Squad? Stan Winston.
The Predator from Predator I and II? Stan Winston.
Pumpkinhead? Stan Winston.
The iconic hands of Edward Scissorhands? Stan Winston.
The Penguin looks form Batman Returns? Stan Winston.
And
so
many
MORE…
“I don’t do special effects. I do characters. I do creatures.”
Happy birthday, Stan Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008)
You didn’t make special effects, you sir made the World special.
“If I want to sleep all day and drink all night, I’ll do it, damn you!”
– Lestat de Lioncourt
I’ve had this ask sitting here for far too long, Anon, I’m sorry for the delay on reply. Anyone is welcome to reblog/comment with mortal or vampire headcanons!
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 ❤
I-want-my-IWTV 