painting of St. Sebastian by Guido Reni used for the cover of Violin.* And I know not every dude-w/-his-hands-tied-above-his-head counts as a St. Sebastian reference but still, it’s interesting to consider whether it might be.
“St Sebastian (feast day January 20th)has become something of a gay icon, as saints go. Partly, perhaps, because it’s an opportunity to depict a curly-haired semi-nude youth in light bondage. It has to be said this isn’t how Sebastian died, or how he was originally depicted. Sebastian miraculously survived being shot with arrows and was healed by Irene of Rome. He continued to denounce the emperor Diocletian, who had him clubbed to death in the year 288.
The tendency to depict Sebastian as a handsome youth pierced with arrows began in the 14th Century when Europe was being ravaged by the plague of the Black Death.
See how the two ‘Sebastians’ in the modern version above look entirely unperturbed by the arrows protruding from their torsos?There is a long tradition of Sebastian looking unaffected by his plight: corruption fails to touch him and that made him proof against plague. Sebastian occupied an important place in medieval religion as a protector against plague. He was seen as a saint whose prayers would work.”[X]
*The lighting on the cover may be distorting the colors and contrast of the original painting, and I’m not even sure that’s the original painting, got that from here [X]… but these changes seem obvious:
changed the trees in the BG,
blended the nips in a little more by changing their color,
rounded his face somewhat (tho, that O could be just making it look rounder)
moved the armpit arrow,
added a tummy arrow,
changed the angle of Left Ribcage Arrow a little bit,
lengthened his hair a little,
reduced the shadows in the Adonis muscle area, too sexy?
Oh gawdz well, this is the best I can do w/o such an idea and I spent ages on it so I hope you like it!!! There was more than one Tom Cruise in Oblivion, but I’d love a movie where he plays an entire cast.
Tom as Lestat and as Daniel: this actually works pretty well…
Claudia: This actually is surprisingly cute and kinda terrifying, imagine that little guy chasing you down in the middle of the night and then that one big fang plunging into your neck!
Akasha: this one is a little too real… IS THIS WHAT THEY’RE PLANNING?
as Lestat and Louis: do you know how hard it is to find a decent size gif of Tom Cruise crying? It’s hard. So have this again.
Armand: hey don’t look at me like that, at least the hair color is closer to canon than Antonio!Armand. The outfit works, too.
Tom as Khayman when Akasha is attacking: (tbh this gif of Tom getting thrown against a car will always make me happy, sorry Tom, idk why, schadenfreude probably)
Not that I know of but I consider him an honorary member, he read the first 4 books to prepare for the role and at one point was interested in playing Lestat again. He has only ever spoken highly of Lestat ❤
I’d love for him to be involved in the next adaptation in whatever capacity; I’d love him to play Lestat’s dad, bc he’s old enough now! Or if he could be a Lestat coach for the next Lestat, that’d be awesome, too.
Tom has said that he didn’t change the script for IWTV. Whether you believe him or not is up to you, but considering what did make it into the finished film (and reliable sources I have spoken to directly), I’d say he was willing to do pretty much everything they asked for.
And keep in mind that that movie really did push the envelope for its time. There are things in it that are still very difficult to film even now.
IKR?! It makes my heart hurt so YOU HAVE TO HURT, TOO. I am aware that Lestat is one of the biggest antagonistic monsters in canon, but that’s not all he is, and when he’s cut down like this, you can’t help but feel bad for the poor guy.
Let me torture y’all a little more…
^HE THINKS SHE FLAVORED THEM FOR HIM. He’s being slightly cute here with the way he’s gesturing theatrically to her, don’t think about all the times he and Louis “acted Shakespeare together for Claudia’s amusement…” He thinks she went to EXTRA EFFORT to make this peace offering special for him! Well, she did, but not the way he thinks ;A;
^(Just a still of Claudia bc of reasons) Then she basically tells him it was dead blood* she gave him, which, in the context of movie!IWTV, is apparently dangerous to them. On her first kill he told her that they always have to “stop before the heart stops,” but he doesn’t say why. So now he knows she poisoned him, and the laudanum is working, bc look how incapacitated he is:
^It’s probably no accident that his right hand is in his crotch there, he’s been emasculated, brought down by his own daughter *cries*
^That whole right arm is just not functional, he tries to put weight on it, and it just collapses ;A;
Even if he COULD grab her at this point, he’s in no shape to try to fight her physically. He can barely even talk!
In the context of the scene, there’s no going back for her at this point, she poisoned him intentionally and there would have been no way to regain his trust. All the sadness.
Asterisked stuff under the cut.
*In the film, it’s implied that the deadness of the blood is what’s incapacitating him, and that’s fine, for the film. He taught her this in her first kill. But in the books, it’s about the laudanum** that actually would have a strong effect on him. If Louis had been able to put Lestat in his coffin, Lestat could have slept off this opiate dose and been fine the next night.
**Laudanum is not just any drug, it’s a BAMF (Wiki):
“Reddish-brown and extremely bitter, laudanum contains almost all of the opium alkaloids, including morphine and codeine, and its high morphine concentration makes it a potent narcotic. Laudanum was historically used to treat a variety of ailments, but its principal use was as an analgesic and cough suppressant.”
One more note on the dead blood – if those boys were truly dead, Lestat would have known just with his own senses. Vampires can’t stand to be around their dead. But we’ll have to just ignore that ;]
A little breakdown of this scene, re: why I loved Tom’s Lestat so much in this scene, since we’re talking about it.
^Claudia leads him in, and he’s so trusting. When he sees the boys there, he is not immediately very pleased. He actually looks a little disappointed. The house rule is not to bring victims into the house, and she brought them in, is he going to have to lay down the law again? Bad timing for it, since he’s trying to make peace with her.
She glances up at him to gauge his reaction but looks away before he can meet her gaze. She’s thrilled with what she’s about to do and doesn’t want him derailing her from her mission.
^I use this gif a lot for “such feels,” but there’s really more going on here, and not necessarily happiness. She’s told him that the boys are the gift to him. He starts w/ a facepalm, bc, hey, Lestat would actually rather not kill children.* He tries to go for adult evildoers. It’s clearer in TVL than in movie!IWTV, but he does tell Louis in an earlier scene, “Evildoers are easier, and they taste better.”**
Lestat is also very guarded in his body language here, all closed off w/ his arms across his chest (we don’t usually see him this closed off in the movie). When he shows his face, he’s not smiling at first, bc, this wasn’t really the kind of truce he would have wanted. But then he rallies, shakes his head a little bit, and tries to smile, probably tells himself inwardly, “She did this for me, she has good intentions…”
^”Well, you certainly have… outdone yourself,” he says. He’s struggling to compliment her, that hesitation could have led to a criticism. Trying to convince himself that this is a peace offering and to reign in his usual edgy sense of humor. The main rule in their home was always “Never [kill] in the house” and she wants him to share this kill. In. The. House. A rule she’s broken countless times. He’s still guarded, still has his arms up protectively.
The smile fails as he looks over the boys like he’s looking at something unappetizing at a buffet. For me, that would be the wilted salad area.
^There’s a full second pause as he looks at her bc he’s still struggling to believe it was all this easy. Then he asks: “We forgive each other, then?” This is Lestat without any of his bravado, no games, not asking as her maker, just as someone who loves her and wants her love, too. This is the Lestat who spent most of his childhood unloved or beaten down for trying to find a place where ppl would love him ;A;
^There’s almost a full second pause as she looks at him – bc she doesn’t really forgive him – and then says: “Yes” She’s lying right to his face, so evil! If you cover her mouth, her eyebrows don’t change at all with that smile. But there is still a chance to abandon her plan if she wants to.
^Having secured the peace, putting his trust in her about this gift being OK to consume, he has this little sigh of relief; his usual confidence comes back in, you can see a hint of a smile as he turns away.
(This victim is one of the moments in the film that really pushed the envelope for its time, when Lestat bites into the child. It’s actually a lot less homoerotic/pedophilic than in the book, where he gets his hands wrapped up in the kid’s shirt. Unlike when he bites adults and we see his face, here, we see him from behind. It makes it less sexual, he didn’t choose this victim, it’s seems like it’s more about the consumption.)
^Anyway… he thinks she spiked their blood with absinthe bc he immediately feels drugged/drunk from it.
She tells him it’s laudanum, and he repeats that word, has he heard of it before? Probably not, bc she tells him what it does.
So right up until the moment she explicitly lays it out for him, he still believes they’ve reconciled, and even that she flavored the blood for him as an extra consideration! It’s a very painful betrayal, specifically bc he wanted to believe her SO BADLY that he ignored all the red flags ;A;
You could say he deserved this betrayal, but I think this scene is part of what makes Tom’s Lestat so very good. Even as he’s led into getting his punishment, you still feel sorry for him, it’s hard to hate a monster when he’s being this trusting and gentle and really wanting to well… not be a monster.
I recognize that this is a social media site so you are welcome to reblog and comment and engage on this, but please do so respectfully, and keep in mind that #your headcanon may vary, and we are all entitled to our own interpretations/opinions about canon, and about movie!IWTV.
(Asterisked notes under the cut.)
* It’s implied that Lestat and Claudia finished off whole families together in an earlier scene in the film, including children, but we’ve only seen him kill adults on screen up to this point. In the book, it’s Claudia who insists on killing families (her own, IIRC), and she kills a mother and daughter who worked domestically in the flat for Louis and Lestat. Lestat rarely kills children in the books, typically it’s only in moments of extreme emotional weakness.Tom would have known this, bc he read books 1-4.
**
“Evildoers are easier, and they taste better.” – This is what Lestat tells Louis to try to get him to acclimate to the idea that killing is okay, and in fact, some ppl need to be killed anyway, to protect the general population (like Lestat killing the wolves to save the villagers back in the Auvergne). But in the books it’s implied that innocent blood tastes better, which makes it harder to resist. “…these victims had been taken in the perfect semblance of love. The very blood seemed warmer with their innocence, richer with their goodness.” (TVL)
I might do more of these if you’re interested, but they do take a long time to put together. We’ll see…
(2/2) so cruel because she KNEW being really kind to him for once would make him the most vulnerable so she could kill him. And if that’s not evil I don’t know what is.
It’s one of the best scenes in the movie! And one of the most heartbreaking ;A;
“When Claudia starts her assassination plot by bringing him a human gift, Cruise’s eyes show Lestat’s surprise that someone has finally done something nice for him for the first time in the film…
In that moment, we realize that while Lestat is capable of love, he’s never been loved back.” – Amy Nicholson, Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor
You are preaching to the choir re: Tom’s Lestat 😉 He may not have LOOKED 100% like Lestat but I thought his performance really captured the essence of the character. I think Kirsten took a lot of her acting cues from his Lestat, too. They were so well-matched that it was easy to believe that they were “father” and “daughter”; she seemed like a little girl version of him, inheriting more of his cruelty than his kindness, but definitely taking on both ❤
She really did lead him to believe that they had forgiven each other, and doing that one nice thing for him, to a person as starved for affection as he was… she knew it would kindle his hope for reconciliation, she KNEW that would make him the most vulnerable and YES that is pretty elite evil *cries*
I-want-my-IWTV 