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Interview with the Vampire Customer Reviews (13 - 15 of 36 Reviews)

Haunting and Beautiful
"Interview With the Vampire" is NOT a horror film, though it is populated with those blood-sucking horror favorites. It IS a passionate tale of love and seduction, regret and revenge, tinged with humor throughout. As the film begins, there is an incredible palette of colors, beautiful sunrises, lush golden fields, green forests, inky-blue clouds and blending sun. When Louis is "born to darkness", everything suddenly changes to dark velvet, lit only by the silver moonlight. The beautiful production design by Dante Ferretti , wonderful costumes and art direction by Malcolm Middleton re-create the multiple historical periods in the film. From the renaissance New Orleans and the beautiful rococo Paris of the 18th century, to our present days.

The film is about a 200-year-old vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt), who tells his story to a reporter (Christian Slater) in contemporary San Francisco. After his human existence as a widowed Louisiana plantation owner is ended in 1791 by the vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise), Louis has a hard time adjusting to life as a neck-biter. He's a vampire with a soul, and he doesn't like taking human lives. Still, a vampire can exist only so long on the blood of rats and poodles, and Louis eventually follows Lestat's example. Things become somewhat more pleasant when Lestat presents Louis with a(companion, Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), a 6-year-old Louis grows to love as a daughter. Questions and bitterness lead to tragedy and a search that leads to Europe and back to the New World. Anyone who gets hung up on the gore in this film isn't getting the point. So let's spell it out - e-r-o-t-i-c-i-s-m. This is the definitive example of why vampirism is a metaphor for sex, and, frankly, it couldn't have come in a better-looking package.

Darkly satisfying......
Let me begin by saying that I have not read the book and am judging the movie solely on its own merits. "Interview with the Vampire" is a luscious, guilty pleasure of modern filmmaking, visually resplendent and with wonderful performances by all (including Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas and Stephen Rea). It follows the adventures of Louis de Pont du Lac (Brad Pitt), a 200-year-old vampire hailing from Louisiana, as he recounts the story of his life (and unlife) to interviewer Daniel Malloy (Christian Slater). Along the way we meet his maker Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise), his "daughter" Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), and Armand (Antonio Banderas), leader of the Parisian vampires.

Tom Cruise, in my mind, perfectly portrays the elder vampire Lestat...beautiful, cunning, selfish, a seducer, many of the same qualities present in Armand, and possesses an excess of dark humour. Brad Pitt's Louis still clings to the last shreds of his humanity...his sense of right and wrong, the value of life, the horror of killing in order to survive (angstmaster Nick Knight from "Forever Knight" springs to mind). There is a lack of onscreen romantic tension between Cruise and Pitt...something that makes their relationship seem less immediate and binding. However, there is definitely a spark between Louis and Armand (Antonio Banderas), and it was easy to believe that Louis was tempted to stay as a companion to such an intelligent, beautiful vampire who could teach him the answers to his questions. Kirsten Dunst is phenomenal as Claudia, the vampire with the mind and desires of a woman eternally trapped in the body of a doll-child.

The visuals are lavish, moody, stunningly brilliant, especially the world of 1800's New Orleans with its brocades, silks, and elaborate dresses. The atmosphere is appropriately dark, with plenty of fog and menacing nighttime damp. Elliot Goldenthal's score is string-driven, pulsing, tense, and underscores the action perfectly, the crowning piece being "Libera Me".

Yes, this film is graphic at times, including two very graphic scenes involving mutilation, numerous "feedings," homoeroticism, and brief nudity, but "Interview with the Vampire" is an unconventional drama that probes the meaning of life, death, love, seduction, and regret. More than anything Anne Rice's vampires make us realize the conventions and trappings of humanity.

Wow...
Okay, first let me say that I have not yet read the book by Anne Rice. I had heard that this movie was good. "Good" is not a strong enough word. While other movies about vampires tend to be more on the phony side, this movie, in my opinion, was very realistic and believable. I do agree that Interview with the Vampire is less of a horror film than it is a work of art, but that certainly isn't a bad thing. Overall, this is an awesome movie and I highly recommend it.

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