I just loved the end of the movie where Lestat basically goes "Oh Louie, you're still going on like this? Count yourself lucky you only had to listen to him for a couple of hours, I had to put up with him for decades"
Yes! It clearly hinted at the fact that Louis' account is extremely subjective and depressing, and that there are other ways to live the vampire life. It was also the movie making fun of its own drama and gravitas and ends on a fun, exciting note. "I'm going to give you the choice I've never had." And he changes the depressing tape to the radio.
Fun Fact: Anne Rice held strong criticism for Tom Cruise as Lestat and after hearing about such criticism, Tom Cruise put 110% into the job in order to prove Rice's criticism wrong. The result was one of Tom Cruise's best performances as well as the undisputed Queen of Vampires: Anne Rice, having to eat her own words. That is what you call perseverance
Here's also a bit of trivia, Rice decided to wait and see how Cruise would turn out upon hearing that Stan Winston was doing the makeup effects. Besides being the man behind the live action effects for Terminator, Jurassic Park, Predator, Aliens, etc..., Winston had directed the tragic, southern gothic horror film Pumpkinhead, which was one of Rice's favorite movies. Considering the death of her daughter and the main character being driven to raise the demon Pumpkinhead by the grief of losing his son, it makes total since why she'd be a fan.
I still dont love the casting I'd the movie. Yeah Tom and Brad did great but as a fan of the books I don't like the inconsistency of how Louis, Lestat and Armand look nothing like they're supposed to.
Yes but there's many evangelist that think Ann rice used to write satanistic books. So they use that theory to disregard the lgbtq as sinners. Even though there aren't any sexual relations between the men or women. Trust me I know this cuz of my step mother being that evangelist.
yeah, it's really sad she decided to "vanish" the character in such a painful way. I personally think she did the same with the series. She failed in the realization that we the readers felt more appeal for the characters than the crazy situations they are put in by the author.
@Sergio Díaz Nila Agreed! It was a kick in the gut when she did Lestat's pov of Interview and went with that as what "really happened". Make me have a relationship with Louis then tell me....yea, that's not what happened.
@@TaraR669 If you want to get really meta, you could say that Louis represents Anne's deep depression over the death of her daughter, where Lestat represents her desire to keep living to the fullest. After pulling her life together, she couldn't keep writing from the POV of Louis dark head space.
This was my favorite movie as a pre-teen. I read all the books after I saw this movie, resulting in my first ever parent teacher conference. My 5th grade teacher took issue with me reading an "inappropriate book" during free reading time and took it away. My mother told her if she ever took a book from her daughter again she'd be looking for a new job. Bless my mum.
Same! Well not that anyone thought it was inappropriate, but my sister brought the movie home when I was ten or so. I watched it for years before I realized there was a book to go with it. Good on your mom for standing up!
"The scythe was a prop from the theater, he wasn't just being really dramatic." Oh in the book it was not a prop from the theater and he was REALLY just being that dramatic.
It *was* a prop from the theater in the book. Props don't have to be fake, they just have to be used in the production, and I don't think that reaction was overly dramatic, considering the reason he had for his actions.
@@AcademyNS I was about to mention the same thing. Why the hell would vampires use a real one as a prop? I'm assuming they are no more capable of surviving decapitation than anyone else. :)
Aging up Armand to avoid the Call me by your name "Homosexuals are bad and lust for underage" problem actually is one of the bloody best and most thoughtful book to movie adaptation decisions I probably have ever heard. Or maybe they just wanted Antonio Banderas for the role. Either way: good decision.
I have to agree. While I have always cited this change as one of the FEW things that bothered me about the film, hearing this explanation given makes the whole thing make much more sense for me. I hadn't considered the May/ December angle before.
There was a good documentary back in the 90's (cannot find it for the life of me now) which was made when Anne's husband Stan was still alive and when their son was still a teen and had not yet come out. It went into detail about the drunk hole both parents fell into after their daughter's death (out of which "Interview" was born) and showed Anne's large, very creepy collection of porcelain dolls (many the spitting image of daughter Michele AND Claudia...). I'd love to see this doc again.
@@JadedTheatre That's a beautiful story. They suffered young, but both Anne and Stan, through their art, found some meaning out of all the pain. Have you read "Some Lamb"? Stan was a particular, idiosyncratic artist, but Anne was art and money. I think her success changed their whole lives, yet again. Their son tragically found out about his sister's existence while at school. It must have been such a difficult subject to talk about. edit: Stan at one point after Michele's death talked about Anne and he becoming "Scotty and Zelda", during their mourning . This reference always resonated with me - so heartbreaking to lose a child, but one young and beautiful whom you had got to know and then had to watch deteriorate like that? Theirs was a story of great love, both for their children and each other.
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 Stan was a very interesting, creative, funny man. I was very sad when he passed away. I have a 2 and a half year old daughter and cannot imagine watching her go through what Michelle went through. I could never tell the Rice's this but in a beautifully tragic way, Michelle is now immortal. Hundreds of years from now, she will still be living through the page as Claudia.
@@JadedTheatre That's a beautiful post. Yes, she will. I have a non-binary, female-assigned-at-birth child (now adult) and a 9-year-old daughter. I have always felt some kinship with the Rices as parents. As you know, there is nothing harder to go through than when your child is ill - Anne made art out of suffering and in a way, because of her art we are all the richer for Michele's existence. X
Fun fact: in Anne's first draft of the book, Louis and Claudia found the Theater of the Vampires and lived happily ever after. It was after an editor suggested she expand a bit more on it that it ended up with its bittersweet ending.
I think was the better choice, specially for Claudia. It's cleary that Claudia was the most broken person between Louis and Lestat. I can't believe she would "live happy ever after"in any kind of scenario.
@@NataliaNeeSama Yeah the thing with Claudia is that no matter how the situation changes, she would always be trapped in a child's body and always be unable to fend for herself. Later on in the Vampire Armand there's an inserted element that between her kidnapping and bring burned in the light well, Armand attempted to place her head onto the body of a grown vampire woman in an attempt to make the two fuse but the procedure didn't work and so he left her head with the rest of her body to be destroyed by the sun. I kind of pretend that didn't happen since Anne Rice just retconned it in 😂
I absolutely believe that - since, if Rice was writing to work through her turmoil of losing her daughter, I can see the appeal of wanting to be able to save her.
@@phastinemoon Anne has said too that the decision to create Claudia was not a conscious response to her daughters death. It was only later that she realized she was working through that trauma.
The whole issue of vampires being incredibly gorgeous creatures glowing with sex appeal was dealt with simply by casting the biggest, most attractive movie stars of the moment. Cruise, Pitt, and Banderas were amazingly hot at that time, scoring hit after hit, so they made the perfect metaphor for Rice's conception of irresistible blood fiends whose lives are fueled by the adulation of others. :)
@@Serai3 I think you misunderstood my meaning. I was implying that the two gentlemen you mentioned are still A) handsome and B) killing it in theaters. And staring that both of their big films this year are films I went to see more than once. Saw Maverick three times and Bullet Train twice - I may be "get out" too much. Currently thinking about heading out with my kiddo to see John Hamm's new Fletch movie lol. Not relevant to this topic, except for your concern that I don't get out :p I know they have visibly aged and couldn't reprise their Interview roles. I wasn't attacking your point, just giving respect to the actors :)
@@NeoConker626 I got your meaning. I think Serai3 was just commenting to be obnoxious, which is unfortunately common here on RUclips. It's bad enough that a lot of female creators and LGBTQ+ creators have to disable comments on many of their videos, and ANY creators that make videos about controversial topics has their comments become a battleground.
Well many of Brad Pitt’s lines were whiny IMO. Pitt got jealous of Cruise being the technical lead because apparently Brad wanted to be Lestat, but Tom was already cast for the role
I love in the later books someone gives Lestat a copy of this book and he's like "WHAT IS THIS HORSESHIT?! THAT DIDNT HAPPEN! I NEVER SAID THAT! THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!"
I know that the outside reason for that is that there was a long time and a huge personal change for Anne in between those books, but my headcanon reason for that is one bourne out by my own life: people can be terribly abusive, and not less so if they don't see themselves that way, but actually more so. Lestat was blindsided by his partner's pain even though it really should have been obvious that Lestat's insecure manipulations were hurting Louis a lot. It is totally possible to be that oblivious to your own cruelty, especially for someone 'like Lestat': egotistical, self-pitying, careless with his words, just not reaching his perspective all the way over to how his partner might be feeling because it's too hard.
@@babababuck From what I heard a LOT of the issues were his fault. I seem to recall he made them re-write what was originally a horror movie as an action movie so he could do stunts and there were some other re-writes he insisted on or something.
One of my favorite parts of the movie was Lestat turning the child. It's just as you said: I know how to fix our relationship we'll have a baby. Which only works temporarily. Trust me, I KNOW.
I would definitely consider Louis and lestat lovers in the book series. Lestat admits to falling in love with Louis and often confesses his deep and complex love for him- “to love someone like this is to burn”. Although Louis is often depicted as hating lestat, in the later books he truly comes to love him- “I love you with my whole soul, and I will always love you”, he confided to me. “You are my life. I have hated you for that and love you now so much that you’ve been my instructor in loving. And believe me when I say you will survive because you always have and you always wil”. They also share many romantic kisses :)
Lovers, certainly. But obviously not in the carnal sense.. as Rice's vampires don't play that. And this is not only not "gay", it's quite common among some of us mortals as well. I LOVE my closest girl friends. I absolutely do. I see so much in them that is beautiful, inspiring and makes me want only good things for them. That IS love.... most assuredly. But I don't want to sleep with them. Rice's vampires--above all-have been shown to have THE most acute sense of appreciation for beauty. They could easily fall in love with the quality of the moonlight spilling down the side of a night orchid, for example. They could be completely consumed by the notes emanating from a well played violin. They could easily become enthralled with the sound of a human's voice, or with the way that the mortal thought or felt things. These are all examples of LOVE. And none of them are "gay". I actually think it's an all-too-common human weakness to conflate love with sexuality. the two are separate concepts.... and while they certainly CAN overlap in certain circumstances, they are not inextricably linked.
@@kristenjones3431nah dawg you just love blind, they legit admit sharing blood is an intimate thing for them… also did you not see the “loving kisses” part of the comment you replied to? I think you’re homophobic dawg
Yeah, i have exactly zero evidence for it, but i do recall a friend pointing out that when her son came out, she accepted him, but suddenly her characters got a lot more heterosexual. Sort of an interesting flex, if it's true.
I think the big picture is being missed here- as best as I can remember from interviews with Anne Rice over the decades (while the Vampire Novels were being published, and again the second time around when the movies were being made)- it was not about them being gay or not. It was more that their relationships were much more significant, much more deep, much more evolved (their relationships evolved over more than hundreds of years, after all). They were simply past the original simplicity of sexual attraction, be it gay/straight/bi, whatever. I know this might be a hard concept to follow till one has actually reached the age where hormones diminish & relationships develop decades of age & depth, but life really does move waaayyyyy past the simplicity of sexual attraction.
@@charlottepulaski795 And on latest book Lestat calls Loius several times his lover. So it´s not shying away that they are couple and always have been in one way or another.
Yes but it is love in the wider sense, pure spirit love, not lowly base animal sexual love that silly humans seem to have to attribute everything to. How Charlotte describes is its exactly how I took it to be when I first read the book as a teenager.
Claudia is one of the greatest characters ever created in literature. Choosing the great Kirsten Dunst to portray her in the film, was nothing short of an incredible casting triumph!
Kirsten is so perfect & really plays an adult in a child’s body better than many child actors could. I like that they aged Claudia up from the book as it comes across slightly less creepy
She did a phenomenal job! She portrayed an adult in a child’s body so convincingly it was downright eerie, even down to the body language. There’s just one scene in the entire film where she moves like a kid (right after she cuts her hair) and it’s only for a few seconds. That puts her performance well above Tom Cruise’s IMO, since he was apparently such a baby about the contact lenses they had to wear that he took them out at every opportunity. His performance is great, but it loses something without the distinctive “vampire” eyes. Once you realize _why_ he’s less convincing in some scenes than others, you can’t unsee it. I wish they could have found a way to fix it in post, because it really breaks immersion. Still a great movie, though.
I do wonder if, were it adapted today, if you could do 5-year-old Claudia as an entirely CGI character? Maybe voiced by several actresses of increasing age as she mentally matures?
Christian Slater was a last minute casting choice due to younger River Phoenix's untimely death happening a couple weeks before filming began. Just thought it was noteworthy since you mentioned the difference between the boy in the book and Slater's take in the film.
Yeah, River would have played him like the guy in the book. Slater said himself that he changed the tone of the character out of respect for River. He didn't want to be seen as imitating him or taking the role away from him.
Love the idea that vampires stay emotionally at the same age they were when they were turned. Louis isn't Like That because he's a vampires, he's Like That because he's 24.
Being a vampire has certain limitations, But it can also be a ton of fun. Your extra strengths and abilities can make you successful in almost every endeavor you participate in life and before you know it the money and acquaintances will come streaming in. You can build wealth and gain prestige and notoriety and attempt things you may never have even considered as a human. you will have more time to do alot, Beef up your education and learn all you ever wanted. Travel the world to see things most people only ever see on TV. This is going to be especially fun if you turn into a vampire. Clan vampires will show you the wonders of the world. Learn new languages, Travel, Go skydiving or scuba dive with sharks, You no longer need to scared of nature or wildlife you will become the worlds strongest predator. Have fun with it and your life as a vampire can be more fulfilling than you ever dreamed of. Experience these and get excited. There’s a big world out there with lots to see and do and as a vampire once you have received the vampire Blood and Ring. Powers, Skills, Abilities, Mights you shall poses. The only way to have all these come through is contacting the hindu lord on the below e-mail: Vampirelordtransformerchanging@gmail.com +16202229418. I am grateful to be among the clans of vampires.
@@lucasriches8444 You left out .. being a slave to the monster that turned you, for a century or so... having to hide your kils, and how incredibly bad everything smells. Except for blood. The one delight you have. Except ... for a few centuries you 're a blood sucking animal. Did i mention the part where you're totally at the mercy of the fiend that turns you, basically until you can kill it? No freedom for you. Nononono! You do as you're told, go where you're told, feed only when you're told. It sucks. sometimes literally. if draining a human is too risky and your sire gets thirsty... you're it. It wont kill you, very few things actually will, but it 'll make you wish you died. Travel? when caught out in the light, will have you taken to the nearest morgue? You'r joking The sun wont kil you, but i twill reveal you for non human. Also ..the coma thing. Dead to the world from dawn till dark. Survive around a thousand years ,you get over it sort of. Instead of "dying" you simply appear drunk or ill. Also, having sharp pieces of wood stuck in you hurts . A LOT! It wont kill you, but it 'll take time to regrow a heart. Depending on your age..as long as a decade sometimes. If you're not a sociopath or a psycho..having to kill at least one human every night for a few decades.. might make you depressed and suicidal. The true joys of being a vampire. Not that you actually have a choice..
In the book Claudia was turned at the age of five but over sixty so years Louis described her as being intelligent although severely detached from humanity due to you know killing people since the age of five and being raised by a serial killer and a reluctant serial killer. I don't think it's that they emotionally stay the same age more so a detachment from the world around them due to their unnatural nature
`I remember when it was first announced that Cruise would be cast to play Lestat. I and my friends, all serious fans of the novel, were horrified at the choice. Her thought it was doomed and would be crap. We still thought of Tom dancing in his under pants while flipping booze bottles. He was, as was quickly recognized, fantastic. He nailed the character. All of the main roles were handled wonderfully even if Armand looked much different than in the book.
He was perfect for Lestat. He was the only one who read all the books, so i think that he understand the character. But Brad didn't like it, he only read one chapter.
@@BriarMB13 I don't remember. I just remember thinking that he seemed a very bad choice because of the image he had, at the time. He was perfect but that came as a real surprise.
Why does everything have to come out on Mondays? Note that every time Louie's life changes dramatically there's fire. Louie burns down his plantation when he becomes a vampire, he burns down New Orleans when he leaves Lestat, and he burns the down the theater in Paris when he has to leave Claudia and explore the world alone.
When I watched the movie in the theater, I remember a parent leaving abruptly with their children right after a sultry scene. I was amazed that anyone would bring their elementary school-age kids to an R-rated movie without researching the film first, especially one with "vampire" in the title.
When Claudia and Lestat exchange words at the piano (harpsicord?) and she asks him why must he always be so cruel, and you see for a moment a confused shame overcome his expression, that's when I understood that Mr C was not actually the worst choice to play Lestat, despite the fan rage against him, 'cause Tom is short, and _everybody knows_ the _only_ thing important about an actor playing Lestat should be his height and long, blonde hair. What possible good is having a face that can make every emotion Lestat suffers and exhilarates through so undeniably clear to those that have read the Vampire Chronicles and so confusing to the punters that only like da movin' pitchers when it's not Lestat's so often factually stated six full feet above the floor? Who would actually want to see a well-researched and deeply nuanced performance of a now and then mortally conflicted character coming from a dedicated actor with a deferential respect for the figure he's portraying when there are so many _taller_ dudes that would fit better in our spank banks? Lestat described that moment of desperate shame Claudia's question at the piano (harpsicord?) made him feel in the one sequel or the other. Louis never saw it or mentioned it. Tom knew about it and showed it to us. I liked that. It was a small but shiny little thing. A dark moment that was a little golden. It made me say, "Oh!" I think I need some sleep.
Well thought out and written comment, especially for someone suffering from sleep deprivation. I have fibromyalgia and can never seem to get enough sleep. I also love little things that show up in movies and visual media that give such an insight to the character's feelings. It's just so good!!!!!
I remember in an episode of Season 2 of Angel where after Wolfram and Hart bring Darla back as a human she tries to get a newly turned vampire to turn her back into one and when she offers to be his mate if he does he says it's weird and after Darla says "Weird? It's mythic" the other vampire says "You've been reading too much Anne Rice lady. You've got no idea how this stuff works."
of all the scenes to be left out I was annoyed most about the feral vampire since it had my favourite moment of the book. Louis getting thrown through the air towards a rock and instead of trying to dodge it wondering if a vampire can be knocked out and what that would be like, if it would be any different than as a human before smashing into the rock. it just stood out to me as oddly surreal and showing just how skewed a vampire's concerns were.
SAAME. In fact i was hoping that the film would show us at least SOME of Louis and Claudia's wanderings before Paris. Those are some of my favourite parts of the book!
Everwake interesting fact Banderas couldn’t speak a word of English when he made this film,he just spoke the words in the script not knowing what he was saying, Jordan guided him the the scenes by acting out what he should be doing
There was one difference I'm surprised you left out, as it jumped out at me when it happened, and may suggest that it was Neil Jordan who wrote the screenplay - Early on Lestat tells Louis to stop feeding prior to the moment where the victim dies as that moment may be too powerful and dangerous for the vampire to experience. Not only does he NOT say that "dead blood" is dangerous, somewhere in the book it is mentioned that in the most desperate of times, dead bodies may be fed upon for survival. So, that said, when Claudia poisons Lestat in the movie by killing the boys with Laudanum, keeping their blood warm, Lestat freaks out when he realizes she let him drink "Dead Blood", as if it was the dead blood that damaged him, when in the book is was the drugs in their blood that hurt him enough for her to slit his throat. I saw this as a (forgivable) misinterpretation of the book which implies to me that it was not Anne Rice who wrote the screenplay. Or alternatively, I suppose it's possible that the idea that a drug like Laudanum would damage a vampire didn't make sense to Jordan, so he re-wrote it, making up this "dead blood" concept so it sounded more realistic in the world of vampires.
I've always found the poisoning of Lestat to be incredibly inconsistent as well. And also it's surprising to me to imagine that vampires are practically invulnerable to everything except fire but they're succeptable to being poisoned.
@@JesseColton Yeah in the book it was described that the drug she put in the little kids system is the only drug that can weaken a vampire (though not kill him). Then she slit his throat and burned the place down. They just liked the way it sounded to "dead blood?? You let me drink Dead blood??" Even though it didn't jibe with the original story.
wasn't anne rice the one who like,, tried to sue people for writing fan fiction of her work or something? i remember reading something about her not liking fans writing works based on her books
That's her! She also went super Christian, disavowed her earlier books entirely, and is still fuming over anyone who dares write fanfic of it, gay smut or not.
Christ, I haven't had anything published but would still be flattered if I ever found fanfiction of my work (depending, of course, some of that shit can get weird). I feel that it shows how much of a impact and inspiration your work has become to other writers if that want to expand on it that much
To be entirely fair, MANY authors do this, including George R.R. Martin. It's largely to protect copyright. Legally you're supposed to get a license to use the properties, though it's really not enforced very often. Anne Rice just happened to be one of the earlier authors to exercise an author's right to request that sites remove stories featuring copyrighted characters.
@@SarahSyna She left Christianity since she couldn't get on board with any anti-birth control and anti-gay stances. She also no longer disavows her vampire books, and has since continued writing them.
@@authoralysmarchand4737 I can understand that to a point. When you create something, you get protective of it (especially characters). Since they come from you, it's hard to not take what you feel to be a misinterpretation personally.
I used to work for Anne. Michelle was Claudia. I worked for her when Stan passed away. His funeral was beautiful and moving. I know EVERY line of "Interview with the Vampire" I was also on the Board the Anne Rice Fan Club and helped plan the ball each year. I worked the ball each year from 18 to about 27. She wrote "Blackwood Farm" when I was in her employee. I also helped design Lestat Brand Coffee which was the best damn coffee ever. This was my entire life for my young adult life. It was wonderful, terrible and blood sweat and tears. No pun intended. I have so many pictures, my costumes were elaborate and gorgeous. Polygrip was your best friend for keeping your fangs in your mouth for the evening! It was a wild ride. I made some life long friends and got betrayed by close "Friends". Ricean Vampires and the lore within Anne's world was my life, and I do not regret it, even with all the crap that went on behind the scenes.
After reading some of the other books in the Chronicles, I sort of assumed that Interview was completely Louis' view of the world, rather than factual, history sort of way. (Like how when I was a player writing up notes/recaps for game sessions, it invariably featured my character's events, try as I might to be factual.) I liked when they crossed over with the Mayfair series. I never knew about her losing her daughter, so that totally makes sense why this novel was so depressing. I remember watching this for the first time on the way back from a school trip (buses with tv/vcr combos) and we only got as far as when Louis went through the theater and was in the process of killing the other vampires.
Interview is definitely Louis' biased view of things, but I find it weird when people then wholeheartedly accept Lestat's version as the "truth", and don't realize that the same 100% applies to him as well. They're both unreliable narrators with a clear agenda in how they tell their stories.
Loved this movie. Kristen Dunst was so good for someone so young and it just made Claudia's death all the sadder because of how you watched her go through everything like struggling to understand the idea that she'll never physically grow up and the years caring for Louie as much as she did.
One thing I love about this movie is the costumes and how they use them to show that time passes. At the beginning of the movie you can see they’re wearing late 18th century fashion whereas at the end it’s clearly 1880s , I love it 0:
I've been waiting for this forever. Interview was the movie that got me into vampire literature, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. A great episode and I can't wait for the train wreck that was Queen of the Damned.
I'm so ridiculously excited for him to cover Queen of the Damned. Awful adaptation, but my favorite trash movie of all time. It's like, the most bisexual movie of all time. And the soundtrack still slaps. It's such a terrible movie, but a type of terrible I love.
Kirsten Dunst was one of those rare occassions where a character from the book seems to have walked off the page & on to the screen, so perfect is their interpretation.
Funnily enough I always got the impression that their switching Louie's suddenly deceased brother to suddenly deceased child and wife was a way of saying, "Hey general audiences, look! It's not THAT gay", as if moaning and falling into a suicidal rut about your dead brother, another man, was somehow less valid than moaning and falling into a suicidal rut about your dead wife and child. I feel the substitution speaks volumes. When I read the book the language Louie used in regards to his brother seemed...oddly evocative.
Anne wrote the movie, so it's unclear if she made that change or the studio asked for it. I'm guessing it was changed to streamline the story: having him be in mourning for his brother doesn't really hit home to the viewer without understanding the circumstances of his brothers death, which would require significant diversion from the main plot. You have time to do that in a book, not in a two hour movie. So if you have to summarize why he's miserable in one second, "I lost my wife and child" sounds a lot more believable than "I lost my brother." And there's no time to say "I lost my brother because he became a religious fanatic and believed God wanted me to sell my house to send him to divinity school and then he had an epileptic seizure and fell down the front stairs and broke his neck right after I yelled at him and told him he was a moron."
What if the audience is supposed to be Luis, he's our pov character, it's his story, and the movie is inviting you to be queer, like hey let's mourn the stereotyoe of wife and kid heterosexuality, leaving that at the door, ok now we're vampires so like..... whats up lets get weird
OverlyCautiousIndividual it’s possible that the film wanted Claudia and Louis’ relationship to have more thematic weight as he repeatedly fails to protect his own children
Admittedly at that point in history, Tom Cruise was more known for only doing one dimensional heartthrob roles in movies, and this was one of the very first times that he got to stretch out his more dramatic skills for a movie.
From what I recall, Rice envisioned Lestat as Rutger Hauer. By the time the movie was made, Hauer was obviously too old. (Though Hauer did get to play a vampire two years earlier, playing Lothos in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
I thought it was horribly cast, but Cruise & Pitt happen to be two excellent actors, so they did a great job. *Kirsten Dunst was absolutely tremendous, though. That was perfect.
He's kind of perfect for the role for who he is. Coincidentally this is the only role I've ever liked Brad Pitt in. They got amazing performances out of everyone in this film.
I have always liked that in latter books Lestat kind of made fun of Louis for this mistake. Louis thought that Lestat was a commoner not only because Lestat's family lost money, but also because as an American bourgeois Louis didn't actually had any idea how a lot of aristocracy behaved or thought.
Not just a Lord who lost everything, but not the elder son, if I'm remembering completely. Historically, the younger sons of nobility kind of HAD to marry up because they couldn't expect a huge inheritance or lands as the eldest would. So, even if his family had remained as loaded as they had been, Lestat would've had to find SOME way to finance himself. Which is basically what he does.
He was the youngest son of a backwoods, country lord who had to learn to hunt to keep his family fed and was tutored just long enough to learn to read and write before he ran off to the city with his "friend, " where they lived with one bed and just enough money to have a fire when it was really cold. Anyone else would have made the same mistake.
I remember seeing this in the cinema with two friends - there was an advert before the film that claimed three people in the cinema like the taste of blood. Someone in the audience in front of our trio looked at us - we waved and smiled.
I was a young teen into rap and hanging out on the block with my boys. Then I hooked up with a hardcore goth girl and she turned me on to this book. I was addicted to the series and read every book on a binge. Great books.
For me, the moment when Lestat is in the car at the end of the film, having just attacked Daniel (the boy/interviewer) and you see him rearrange the lace cuffs of his shirt, was the moment that encapsulated Cruise's understanding of the character. Never have I been so overjoyed by such a simple act. I hate Cruise, but damn he played Lestat so well!
Dom: being a vampire made Louie less racist. Me: YAY 🤗 Dom: but he doesn’t have respect for any human life... Me: 😅... well at least he hates everyone equally?
When I tell you I nearly fell out of my seat laughing at the fact you called Armand a Senpai....I mean I began cackling till the other occupants of my home thought I'd lost my mind.
When I first heard that Tom Cruise was going to play Lastat...I was horrified. But I have to admit, once the movie was released and I saw it...I was impressed with his performance.
I love Antonio bandaeras in the film, but The book Armand is my absolute favourite character. Antonio’s Armand was more like the vampire Santiago. There’s a Botticelli painting in the National Gallery (London) it’s the Adoration of the Magi and there is a red haired boy looking over his shoulder at the viewer and I’ve always thought that’s how Armand looks.
Didn't the stories cross over really ifrom Queen of the Damned with the introduction of Jesse Reeves and David Talbot and their Talamasca order which feature heavily in the Mayfair story?
I really do love how Rice came to change her mind about Cruise, the moment she saw him in action, not only saying her words, but MEANING them, that was a great 'I raise my goblet of blood to you, sir. I was wrong.'
They also left out that Lestat's Maker lept into a fire without handing any information about Vampires to him, which the custom was to do so. That's why they broke an unspoken law of vampires about turning children...
The catacombs were the vampires home originally on the land the theater stands upon. In the “vampire lestat” it’s significance is explained when Lestat explains how he came to be a vampire. Lestat was a strong and willful young lord who single handedly took out a pack of wolves plaguing his village. Lestats deed and nature attracted the attention of a vampire named Magnus (not Marius). Magnus was in a feud with the vampires living in the catacombs because they disagreed about how to live. (Magnus believing they should live in the world. The catacomb coven led by Armand believing they should live in the catacombs with the dead and away from society.) Magnus felt exhausted with the war with the catacombs coven so as a final middle finger to Armand he turned Lestat, explained what he turned him into, then promptly burns himself to death. Lestat is approached by Armand and pressured to join the catacombs coven but he not only refuses but uses his vast holdings to purchase the catacombs and the land they are under. He says he will leave the catacombs ant the coven alone if they leave him alone, but if they don’t he’ll raise the catacombs to the ground and build a theater. (Which ironically inspires Armand to build the theater and leave lestat alone) later lestat meets Marius who mentors him.
Actually the Theater of the Vampires is down the road from the Les Innocents catacomb, it was Renaud's theater which Lestat purchased and then closed. After he broke up the Les Innocents coven, Armand tried to murder them all, and the survivors hid inside Renaud's theater for shelter. Nicholas came up with the idea to then it into a vampire spectacle and to write plays, and then Lestat persuaded Armand to join them when he gave Armand his tower. You're definitely remembering part of that wrong, when Lestat finds Armand in his town house he tells Armand that Les Innocents is going to be destroyed and Armand is shocked, but he never threatened to destroy the catacombs and the Theater of the Vampires is not built on top of it.
You have no idea how many times I've wanted to request this as a 'lost in adaptation'! I saw the movie when it first came out in theaters, then immediately dove into the book series ('The Vampire Lestat' is still one of my all-time favorite novels). This is an excellent, thorough review, and I couldn't agree more with every point you made. I do not envy the job you have ahead of you with 'Queen of the Damned'. But maybe you'll have some fun ripping that one apart!
Duraffinity Vampire Lestat & Queen of the Damned are my two favorite books of the series. I just absolutely LOVED how Vampire Lestat flipped the whole story on its head, while also having Lestat basically living it up and trying to force the rest of Vampire Society to do the same. I also love how it delved into Vampire lore and teased their origins... which Queen of the Damned, in turn, performed a deep dive into and acted as a climax for. In that way they really do feel like two halves of one story/book.
@@JaiProdz Natalie Wynn (Contrapoints) and Ollie Thorn (PhilosophyTube) are RUclipsrs who make great content about philosophy and politics and super accessable ways. Both have made videos recently where they've dressed up as vampires, "Opulence" where Natalie discusses what the vampire aesthetic mean to Victorians, and "The Problem With the Video Game Industry" where Ollie makes the old connection between landlords and vampires.
Always thought it was good point to keep in mind that Lestat was inspired by her husband and could see how Louis and Lestat relationship is first portrayed as toxic and then Lestats redemption arc in the sequels.
would LOVE to see Dom's thoughts on the new show. i loved it a lot and even with my knowledge of the source material coming from dom's videos, i can tell that they changed A Lot. i'd love to know how many of the changes were still inspired by the book.
In my mind, "Queen of the Damned" occupies the same place in film history as "Highlander II." We all hated it, but have faith that someday there will be future films that ignore its existence.
@@Revelwoodie I hope so. I personally would like to see them done in chronological order - TVL-IwaV-QotD. The later books would be good too, but The Body Thief might turn some people off.
I clicked so fast when I saw this cause both book and movie are on my forever favorites list! I love them a lot and the characters still look like they do in the movie (except for Armand obviously... and while I completely understand the aging up, I still wish they'd have stayed loyal to the overall look). ... looking forward to the cringe of Queen if the Damned, a book I loved and a movie that let me despair in all the worst ways.
"what we do in the shadows" & the series version of it made me rewatch this since childhood. It's as fascinating & compelling for me now as it was when I was a kid & talk about the nostalgia lol
Goth Dom playing piano looks eerily similar to a guy I knew in high school. That's not a slam, because that guy went on to run a shelter for abused women seeking to leave their situations and have a safe place to stay, it's just eerie in that it's like realizing an alternate universe version of the Dom exists in our universe simultaneously. I'm glad there's two Doms in the world. Confused on how it happened, but glad.
Personally, I find it so silly and cheesy, it takes all my willpower not to chuck my phone in a painful blend of amusement and cringe. I love Dom, but platonically. And his vampire getup is sheer Cheez-It cheese, for me...kudos to him having fun with hamming things up wherever possible, though.
I remember hearing at the time that Rice was strongly apposed to Tom Cruise playing Lestat (aka the Brat Prince) but that when she saw the footage most of the way through the production she apologized as she felt he really had done some a good job.
I sort of disagree with an assessment that they are sexually ace. They are humanly sexually ace, but they are vampiricaly pansexual. For them, the act of biting and exchanging blood have replaced the traditional intercourse. They still have sex, just not a human type of sex.
@@badquestion4785 I agree with this. Exchanging blood is extremely sexualized in the books, especially when Lestat feeds from the Queen (Akanksha? I forget her name). I remember during some angsty part Lestat is having some kind of conundrum and talks about the closest he could feel to a human female was feeding from period blood (I know, it's gross) since humans were basically cattle to them.
@@LitaElera they misheard. Sexually "a's". As in "asexual". Romanticaly "bi", meaning bisexual. Anne rice vamipres don't feel the urge to have sex anymore but they still yearn for attachments that are kinda romantic. So they partner up regardless of age or sex.
So this reminds me about the times you’ve brought up your vampire essay how some lore in new movies are sometimes kept while others are dropped. One fascinating tidbit I wanted to share on that is the interesting phenomenon when one piece of lore isn’t kept, but it’s effects are. Vampires have no reflection. Vampires couldn’t see themselves in mirrors because they were unholy and mirrors back in the day usually consisted of silver. In modern times, vampires rarely has a silver weakness yet still they can’t see their reflection. Just a fun fact I wanted to share.
Is there a source for that? I always heard it was because superstition stated that mirrors show your soul, and since vampires don't have souls they don't have reflections.
Kaye Elle That doesn’t really make sense cause then no inanimate object would be visible. Also first time I heard it was on a video by RUclips KrimsonRogue (who reviews movies based on books) bringing it up in his twilight review. Where he mentions this, made me curious so looked it up. Though when looking it up, I find a lot of different sources and no definitive answers. Though personally silver makes most sense. One of the traditional vampire weaknesses are silver and back then, mirrors were made using silver.
I thought it was supposed to be because, according to myth, mirrors reflect your soul and vampires don't have souls. I also recall, in the really old vampire lore, they don't cast shadows either.
I hope you'll revisit Interview with The Vampire when the AMC series adaptation comes out in October! I heard they make some pretty significant changes to the plot.
I love that movie; not for being a great adaptation from the book, but because it's sexy campy B movie magic with a great soundtrack. And the guy playing Lestat looked like he was having a blast lol
@@melanietoth1376 Don't watch it. It's horrible. I mean the actor playing Lestat is fine in the role, but the butchered it (they combined The Vampire Lestat with Queen of the Damned, but just butchered the whole thing and left a ton out).
"... speaking of dark, unholy curses that make you question the nature of good, evil, and the value of life itself, do remember that RUclips is a very well crafted algorithmic hellscape that likes to feed on those dependent upon it ... " - No truer words have ever been spoken.
As someone who saw the first midnight showing in November ‘94, watched in theatres minimum 25x, read ALL the books and loved the screen adaptation of Queen of the Damned (Lestat was so cheesy in the 80’s); your interpretation is spot on and hilarious. Anyone who has loved the movie needs to read the first 4 books at least twice. Much, much fun in all of it 😆♾🥰
Oh my gods! I loved that movie so much! I did my bachelor's degree on Vampires in Literature with emphasis on Anne Rice's existential bunch. Thanks for making this video. Made me smile today
As a kid I was so hyped to see this movie for being horror, cause I remember hearing about people leaving the theater in disgusted over the rat eating scenes. And then not so horror but well as a pre-teen, 1994 produced 2 great movies towards a love of gothic romance, with this and The Crow. Though might have been something to hold off till Halloweenish time. The Crow might also be one should consider. And there is my feed the algorithm post since I ain't got the funds for patreon.
This book and movie hold a very special place in my heart. My dad had a good chunk of the Vampire Chronicles. He let me start reading when I was 11 or 12 and I've been hooked on vampires ever since.
This is one of those movies I watched as a child and it was just the scariest and most tragic thing ever. I should probably watch it again, now that Im older than 11
I listened to the audio book version of the book years ago (when it was on cassette...) and wanted to outlaw the word "preternatural" from the English language about an hour in.
Wow, I just realized that Louis went to see Tequila Sunrise - a movie about a complex relationship between three people -two men who love each other but also kind of hate each other since they're on opposite sides.
Vampire turn-ons:
Sex: meh
Wonderfully woven carpet with symmetric pattern: hell yes
Uuuh
Oh, that was very good.
It really tied the room together.
The book was so fucking gay! I love it
I identify so much XD
I once accidentally told somebody that Tom Hanks played Lestat in this movie, and it haunts me to this day.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’m rolling 🤣🤣🤣
Wow I can feel the 2nd hand embarrassment
Honestly, I think I'd prefer that to Cruise, whose presence in any movie renders it nearly impossible for me to enjoy.
Thanks a lot, now I can't get it off my head!
I just loved the end of the movie where Lestat basically goes "Oh Louie, you're still going on like this? Count yourself lucky you only had to listen to him for a couple of hours, I had to put up with him for decades"
Yes! It clearly hinted at the fact that Louis' account is extremely subjective and depressing, and that there are other ways to live the vampire life. It was also the movie making fun of its own drama and gravitas and ends on a fun, exciting note. "I'm going to give you the choice I've never had." And he changes the depressing tape to the radio.
That is definitely one of my favorite lines in the whole movie. ...Aaaaaaaand I what I myself said when I finished the book. >.
weldonwin what a brilliant ending to the film. And Guns N' Roses sympathy for the devil knocked it out of the park!
@@Hugatree1 *Rolling Stones. :)
Edit: I stand corrected! Never knew that there was a cover. :O
@@Hugatree1 I just checked, Guns and Roses did cover sympathy for the devil
Fun Fact: Anne Rice held strong criticism for Tom Cruise as Lestat and after hearing about such criticism, Tom Cruise put 110% into the job in order to prove Rice's criticism wrong. The result was one of Tom Cruise's best performances as well as the undisputed Queen of Vampires: Anne Rice, having to eat her own words. That is what you call perseverance
Here's also a bit of trivia, Rice decided to wait and see how Cruise would turn out upon hearing that Stan Winston was doing the makeup effects. Besides being the man behind the live action effects for Terminator, Jurassic Park, Predator, Aliens, etc..., Winston had directed the tragic, southern gothic horror film Pumpkinhead, which was one of Rice's favorite movies. Considering the death of her daughter and the main character being driven to raise the demon Pumpkinhead by the grief of losing his son, it makes total since why she'd be a fan.
She also had her doubts about Aaliyah playing Akasha
I still dont love the casting I'd the movie. Yeah Tom and Brad did great but as a fan of the books I don't like the inconsistency of how Louis, Lestat and Armand look nothing like they're supposed to.
I'm so tired of hearing how great Tom Cruise was. Does anyone know that Johnny Depp turned down this role? Too bad!
Yes it seems to be the only film that he successfully acted, rather than just playing himself in different situations.
In the books Lestat does often refer to Louis as his lover. Sharing blood is an intimate and orgasmic thing for them.
#louistat
Their relationship does improve over time & they tend to be together more often
@@LucyLioness100 yes he's with him in all the latest.
Yes but there's many evangelist that think Ann rice used to write satanistic books. So they use that theory to disregard the lgbtq as sinners. Even though there aren't any sexual relations between the men or women. Trust me I know this cuz of my step mother being that evangelist.
Kinda gay not gonna lie
Later books: Louis is in the background. Moping. Because of course he is. He's Louis. He sometimes just shows up to wear sweaters. And mope.
Its pretty disappointing. Anne really turned on him.
He's always been pretty bland, but he can sure wear a sweater!
yeah, it's really sad she decided to "vanish" the character in such a painful way. I personally think she did the same with the series. She failed in the realization that we the readers felt more appeal for the characters than the crazy situations they are put in by the author.
@Sergio Díaz Nila Agreed! It was a kick in the gut when she did Lestat's pov of Interview and went with that as what "really happened". Make me have a relationship with Louis then tell me....yea, that's not what happened.
@@TaraR669 If you want to get really meta, you could say that Louis represents Anne's deep depression over the death of her daughter, where Lestat represents her desire to keep living to the fullest. After pulling her life together, she couldn't keep writing from the POV of Louis dark head space.
This was my favorite movie as a pre-teen. I read all the books after I saw this movie, resulting in my first ever parent teacher conference. My 5th grade teacher took issue with me reading an "inappropriate book" during free reading time and took it away. My mother told her if she ever took a book from her daughter again she'd be looking for a new job. Bless my mum.
I wish my mom would do that I get my books taken away all the time
@@cuttlefishonfire7502 You deserve a mom like that.
@@roseatkins7565 Thanks
Love how your Mum stood up for you, still troubled how a teacher who cared was threatened to lose their job over it 😕
Same! Well not that anyone thought it was inappropriate, but my sister brought the movie home when I was ten or so. I watched it for years before I realized there was a book to go with it. Good on your mom for standing up!
"The scythe was a prop from the theater, he wasn't just being really dramatic."
Oh in the book it was not a prop from the theater and he was REALLY just being that dramatic.
From the theater, huh? Good thing it wasn't rubber. That would have been awkward.
It *was* a prop from the theater in the book. Props don't have to be fake, they just have to be used in the production, and I don't think that reaction was overly dramatic, considering the reason he had for his actions.
@@AcademyNS I was about to mention the same thing. Why the hell would vampires use a real one as a prop? I'm assuming they are no more capable of surviving decapitation than anyone else. :)
@@LibraGamesUnlimited Just fond of sharp objects? (I have a whole bunch of theatre headcanons for the Theatre des Vampires era.)
@@AcademyNS I don't know, seems dangerous but maybe they like to live (or unlive) dangerously. :)
I like how even when Louis tells the reporter how horrible being a vampire is the reporter is still "Nah. Don't care. I want to be a vampire anyway."
I dont blame him tbh
Aging up Armand to avoid the Call me by your name "Homosexuals are bad and lust for underage" problem actually is one of the bloody best and most thoughtful book to movie adaptation decisions I probably have ever heard. Or maybe they just wanted Antonio Banderas for the role. Either way: good decision.
I have to agree.
While I have always cited this change as one of the FEW things that bothered me about the film, hearing this explanation given makes the whole thing make much more sense for me. I hadn't considered the May/ December angle before.
My grandma's in this movie! She was living in New Orleans at the time, so she made it on as an extra.
Awesome
Cool
Now that's is one cool Granny
😐
Wooo go grandma!!!
Knowing about Anne Rice's daughter made me see Claudia's character very differently...
There was a good documentary back in the 90's (cannot find it for the life of me now) which was made when Anne's husband Stan was still alive and when their son was still a teen and had not yet come out. It went into detail about the drunk hole both parents fell into after their daughter's death (out of which "Interview" was born) and showed Anne's large, very creepy collection of porcelain dolls (many the spitting image of daughter Michele AND Claudia...). I'd love to see this doc again.
Michelle was a gorgeous child! She was moved from CA to the Rice family tomb in New Orleans. Stan and Michelle are interred together.
@@JadedTheatre That's a beautiful story. They suffered young, but both Anne and Stan, through their art, found some meaning out of all the pain. Have you read "Some Lamb"? Stan was a particular, idiosyncratic artist, but Anne was art and money. I think her success changed their whole lives, yet again. Their son tragically found out about his sister's existence while at school. It must have been such a difficult subject to talk about.
edit: Stan at one point after Michele's death talked about Anne and he becoming "Scotty and Zelda", during their mourning . This reference always resonated with me - so heartbreaking to lose a child, but one young and beautiful whom you had got to know and then had to watch deteriorate like that? Theirs was a story of great love, both for their children and each other.
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 Stan was a very interesting, creative, funny man. I was very sad when he passed away. I have a 2 and a half year old daughter and cannot imagine watching her go through what Michelle went through. I could never tell the Rice's this but in a beautifully tragic way, Michelle is now immortal. Hundreds of years from now, she will still be living through the page as Claudia.
@@JadedTheatre That's a beautiful post. Yes, she will.
I have a non-binary, female-assigned-at-birth child (now adult) and a 9-year-old daughter. I have always felt some kinship with the Rices as parents. As you know, there is nothing harder to go through than when your child is ill - Anne made art out of suffering and in a way, because of her art we are all the richer for Michele's existence.
X
Fun fact: in Anne's first draft of the book, Louis and Claudia found the Theater of the Vampires and lived happily ever after. It was after an editor suggested she expand a bit more on it that it ended up with its bittersweet ending.
I think was the better choice, specially for Claudia. It's cleary that Claudia was the most broken person between Louis and Lestat. I can't believe she would "live happy ever after"in any kind of scenario.
@@NataliaNeeSama Yeah the thing with Claudia is that no matter how the situation changes, she would always be trapped in a child's body and always be unable to fend for herself. Later on in the Vampire Armand there's an inserted element that between her kidnapping and bring burned in the light well, Armand attempted to place her head onto the body of a grown vampire woman in an attempt to make the two fuse but the procedure didn't work and so he left her head with the rest of her body to be destroyed by the sun. I kind of pretend that didn't happen since Anne Rice just retconned it in 😂
@@NataliaNeeSama Claudia does sporadically appear throughout the rest of the series as a silent ghost haunting Lestat, which I think is pretty cool
I absolutely believe that - since, if Rice was writing to work through her turmoil of losing her daughter, I can see the appeal of wanting to be able to save her.
@@phastinemoon Anne has said too that the decision to create Claudia was not a conscious response to her daughters death. It was only later that she realized she was working through that trauma.
The whole issue of vampires being incredibly gorgeous creatures glowing with sex appeal was dealt with simply by casting the biggest, most attractive movie stars of the moment. Cruise, Pitt, and Banderas were amazingly hot at that time, scoring hit after hit, so they made the perfect metaphor for Rice's conception of irresistible blood fiends whose lives are fueled by the adulation of others. :)
Agreed
"At that time"
...I'm not saying the only movies I've seen more than once this year were Maverick and Bullet Train but
@@NeoConker626 Well, maybe you should get out more.
@@Serai3 I think you misunderstood my meaning. I was implying that the two gentlemen you mentioned are still A) handsome and B) killing it in theaters. And staring that both of their big films this year are films I went to see more than once. Saw Maverick three times and Bullet Train twice - I may be "get out" too much. Currently thinking about heading out with my kiddo to see John Hamm's new Fletch movie lol. Not relevant to this topic, except for your concern that I don't get out :p
I know they have visibly aged and couldn't reprise their Interview roles. I wasn't attacking your point, just giving respect to the actors :)
@@NeoConker626 I got your meaning. I think Serai3 was just commenting to be obnoxious, which is unfortunately common here on RUclips. It's bad enough that a lot of female creators and LGBTQ+ creators have to disable comments on many of their videos, and ANY creators that make videos about controversial topics has their comments become a battleground.
*"Oh Louis, Louis. Still whining Louis?"*
“I’m going to give you the choice... I never had...”
**Sympathy For The Devil**
Well many of Brad Pitt’s lines were whiny IMO. Pitt got jealous of Cruise being the technical lead because apparently Brad wanted to be Lestat, but Tom was already cast for the role
*I assume I need no introduction?*
That's got to be the best line in the movie. "Heard enough? I've had to listen to that for _centuries."_ :D:D:D
I love lestat in that moment. Queen of the Damned made me recoil in horror.
I love in the later books someone gives Lestat a copy of this book and he's like "WHAT IS THIS HORSESHIT?! THAT DIDNT HAPPEN! I NEVER SAID THAT! THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!"
"I did not hit her! I did not! Oh, hi Mark"
I know that the outside reason for that is that there was a long time and a huge personal change for Anne in between those books, but my headcanon reason for that is one bourne out by my own life: people can be terribly abusive, and not less so if they don't see themselves that way, but actually more so. Lestat was blindsided by his partner's pain even though it really should have been obvious that Lestat's insecure manipulations were hurting Louis a lot. It is totally possible to be that oblivious to your own cruelty, especially for someone 'like Lestat': egotistical, self-pitying, careless with his words, just not reaching his perspective all the way over to how his partner might be feeling because it's too hard.
@@greenhowie Maybe Johnny is vampire?
@@theprimo100 vumpire hahaha
Also Lestat read most of it standing shock-still under a street lamp then tore it to shreds 😂
Tom has said in interviews that Lestat was like a brother, he loved playing him and he’s one of his favorite roles and would gladly play him again.
It's one of his best roles, to be sure.
But he refused to be in 'the Queen on the damned ' because it was a terrible script and turned out to be a terrible movie
@@richardmoores yep, he can smell a bad script miles away.
@@seraby7151 Your theory goes out the window with The Mummy. lol. He has had a pretty good track record though.
@@babababuck From what I heard a LOT of the issues were his fault. I seem to recall he made them re-write what was originally a horror movie as an action movie so he could do stunts and there were some other re-writes he insisted on or something.
One of my favorite parts of the movie was Lestat turning the child. It's just as you said: I know how to fix our relationship we'll have a baby. Which only works temporarily. Trust me, I KNOW.
This comment is fucked up on so many levels.
M That’s a huge assumption , maybe she is the child of an unhappy couple who thought having a baby would make it better.
I would definitely consider Louis and lestat lovers in the book series. Lestat admits to falling in love with Louis and often confesses his deep and complex love for him- “to love someone like this is to burn”. Although Louis is often depicted as hating lestat, in the later books he truly comes to love him- “I love you with my whole soul, and I will always love you”, he confided to me. “You are my life. I have hated you for that and love you now so much that you’ve been my instructor in loving. And believe me when I say you will survive because you always have and you always wil”. They also share many romantic kisses :)
Their homosexuals your honor
Lovers, certainly.
But obviously not in the carnal sense.. as Rice's vampires don't play that.
And this is not only not "gay", it's quite common among some of us mortals as well.
I LOVE my closest girl friends. I absolutely do. I see so much in them that is beautiful, inspiring and makes me want only good things for them. That IS love.... most assuredly.
But I don't want to sleep with them.
Rice's vampires--above all-have been shown to have THE most acute sense of appreciation for beauty. They could easily fall in love with the quality of the moonlight spilling down the side of a night orchid, for example. They could be completely consumed by the notes emanating from a well played violin. They could easily become enthralled with the sound of a human's voice, or with the way that the mortal thought or felt things.
These are all examples of LOVE.
And none of them are "gay".
I actually think it's an all-too-common human weakness to conflate love with sexuality. the two are separate concepts.... and while they certainly CAN overlap in certain circumstances, they are not inextricably linked.
@@kristenjones3431 ur gay
@kristenjones3431 u can be gay and asexual
@@kristenjones3431nah dawg you just love blind, they legit admit sharing blood is an intimate thing for them… also did you not see the “loving kisses” part of the comment you replied to? I think you’re homophobic dawg
I LMAO in the cinema when Lestat said "louis, louis always whining".Toms delivery was perfect
He says that whole speech with such sass as Lestat would do. Especially when he’s so fed up listening to Louis’ “whining”
Cruise was amazing in this.
To paraphrase Lindsay Ellis in regards to Rice’s hatred of fics: “How dare you make the gay vampires gay!”
Yeah, i have exactly zero evidence for it, but i do recall a friend pointing out that when her son came out, she accepted him, but suddenly her characters got a lot more heterosexual. Sort of an interesting flex, if it's true.
@@stitchedwithcolor eh, I don't know, most of the vampires in Prince Lestat read super gay to me, and that was her return to the VC.
I think the big picture is being missed here- as best as I can remember from interviews with Anne Rice over the decades (while the Vampire Novels were being published, and again the second time around when the movies were being made)- it was not about them being gay or not. It was more that their relationships were much more significant, much more deep, much more evolved (their relationships evolved over more than hundreds of years, after all). They were simply past the original simplicity of sexual attraction, be it gay/straight/bi, whatever. I know this might be a hard concept to follow till one has actually reached the age where hormones diminish & relationships develop decades of age & depth, but life really does move waaayyyyy past the simplicity of sexual attraction.
@@charlottepulaski795 And on latest book Lestat calls Loius several times his lover. So it´s not shying away that they are couple and always have been in one way or another.
Yes but it is love in the wider sense, pure spirit love, not lowly base animal sexual love that silly humans seem to have to attribute everything to. How Charlotte describes is its exactly how I took it to be when I first read the book as a teenager.
Claudia is one of the greatest characters ever created in literature. Choosing the great Kirsten Dunst to portray her in the film, was nothing short of an incredible casting triumph!
Kirsten is so perfect & really plays an adult in a child’s body better than many child actors could. I like that they aged Claudia up from the book as it comes across slightly less creepy
She did a phenomenal job! She portrayed an adult in a child’s body so convincingly it was downright eerie, even down to the body language. There’s just one scene in the entire film where she moves like a kid (right after she cuts her hair) and it’s only for a few seconds. That puts her performance well above Tom Cruise’s IMO, since he was apparently such a baby about the contact lenses they had to wear that he took them out at every opportunity. His performance is great, but it loses something without the distinctive “vampire” eyes. Once you realize _why_ he’s less convincing in some scenes than others, you can’t unsee it. I wish they could have found a way to fix it in post, because it really breaks immersion.
Still a great movie, though.
I wish that Claudia could come back.
yes so true.
I do wonder if, were it adapted today, if you could do 5-year-old Claudia as an entirely CGI character? Maybe voiced by several actresses of increasing age as she mentally matures?
Christian Slater was a last minute casting choice due to younger River Phoenix's untimely death happening a couple weeks before filming began. Just thought it was noteworthy since you mentioned the difference between the boy in the book and Slater's take in the film.
The great thing in that story is Slater donated his earnings from the film to Phoenix's favorite charities. Good on him.
That makes a lot of sense. River's appearance was more in line with The Boy's (Daniel Molloy) physical appearance in the books.
Oh man... 😓 As much as I like Christian Slater, I never knew River was going to play the part... I'm sorry he fell into the addition pit he did... 😟
Yeah, River would have played him like the guy in the book. Slater said himself that he changed the tone of the character out of respect for River. He didn't want to be seen as imitating him or taking the role away from him.
I just watched the movie and wondered why they had "in memory of River Phoenix" at the end of it. Makes more sense now.
Love the idea that vampires stay emotionally at the same age they were when they were turned. Louis isn't Like That because he's a vampires, he's Like That because he's 24.
Disagree 100%. He is like that because of the unfortunate experiences he faced, being a vampire made him sympathetic due to the immortality
Being a vampire has certain limitations, But it can also be a ton of fun. Your extra strengths and abilities can make you successful in almost every endeavor you participate in life and before you know it the money and acquaintances will come streaming in. You can build wealth and gain prestige and notoriety and attempt things you may never have even considered as a human. you will have more time to do alot, Beef up your education and learn all you ever wanted. Travel the world to see things most people only ever see on TV. This is going to be especially fun if you turn into a vampire. Clan vampires will show you the wonders of the world. Learn new languages, Travel, Go skydiving or scuba dive with sharks, You no longer need to scared of nature or wildlife you will become the worlds strongest predator. Have fun with it and your life as a vampire can be more fulfilling than you ever dreamed of. Experience these and get excited. There’s a big world out there with lots to see and do and as a vampire once you have received the vampire Blood and Ring. Powers, Skills, Abilities, Mights you shall poses. The only way to have all these come through is contacting the hindu lord on the below e-mail: Vampirelordtransformerchanging@gmail.com +16202229418. I am grateful to be among the clans of vampires.
@@lucasriches8444 and reported for spam.
@@lucasriches8444
You left out .. being a slave to the monster that turned you, for a century or so... having to hide your kils, and how incredibly bad everything smells. Except for blood. The one delight you have. Except ... for a few centuries you 're a blood sucking animal.
Did i mention the part where you're totally at the mercy of the fiend that turns you, basically until you can kill it?
No freedom for you. Nononono! You do as you're told, go where you're told, feed only when you're told.
It sucks. sometimes literally. if draining a human is too risky and your sire gets thirsty... you're it.
It wont kill you, very few things actually will, but it 'll make you wish you died.
Travel? when caught out in the light, will have you taken to the nearest morgue? You'r joking
The sun wont kil you, but i twill reveal you for non human. Also ..the coma thing. Dead to the world from dawn till dark.
Survive around a thousand years ,you get over it sort of. Instead of "dying" you simply appear drunk or ill.
Also, having sharp pieces of wood stuck in you hurts . A LOT! It wont kill you, but it 'll take time to regrow a heart. Depending on your age..as long as a decade sometimes.
If you're not a sociopath or a psycho..having to kill at least one human every night for a few decades.. might make you depressed and suicidal.
The true joys of being a vampire. Not that you actually have a choice..
In the book Claudia was turned at the age of five but over sixty so years Louis described her as being intelligent although severely detached from humanity due to you know killing people since the age of five and being raised by a serial killer and a reluctant serial killer.
I don't think it's that they emotionally stay the same age more so a detachment from the world around them due to their unnatural nature
`I remember when it was first announced that Cruise would be cast to play Lestat. I and my friends, all serious fans of the novel, were horrified at the choice. Her thought it was doomed and would be crap. We still thought of Tom dancing in his under pants while flipping booze bottles.
He was, as was quickly recognized, fantastic. He nailed the character. All of the main roles were handled wonderfully even if Armand looked much different than in the book.
He was perfect for Lestat. He was the only one who read all the books, so i think that he understand the character. But Brad didn't like it, he only read one chapter.
Who had you guys envisioned being cast, if you remember?
@@BriarMB13 I don't remember. I just remember thinking that he seemed a very bad choice because of the image he had, at the time.
He was perfect but that came as a real surprise.
@@macnutz4206 Darn! Regardless, still neat to know this took everyone off guard initially as it still does today😂
@@BriarMB13 I do not care for Tom Cruise the person but he is a damned good actor with a lot of range.
Why does everything have to come out on Mondays?
Note that every time Louie's life changes dramatically there's fire. Louie burns down his plantation when he becomes a vampire, he burns down New Orleans when he leaves Lestat, and he burns the down the theater in Paris when he has to leave Claudia and explore the world alone.
In other words, Louis' automatic solution to absolutely everything is BURN, BABY, BURN!!!
Fires cleanses, it destroys the sin. In Louis' case he definitely needed more whale oil because it didn't burn long enough to kill it proper.
🤔🤔🤔
So he's a pyromaniac...
When I watched the movie in the theater, I remember a parent leaving abruptly with their children right after a sultry scene. I was amazed that anyone would bring their elementary school-age kids to an R-rated movie without researching the film first, especially one with "vampire" in the title.
wait what why would you bring your kid to a film like this
@@klisterklister2367 Probably took it literally, as it would only be an interview and nothing more lol
Astrin Ymris you gotta wonder what in Gods name are some of these brain dead parents thinking?
I bet they let their kid sit through a bunch of slasher flicks though.
These are the types of people that bring their seven year olds to sausage party and Deadpool
Is it just me or does Dom with fangs look less Vampire and more The Cat from Red Dwarf?
@Cubert Pigg Hope he uses them when someone requests the oddity that is both 3rd Red Dwarf books.
Cat's brit cousin
A man of taste I see
I think it’s the cravat as much as the fangs
Cat is British?
When Claudia and Lestat exchange words at the piano (harpsicord?) and she asks him why must he always be so cruel, and you see for a moment a confused shame overcome his expression, that's when I understood that Mr C was not actually the worst choice to play Lestat, despite the fan rage against him, 'cause Tom is short, and _everybody knows_ the _only_ thing important about an actor playing Lestat should be his height and long, blonde hair. What possible good is having a face that can make every emotion Lestat suffers and exhilarates through so undeniably clear to those that have read the Vampire Chronicles and so confusing to the punters that only like da movin' pitchers when it's not Lestat's so often factually stated six full feet above the floor? Who would actually want to see a well-researched and deeply nuanced performance of a now and then mortally conflicted character coming from a dedicated actor with a deferential respect for the figure he's portraying when there are so many _taller_ dudes that would fit better in our spank banks?
Lestat described that moment of desperate shame Claudia's question at the piano (harpsicord?) made him feel in the one sequel or the other. Louis never saw it or mentioned it. Tom knew about it and showed it to us. I liked that. It was a small but shiny little thing. A dark moment that was a little golden. It made me say, "Oh!"
I think I need some sleep.
This is a great comment 👍 👏
Well thought out and written comment, especially for someone suffering from sleep deprivation. I have fibromyalgia and can never seem to get enough sleep. I also love little things that show up in movies and visual media that give such an insight to the character's feelings. It's just so good!!!!!
"Don't tell me people still fall for that whole Anne Rice routine? What a world!"-Spike "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
I remember in an episode of Season 2 of Angel where after Wolfram and Hart bring Darla back as a human she tries to get a newly turned vampire to turn her back into one and when she offers to be his mate if he does he says it's weird and after Darla says "Weird? It's mythic" the other vampire says "You've been reading too much Anne Rice lady. You've got no idea how this stuff works."
Well, clearly that statue is a weeping angel.
Don't blink!
Don’t turn your, Don’t look away, and Don’t Blink!
Good luck.
_Don'tblinkdon'tblinkdon'tblink_
I love you people, you all made my day
of all the scenes to be left out I was annoyed most about the feral vampire since it had my favourite moment of the book. Louis getting thrown through the air towards a rock and instead of trying to dodge it wondering if a vampire can be knocked out and what that would be like, if it would be any different than as a human before smashing into the rock.
it just stood out to me as oddly surreal and showing just how skewed a vampire's concerns were.
SAAME.
In fact i was hoping that the film would show us at least SOME of Louis and Claudia's wanderings before Paris. Those are some of my favourite parts of the book!
Antonio Banderas was drop-dead gorgeous in this movie.
He was! Even if Armand was supposed to be much younger and had auburn hair.
yes
Everwake interesting fact Banderas couldn’t speak a word of English when he made this film,he just spoke the words in the script not knowing what he was saying, Jordan guided him the the scenes by acting out what he should be doing
And in Desperado. My goodness. *fans self*
@@CashelOConnolly It did show, I still have a hard time understanding what he says but I don't mind, he portrayed a regal old world vampire well.
There was one difference I'm surprised you left out, as it jumped out at me when it happened, and may suggest that it was Neil Jordan who wrote the screenplay - Early on Lestat tells Louis to stop feeding prior to the moment where the victim dies as that moment may be too powerful and dangerous for the vampire to experience. Not only does he NOT say that "dead blood" is dangerous, somewhere in the book it is mentioned that in the most desperate of times, dead bodies may be fed upon for survival. So, that said, when Claudia poisons Lestat in the movie by killing the boys with Laudanum, keeping their blood warm, Lestat freaks out when he realizes she let him drink "Dead Blood", as if it was the dead blood that damaged him, when in the book is was the drugs in their blood that hurt him enough for her to slit his throat. I saw this as a (forgivable) misinterpretation of the book which implies to me that it was not Anne Rice who wrote the screenplay. Or alternatively, I suppose it's possible that the idea that a drug like Laudanum would damage a vampire didn't make sense to Jordan, so he re-wrote it, making up this "dead blood" concept so it sounded more realistic in the world of vampires.
and possibly where "Supernatural" got the idea of using dead man's blood as a weapon against vampires.
I've always found the poisoning of Lestat to be incredibly inconsistent as well. And also it's surprising to me to imagine that vampires are practically invulnerable to everything except fire but they're succeptable to being poisoned.
@@JesseColton That is weird, especially since they're basically reanimated corpses.
@@JesseColton Yeah in the book it was described that the drug she put in the little kids system is the only drug that can weaken a vampire (though not kill him). Then she slit his throat and burned the place down. They just liked the way it sounded to "dead blood?? You let me drink Dead blood??" Even though it didn't jibe with the original story.
Kirsten Dunst was AMAZING in it!
So young and yet nailed that part so perfectly!
wasn't anne rice the one who like,, tried to sue people for writing fan fiction of her work or something? i remember reading something about her not liking fans writing works based on her books
That's her! She also went super Christian, disavowed her earlier books entirely, and is still fuming over anyone who dares write fanfic of it, gay smut or not.
Christ, I haven't had anything published but would still be flattered if I ever found fanfiction of my work (depending, of course, some of that shit can get weird). I feel that it shows how much of a impact and inspiration your work has become to other writers if that want to expand on it that much
To be entirely fair, MANY authors do this, including George R.R. Martin. It's largely to protect copyright. Legally you're supposed to get a license to use the properties, though it's really not enforced very often. Anne Rice just happened to be one of the earlier authors to exercise an author's right to request that sites remove stories featuring copyrighted characters.
@@SarahSyna She left Christianity since she couldn't get on board with any anti-birth control and anti-gay stances. She also no longer disavows her vampire books, and has since continued writing them.
@@authoralysmarchand4737 I can understand that to a point. When you create something, you get protective of it (especially characters). Since they come from you, it's hard to not take what you feel to be a misinterpretation personally.
I used to work for Anne. Michelle was Claudia. I worked for her when Stan passed away. His funeral was beautiful and moving. I know EVERY line of "Interview with the Vampire" I was also on the Board the Anne Rice Fan Club and helped plan the ball each year. I worked the ball each year from 18 to about 27. She wrote "Blackwood Farm" when I was in her employee. I also helped design Lestat Brand Coffee which was the best damn coffee ever. This was my entire life for my young adult life. It was wonderful, terrible and blood sweat and tears. No pun intended. I have so many pictures, my costumes were elaborate and gorgeous. Polygrip was your best friend for keeping your fangs in your mouth for the evening! It was a wild ride. I made some life long friends and got betrayed by close "Friends". Ricean Vampires and the lore within Anne's world was my life, and I do not regret it, even with all the crap that went on behind the scenes.
WRITE A DAMN BOOK PLEASE!!!!
Your way of putting it is beautiful. It must have been very precious to you. Hope everything is going great in your current life as well.
After reading some of the other books in the Chronicles, I sort of assumed that Interview was completely Louis' view of the world, rather than factual, history sort of way. (Like how when I was a player writing up notes/recaps for game sessions, it invariably featured my character's events, try as I might to be factual.) I liked when they crossed over with the Mayfair series. I never knew about her losing her daughter, so that totally makes sense why this novel was so depressing. I remember watching this for the first time on the way back from a school trip (buses with tv/vcr combos) and we only got as far as when Louis went through the theater and was in the process of killing the other vampires.
Blood Canticle was pure shit. There's a reason Mona and Quinn were replaced, though I liked Quinn and hated Mona. It also ruined the Taltos.
Interview is definitely Louis' biased view of things, but I find it weird when people then wholeheartedly accept Lestat's version as the "truth", and don't realize that the same 100% applies to him as well. They're both unreliable narrators with a clear agenda in how they tell their stories.
@@Luanna801 That´s what makes the series so good, there are several books from several different POVs.
Loved this movie. Kristen Dunst was so good for someone so young and it just made Claudia's death all the sadder because of how you watched her go through everything like struggling to understand the idea that she'll never physically grow up and the years caring for Louie as much as she did.
One thing I love about this movie is the costumes and how they use them to show that time passes. At the beginning of the movie you can see they’re wearing late 18th century fashion whereas at the end it’s clearly 1880s , I love it 0:
I've been waiting for this forever. Interview was the movie that got me into vampire literature, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.
A great episode and I can't wait for the train wreck that was Queen of the Damned.
If you want a more down to earth take on vampires, I can r ecommend the Vampire Accountant series by Drew Hayes.
Train Wreck is to kind of a term for the Queen of the Damned movie
Veronica Flores Queen of the Damned is delightfully awful lol
@Chris Hughes I still listen to that banger of a soundtrack too!!!! Body Crumbles is my fuckin jam!
I'm so ridiculously excited for him to cover Queen of the Damned. Awful adaptation, but my favorite trash movie of all time. It's like, the most bisexual movie of all time. And the soundtrack still slaps. It's such a terrible movie, but a type of terrible I love.
"Can I buy a pony, Louis? I'm going to buy a pony."
Favorite moment on this video: "Kiiiiisssssss"
same
Kirsten Dunst was one of those rare occassions where a character from the book seems to have walked off the page & on to the screen, so perfect is their interpretation.
I agree, that was an incredible experience having recently read the book & then seeing the movie.
Funnily enough I always got the impression that their switching Louie's suddenly deceased brother to suddenly deceased child and wife was a way of saying, "Hey general audiences, look! It's not THAT gay", as if moaning and falling into a suicidal rut about your dead brother, another man, was somehow less valid than moaning and falling into a suicidal rut about your dead wife and child. I feel the substitution speaks volumes. When I read the book the language Louie used in regards to his brother seemed...oddly evocative.
Anne wrote the movie, so it's unclear if she made that change or the studio asked for it. I'm guessing it was changed to streamline the story: having him be in mourning for his brother doesn't really hit home to the viewer without understanding the circumstances of his brothers death, which would require significant diversion from the main plot. You have time to do that in a book, not in a two hour movie.
So if you have to summarize why he's miserable in one second, "I lost my wife and child" sounds a lot more believable than "I lost my brother." And there's no time to say "I lost my brother because he became a religious fanatic and believed God wanted me to sell my house to send him to divinity school and then he had an epileptic seizure and fell down the front stairs and broke his neck right after I yelled at him and told him he was a moron."
What if the audience is supposed to be Luis, he's our pov character, it's his story, and the movie is inviting you to be queer, like hey let's mourn the stereotyoe of wife and kid heterosexuality, leaving that at the door, ok now we're vampires so like..... whats up lets get weird
Funnily?
No, I thought that it was to save time, Imagine having to explain all the story about his brother, the movie had to be around 1 hour long, not more.
OverlyCautiousIndividual it’s possible that the film wanted Claudia and Louis’ relationship to have more thematic weight as he repeatedly fails to protect his own children
I heard that Anne Rice did not want Tom Cruise for Lastat, but she admitted he did well when she saw him in action (or something like that)
Admittedly at that point in history, Tom Cruise was more known for only doing one dimensional heartthrob roles in movies, and this was one of the very first times that he got to stretch out his more dramatic skills for a movie.
From what I recall, Rice envisioned Lestat as Rutger Hauer. By the time the movie was made, Hauer was obviously too old. (Though Hauer did get to play a vampire two years earlier, playing Lothos in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
I thought it was horribly cast, but Cruise & Pitt happen to be two excellent actors, so they did a great job.
*Kirsten Dunst was absolutely tremendous, though. That was perfect.
Tom killed that part.
He's kind of perfect for the role for who he is. Coincidentally this is the only role I've ever liked Brad Pitt in. They got amazing performances out of everyone in this film.
Lestat wasn't technically a commoner, he was just a lord who'd lost everything.... Soooo I guess yeah?
I have always liked that in latter books Lestat kind of made fun of Louis for this mistake. Louis thought that Lestat was a commoner not only because Lestat's family lost money, but also because as an American bourgeois Louis didn't actually had any idea how a lot of aristocracy behaved or thought.
A disenfranchised aristocrat.
@ThatOneAsianBroChick Lestat was born in France. Louis is from Louisiana.
Not just a Lord who lost everything, but not the elder son, if I'm remembering completely. Historically, the younger sons of nobility kind of HAD to marry up because they couldn't expect a huge inheritance or lands as the eldest would. So, even if his family had remained as loaded as they had been, Lestat would've had to find SOME way to finance himself. Which is basically what he does.
He was the youngest son of a backwoods, country lord who had to learn to hunt to keep his family fed and was tutored just long enough to learn to read and write before he ran off to the city with his "friend, " where they lived with one bed and just enough money to have a fire when it was really cold.
Anyone else would have made the same mistake.
I remember seeing this in the cinema with two friends - there was an advert before the film that claimed three people in the cinema like the taste of blood. Someone in the audience in front of our trio looked at us - we waved and smiled.
I was a young teen into rap and hanging out on the block with my boys. Then I hooked up with a hardcore goth girl and she turned me on to this book. I was addicted to the series and read every book on a binge. Great books.
For me, the moment when Lestat is in the car at the end of the film, having just attacked Daniel (the boy/interviewer) and you see him rearrange the lace cuffs of his shirt, was the moment that encapsulated Cruise's understanding of the character. Never have I been so overjoyed by such a simple act. I hate Cruise, but damn he played Lestat so well!
Off to a *very* dramatic start. Love that.
I was a idiot who thought he was actually playing a piano.
@@ForrestFox626 I'm loving the man cleavage!!!
The outtakes at the end fit so wonderfully into my collection of "people in old-timey clothing doing new-timey things". Truly an aesthetic.
Do you follow Karolina Zebrowska? Because she’s got some great videos of exactly that (and in historically accurate garb too!)
Same
Dom: being a vampire made Louie less racist.
Me: YAY 🤗
Dom: but he doesn’t have respect for any human life...
Me: 😅... well at least he hates everyone equally?
It's just a movie. Events and characters opinions are not real life. Get over yourself
@@napalmstriker5173 looks like someone takes things much too seriously.
@@napalmstriker5173 You're right. It is just a movie. I don't understand why you're taking the comment section literally.
reminds me of a line from The Beautiful People: "there's no time to discriminate..."
How was Louis racist.
RIP Anne Rice
When I tell you I nearly fell out of my seat laughing at the fact you called Armand a Senpai....I mean I began cackling till the other occupants of my home thought I'd lost my mind.
One of Tom Cruise's finest performances and certainly my favourite!
When I first heard that Tom Cruise was going to play Lastat...I was horrified. But I have to admit, once the movie was released and I saw it...I was impressed with his performance.
I wasn't his fan at all, believing him to be the "cool tough guy"type, but this role made me kinda like him as an actor
Ксения Старцева Tom Cruise plays utterly arrogant posure. Perspective vampire
Yeah, I know. I was surprised that he did so well with it
IntrepidFraidyCat sometimes Tom Cruise gets lost in a role you actually forget its Tom Cruise.
The same here. Before, I considered him just a Holywood pretty face. Here, he truly proved himself to be a good actor.
I feel like this is a good time to mention the Vampire Chronicles are getting a series adaptation on Hulu.
I'm kind of terrified. After QotD I'm happy with just this one movie.
Whaaaaaaaaat?!?!
Hell yes!
We need insane feminist Akasha in this day and age. Might show some people how crazy they're being.
Hopefully it's good but not dragged out
I love Antonio bandaeras in the film, but The book Armand is my absolute favourite character. Antonio’s Armand was more like the vampire Santiago. There’s a Botticelli painting in the National Gallery (London) it’s the Adoration of the Magi and there is a red haired boy looking over his shoulder at the viewer and I’ve always thought that’s how Armand looks.
Lestat is a bi disaster, I love him.
"The first of 11 sequels..."
There's currently 14 books in the vampire chronicles, and they crossover into The Lives of the Mayfair Witches at Merrick
Oooh, the Mayfair Witches were my favorite of hers!
Didn't the stories cross over really ifrom Queen of the Damned with the introduction of Jesse Reeves and David Talbot and their Talamasca order which feature heavily in the Mayfair story?
I really do love how Rice came to change her mind about Cruise, the moment she saw him in action, not only saying her words, but MEANING them, that was a great 'I raise my goblet of blood to you, sir. I was wrong.'
They also left out that Lestat's Maker lept into a fire without handing any information about Vampires to him, which the custom was to do so. That's why they broke an unspoken law of vampires about turning children...
Lol. I love this book and I love this video. The book is so unsettling
Icons supporting icons ♥️
It doesn't help with the fact that Anne Rice was writing it during a time where she lost her daughter
Love you Kat
The catacombs were the vampires home originally on the land the theater stands upon. In the “vampire lestat” it’s significance is explained when Lestat explains how he came to be a vampire.
Lestat was a strong and willful young lord who single handedly took out a pack of wolves plaguing his village. Lestats deed and nature attracted the attention of a vampire named Magnus (not Marius). Magnus was in a feud with the vampires living in the catacombs because they disagreed about how to live. (Magnus believing they should live in the world. The catacomb coven led by Armand believing they should live in the catacombs with the dead and away from society.) Magnus felt exhausted with the war with the catacombs coven so as a final middle finger to Armand he turned Lestat, explained what he turned him into, then promptly burns himself to death. Lestat is approached by Armand and pressured to join the catacombs coven but he not only refuses but uses his vast holdings to purchase the catacombs and the land they are under. He says he will leave the catacombs ant the coven alone if they leave him alone, but if they don’t he’ll raise the catacombs to the ground and build a theater. (Which ironically inspires Armand to build the theater and leave lestat alone) later lestat meets Marius who mentors him.
Actually the Theater of the Vampires is down the road from the Les Innocents catacomb, it was Renaud's theater which Lestat purchased and then closed. After he broke up the Les Innocents coven, Armand tried to murder them all, and the survivors hid inside Renaud's theater for shelter. Nicholas came up with the idea to then it into a vampire spectacle and to write plays, and then Lestat persuaded Armand to join them when he gave Armand his tower.
You're definitely remembering part of that wrong, when Lestat finds Armand in his town house he tells Armand that Les Innocents is going to be destroyed and Armand is shocked, but he never threatened to destroy the catacombs and the Theater of the Vampires is not built on top of it.
You have no idea how many times I've wanted to request this as a 'lost in adaptation'! I saw the movie when it first came out in theaters, then immediately dove into the book series ('The Vampire Lestat' is still one of my all-time favorite novels). This is an excellent, thorough review, and I couldn't agree more with every point you made.
I do not envy the job you have ahead of you with 'Queen of the Damned'. But maybe you'll have some fun ripping that one apart!
Duraffinity Vampire Lestat & Queen of the Damned are my two favorite books of the series. I just absolutely LOVED how Vampire Lestat flipped the whole story on its head, while also having Lestat basically living it up and trying to force the rest of Vampire Society to do the same. I also love how it delved into Vampire lore and teased their origins... which Queen of the Damned, in turn, performed a deep dive into and acted as a climax for. In that way they really do feel like two halves of one story/book.
They do feel like two halves of the same story. I adore both books. But the QOTD movie really didn’t live up to either one.
Queen of the Damned has to be one of the worst adaptations as far as source material goes. No offense to Aaliyah she was stunning.
Kenneth Eaton vampire lestat was my fav too.
Christie Stevens not even close. I've seen far far worse.
Natalie: wears vampire teeth
Ollie: wears vampire teeth
Dom: "I gotta get in on this"
Well, now I've developed a kink for great rolemodel and web-video-producer in vampire teeth.
Thank you! ._.
Ahhhhhh Natalie!!!!!! 🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍
Who is Natalie and Ollie?
@@JaiProdz Natalie Wynn (Contrapoints) and Ollie Thorn (PhilosophyTube) are RUclipsrs who make great content about philosophy and politics and super accessable ways. Both have made videos recently where they've dressed up as vampires, "Opulence" where Natalie discusses what the vampire aesthetic mean to Victorians, and "The Problem With the Video Game Industry" where Ollie makes the old connection between landlords and vampires.
Harry: wears vampire teeth
LeftTube Undead Illuminati:: confirmed
21:17
To quote a great man
'You think just because I use big words means I cant make dirty jokes?
You dont know me'
Always thought it was good point to keep in mind that Lestat was inspired by her husband and could see how Louis and Lestat relationship is first portrayed as toxic and then Lestats redemption arc in the sequels.
would LOVE to see Dom's thoughts on the new show. i loved it a lot and even with my knowledge of the source material coming from dom's videos, i can tell that they changed A Lot. i'd love to know how many of the changes were still inspired by the book.
"I'm gonna buy a pony" 😂🙌
I wish Queen of the Dammed had the same actors play the characters in that movie too.
@Trey Stephens Though there is TV show in the works now :)
In my mind, "Queen of the Damned" occupies the same place in film history as "Highlander II." We all hated it, but have faith that someday there will be future films that ignore its existence.
@@Revelwoodie But with a great soundtrack!
@@Revelwoodie I hope so. I personally would like to see them done in chronological order - TVL-IwaV-QotD. The later books would be good too, but The Body Thief might turn some people off.
Such a bad movie when I found it's based on lestat I was shocked
I clicked so fast when I saw this cause both book and movie are on my forever favorites list! I love them a lot and the characters still look like they do in the movie (except for Armand obviously... and while I completely understand the aging up, I still wish they'd have stayed loyal to the overall look).
... looking forward to the cringe of Queen if the Damned, a book I loved and a movie that let me despair in all the worst ways.
"what we do in the shadows" & the series version of it made me rewatch this since childhood. It's as fascinating & compelling for me now as it was when I was a kid & talk about the nostalgia lol
I know I'm 3 years too late but I've got to say how Impressed I am by the host, and the quality of this channel. Well researched and written. Bravo
When the piano music changed and you smiled at the camera, you got me.
Well done sir, I laughed.
Hearing the Dom utter the words "puppers" and "bork" made my day.
Goth Dom playing piano looks eerily similar to a guy I knew in high school. That's not a slam, because that guy went on to run a shelter for abused women seeking to leave their situations and have a safe place to stay, it's just eerie in that it's like realizing an alternate universe version of the Dom exists in our universe simultaneously. I'm glad there's two Doms in the world. Confused on how it happened, but glad.
Came to rewatch this video after learning of Anne Rice’s passing, she will be missed.
Meh, that thing about vampires making everything sexier is no tru-
*Dom dressed as a vampire*
...Oh myyyyyy
Personally, I find it so silly and cheesy, it takes all my willpower not to chuck my phone in a painful blend of amusement and cringe.
I love Dom, but platonically. And his vampire getup is sheer Cheez-It cheese, for me...kudos to him having fun with hamming things up wherever possible, though.
@@Daelyah kinky
I remember hearing at the time that Rice was strongly apposed to Tom Cruise playing Lestat (aka the Brat Prince) but that when she saw the footage most of the way through the production she apologized as she felt he really had done some a good job.
"they're sexually ace but romantically bi"
aye just like me!
*does spider-man pointing meme but with a bunch of vampires*
I sort of disagree with an assessment that they are sexually ace. They are humanly sexually ace, but they are vampiricaly pansexual. For them, the act of biting and exchanging blood have replaced the traditional intercourse. They still have sex, just not a human type of sex.
Club SexAceRomBi yay!
.... I still need to think about the name
@@badquestion4785 I agree with this. Exchanging blood is extremely sexualized in the books, especially when Lestat feeds from the Queen (Akanksha? I forget her name). I remember during some angsty part Lestat is having some kind of conundrum and talks about the closest he could feel to a human female was feeding from period blood (I know, it's gross) since humans were basically cattle to them.
At the risk of being laughed at, what does "ace" mean, please?
@@LitaElera they misheard. Sexually "a's". As in "asexual". Romanticaly "bi", meaning bisexual. Anne rice vamipres don't feel the urge to have sex anymore but they still yearn for attachments that are kinda romantic. So they partner up regardless of age or sex.
So this reminds me about the times you’ve brought up your vampire essay how some lore in new movies are sometimes kept while others are dropped.
One fascinating tidbit I wanted to share on that is the interesting phenomenon when one piece of lore isn’t kept, but it’s effects are.
Vampires have no reflection. Vampires couldn’t see themselves in mirrors because they were unholy and mirrors back in the day usually consisted of silver.
In modern times, vampires rarely has a silver weakness yet still they can’t see their reflection.
Just a fun fact I wanted to share.
Is there a source for that? I always heard it was because superstition stated that mirrors show your soul, and since vampires don't have souls they don't have reflections.
Kaye Elle
That doesn’t really make sense cause then no inanimate object would be visible. Also first time I heard it was on a video by RUclips KrimsonRogue (who reviews movies based on books) bringing it up in his twilight review. Where he mentions this, made me curious so looked it up.
Though when looking it up, I find a lot of different sources and no definitive answers.
Though personally silver makes most sense.
One of the traditional vampire weaknesses are silver and back then, mirrors were made using silver.
I thought it was supposed to be because, according to myth, mirrors reflect your soul and vampires don't have souls. I also recall, in the really old vampire lore, they don't cast shadows either.
@@kessler5902 Wish I had read your post before I ended up repeating it. :)
@@JustASammy12345 I think the myth only applies to animate beings, not inanimate objects.
I hope you'll revisit Interview with The Vampire when the AMC series adaptation comes out in October! I heard they make some pretty significant changes to the plot.
RIP Anne Rice.
Thank you. I’ve been waiting for this. I read Interview With a Vampire when I was teenager in the 90’s.
That was one of your best LIA episodes. You had me in the first few seconds.
magra453 I burst out laughing right at the start with his intro, because I totally got what he was doing. XD
Actually lol’d when you remembered Queen of the Damned being on your patreon list 😂
I love that movie; not for being a great adaptation from the book, but because it's sexy campy B movie magic with a great soundtrack. And the guy playing Lestat looked like he was having a blast lol
I read Rice's vampire series in middle school. I'm afraid to watch Queen of the Damned because just the trailer shows how off it is from the book
@@melanietoth1376 Don't watch it. It's horrible. I mean the actor playing Lestat is fine in the role, but the butchered it (they combined The Vampire Lestat with Queen of the Damned, but just butchered the whole thing and left a ton out).
@@krystynacalloway1542 It's not too bad once you accept that it is not a faithful adaptation. Just watch it as another vampire movie
"... speaking of dark, unholy curses that make you question the nature of good, evil, and the value of life itself, do remember that RUclips is a very well crafted algorithmic hellscape that likes to feed on those dependent upon it ... " - No truer words have ever been spoken.
As someone who saw the first midnight showing in November ‘94, watched in theatres minimum 25x, read ALL the books and loved the screen adaptation of Queen of the Damned (Lestat was so cheesy in the 80’s); your interpretation is spot on and hilarious.
Anyone who has loved the movie needs to read the first 4 books at least twice. Much, much fun in all of it 😆♾🥰
Am I the only one who started laughing at Dominic Noble reaction to talking about Queen Of The Damned?
Oh my gods! I loved that movie so much! I did my bachelor's degree on Vampires in Literature with emphasis on Anne Rice's existential bunch. Thanks for making this video. Made me smile today
As a kid I was so hyped to see this movie for being horror, cause I remember hearing about people leaving the theater in disgusted over the rat eating scenes. And then not so horror but well as a pre-teen, 1994 produced 2 great movies towards a love of gothic romance, with this and The Crow. Though might have been something to hold off till Halloweenish time. The Crow might also be one should consider. And there is my feed the algorithm post since I ain't got the funds for patreon.
14:17 actually, Louis says very clearly in the book that for vampires killing is the equivalent of sex in terms of pleasure and lure.
This book and movie hold a very special place in my heart. My dad had a good chunk of the Vampire Chronicles. He let me start reading when I was 11 or 12 and I've been hooked on vampires ever since.
Ooo I was hoping this one would be covered, I was obsessed with Anne Rice's books back in high school.
This is one of those movies I watched as a child and it was just the scariest and most tragic thing ever. I should probably watch it again, now that Im older than 11
I listened to the audio book version of the book years ago (when it was on cassette...) and wanted to outlaw the word "preternatural" from the English language about an hour in.
24:58
The unnamed vampire musician survives the fire and his name is revealed in “Prince Lestat” as Antoine.
Wow, I just realized that Louis went to see Tequila Sunrise - a movie about a complex relationship between three people -two men who love each other but also kind of hate each other since they're on opposite sides.