Movies - Interview with the Vampire

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Interview with the Vampire is a novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976 by Alfred A. Knopf. The book centres on themes of immortality, loss, sexuality and power. It quickly became a cult success and has had a huge influence on present Goth culture. It was followed by several sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles.

What set the novel apart from its predecessors of the vampire genre was its confessional tone offering the point-of-view of the vampire himself and touching on existential despair and the sheer boredom of lifeless immortality.

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (film)

In 1994, Neil Jordan directed a film based on the novel. The movie starred Tom Cruise as Lestat, Brad Pitt as Louis, Antonio Banderas as Armand, Stephen Rea as Santiago, Christian Slater as Daniel Molloy and an 11 year old Kirsten Dunst as Claudia.

Synopsis

In present day San Francisco, the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac tells the story of his life to a journalist. His story begins in 1791 when Louis is the owner of the Pointe du Lac plantation south of New Orleans. Having lost his brother (his wife and son in the movie), Louis allows himself to waste away in his despair. He is then approached by the vampire Lestat, who offers to make him an immortal vampire; Louis accepts. His soul, however, survives this transformation (although it is stated that vampires have souls, they merely detach themselves from mortals, like a predator from its prey). Over many years, Louis tries to resist Lestat's attempts to corrupt him, refusing to take human life and feeding on rats. Finally when he does take human life he chooses strangers, preferring not to hunt them or learn of them. Louis also refuses to use telepathy and preternatural gifts to hunt prey (Akasha called him the most mortal vampire, the most human). Louis is described as being extremely attractive and draws the attention of all the vampires Lestat knows. Louis's servants begin to suspect something sinister with him: he does not come out during the day and he no longer eats food. One night he attempts to feed on a maid, but for some reason the maid finds the bite painful and recoils (usually, a vampire's bite sends his victim into calm ecstasy). This causes Louis to snap, and he burns down his manor, whilst an angry mob waits outside. Lestat and Louis flee to New Orleans.

The one bright spot in Louis' life is the orphan Claudia, whom he and Lestat "made" and treats as a surrogate daughter. Louis fears that Lestat will corrupt her as he did him, however, and the two fight fiercely. Indeed, Claudia becomes quite a killer, childishly feeding on hired servants (despite Lestat's instructions never to feed at home). However, as Claudia's mind matures to adulthood, she remains trapped in the body of a child, a condition she is very uncomfortable with.

After living together in New Orleans for 65 years, Claudia rebels and tries to kill Lestat. Fearing Lestat's revenge, Louis and Claudia flee America. They search the world for others of their kind, but only encounter legend and superstition (along with revenants, mindless zombie-like vampires in Eastern Europe), until they arrive in Paris, where they meet a group of vampires who run a theatre - the Théâtre des Vampires - where they audaciously strip a beautiful mortal woman naked, drink her blood and devour her flesh in an act of cannibalism. However in the book, they do not devour her carcass. She is simply killed.

Armand believes himself to be the oldest living vampire. Though he knows nothing of the origin of the vampiric race or their place and purpose in the world, Armand is nonetheless the learned teacher Louis has long been searching for. Armand, in turn, is smitten with Louis, because Louis has managed to retain his human passion and capacity for regret, whilst his coterie has become decadent and stagnant. Armand's interest in Louis makes Claudia jealous, and she fears Louis will abandon her.

On the night Louis returns from his conversations with Armand, Claudia brings home a woman who wants to be turned into a vampire. Claudia is fed up with Louis's melancholies; she wants a new companion who will relish the vampiric life and never abandon her. The woman lost her own daughter and wants to adopt Claudia as a surrogate. After a bitter argument, Louis agrees and turns the woman into a vampire. The ritual is barely over (in the book a few days pass first) when Armand's coterie raids their home and arrests them for the murder of Lestat and the turning of Claudia (turning a child into a vampire is taboo). Louis is entombed in a coffin, whilst Claudia and the woman are executed by exposure to sunlight. Armand frees Louis, who bitterly mourns Claudia's death. In revenge, Louis burns down the theatre during an overcast day, killing the vampires as they sleep. Louis is rescued from the flames by Armand, who offers to make Louis his apprentice. Louis, however, calls Armand's bluff: he arranged everything from the start so that he could have Louis all to himself. Louis wanders the world aimlessly for hundreds of years, feeding on whomever is unlucky enough to trust him. Returning to New Orleans, he finds Lestat, who survived Claudia's murder attempt but remains disfigured, perhaps because he has been subsisting on animal blood in lieu of human blood. Louis turns his back on his friend and foil in pity and disgust.(Lestat claims this event never happened, in future books he confronts Louis with this and it is left ambigous as to whether this actually did take place)

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Movies - Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (film)

Synopsis

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