Interview With the Vampire

The first film adaptation of Anne Rice's flagship novel never fails to impress me. Although there are a number of discrepancies from the book the movie has enough gravitas on its own to maintain staying power as an impressive storyline in its own right. The surprise performance of Tom Cruise in his portrayal of the vampire Lestat defied the expectations of both Ms. Rice and movie goers alike and is a rare instance of the actor maintaining the poise he demonstrated in "Born on the Fourth of July" as having the potential to be a legendary icon were he to maintain this level of commitment to all of his roles. This movie undoubtedly owes much of its success to Cruise who not only brings Lestat to life from the pages but also adds an air of the character's mischievous nature bordering on evil due to his full acceptance of vampiricism. There have been mixed critiques of Pitt's role, many of which allude to a belief he demonstrated the same level of apathy that led to the awkward and often considered disastrous performance in "Meet Joe Black." I disagree and tend to think this was his first truly distinguished role before "Legends of the Fall" because he faithfully captured Louis's somber and morose reluctance to embrace the necessity of nightstalking to maintain his existence once transformed. Some may consider Kirsten Dunst's performance somewhat over the top but it is a gifted casting of a promising prodigy child star. The scenery and costumes are excellent given that this movie predates CGI and its cheapening effects for bombast. The storyline is pretty easy to follow although Pitt's narration seems a bit mellow and forced during the abrupt transitions during decades. The portion focusing on a Parisian vampire troupe in Paris has a bit of a non sequitur sentiment that lacks a smooth segue, but it provides a necessary explanation of the greater existential questions of vampirism. Antonio Banderas has a very independent role as Armand that resembles the characters in Rice's series in no form or fashion but is captivating regardless, although his role as an explanatory elder lacks satisfactory completion to substantively provide the audience with more than a predictable mythos for nosferatu in general. The scenery for Spanish Colonial New Orleans is also much more engrossing than nineteenth century Paris but it isn't much of an issue for the themes in each chapter. The only real drawback of the film is that it loses most of its momentum halfway through and becomes somewhat of a lumbering philosophical account involving navel gazing and devolves into a vampire massacre with primal notions of undead justice that could be misconstrued as an attempt to liven the overly analytical storyline. This film has its share of violence, onscreen blood, and some rather explicit nudity in a few places, and much of the obscure film noir mood may be somewhat depressing for general audiences who aren't attracted to historical periods or fantasy genres involving supernatural beings. But its fairly realistic in terms of suspension of belief for "what if vampires really existed?" and does not devolve into the comic book extravagance typical of other films such as the "Dusk til Dawn" series that mirror the choreographed antics of Hong Kong martial arts action films. Mostly this movie should appeal to contemplative cerebral luminaries that like to ask questions about the meaning of things and can maintain focus on a plot that takes some time to let its audience follow it to a conclusion.

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What is there to say that hasn't already been said? It is perhaps one of Brad's best roles, and Tom Cruise, say what you will, but he can really knock out a performance. Excellent excellent movie with superb one liners. It's almost appropriate for kids under 15, with the exception of one scene involving a young girl in Louisiana who drinks too much and touches herself inappropriately. Other than that - I think it is okay to watch with teens - I just really don't like the sexual parts in early in the movie.

I know the TV series is popular now, and I read the book shortly after it came out. So to celebrate my daughter‘s 20th birthday, we purchased a copy of the Tom Cruise Brad Pitt version of Interview with the Vampire. Although now it’s a little dated, the story is still solid and the acting is amazing and Rice was upset that Tom Cruise was chosen for the role, but he slayed it. And I really am not a big Tom Cruise fan. It was an economical purchase and was a fun rewatch. Maybe not as edgy as it was when it came out, but certainly a solid couple hours of entertainment.

This is the author talking. The film is shattering. For me, and of course I lack objectivity, it is The Red Shoes of Horror Films. It got my book, it got my script, and the person responsible was the producer David Geffen. He is the one who drew together the finest talent in every field to do this film. He asked me to write the screen play. Was I part of "the finest talent?" I hope so. He is the one who sent me a video of the film even though I objected to casting and might have screamed. I loved it. I called him to tell him. When he sent a print of the film to New Orleans for a private viewing for me and my family and friends, I was so overwhelmed by this picture that I came out of it crying helplessly in the arms of my editor Victoria Wilson. I stood there sobbing, holding onto Vicky, as the whole crowd of concerned people looked on. I couldn't snap out of it. I went out, got in the back of my car, and was driven home. The film took me back to the night I finished the book -- 4 a.m. in the morning in the year 1973 -- in Berkeley, California, in a shabby ground floor apartment full of junk shop furniture, a beautiful place, where I sat on the couch utterly overwhelmed by the experience of "the novel," a coherence that had come out of me -- vowing to myself that if no one published it, I'd sell it out of shopping bag to people on the street. The film took me back even further, into the soul that had exposed itself in the writing. Darkness. No grace. No salvation. The film got it. It got "the glamor of evil" and that darkness, that hopelessness, that despair. It is -- and I say this now as a film buff -- a great film. Forget me. Forget the book. It's a piece of sublime work in which genius "happened" as it can in film when great directors like Neil Jordan, and great actors, and great professional on all levels are giving it everything that they can -- when they have but one goal and that is to be true to something in which the author was true to himself or herself. It worked. It's magic. And now ten years later people are discovering it. They are sharing that sublime vision. I'm thankful; I'm happy; I'm proud to have been part of it. I'm grateful. And I hope David Geffen knows. I hope he knows how the world values that film. He did that. I hope he's proud. Anne Rice, Paradise West, California

What if there's ONLY one thing that we suffer from, and this one thing is responsible for all the sickness and vulnerability and dysfunction that afflict humankind? What if this one thing is also the reason we fail to grasp the wisdom we've inherited from our ancestors? Who feeds on the living? The dead do. Who brings the nightmare to life? The sleeping do. Who sees beauty in the soulless lie in the mirror? The blind do. Who sucks the blood out of an enlightened future? Narcissistic vampires. Who is more ignorant, the communicator, or the listener who fails to grasp the wisdom of what's been revealed? What if our ancestors invented the "Vampire" as a metaphor to describe "narcissism", or in other words, the romantic aspects of "ignorance"? And now our modern age makes glamorous romantic movies that mock us to sleep with the very subject of our ancestors' warning. Did you come here only to be entertained? Like a naïve actor in a fatal charade, you are lured to the stage by a promise. Strip you bare, expose your naked gullibility, and suck your blood before an audience who paid a fee to witness your demise and applaud and cheer at the bliss of their own blind irony. Are you not entertained? You are beautiful; the rose-warm glow of your lips and the sparkle of your eye are rivaled only by the sensual shape of your style. You are a natural splendor, and it's obvious that you've learned how to earn the admiration of the popular and influential. You are rare and exquisite and entirely different from the ordinary; you deserve only the finest of what life has to offer. You are perfect, and I am cupidity, here to seduce your vanity, now lend me your neck and I promise to make you perfect forever. I will tell you what to wear, whom to love, and which mask to smear upon your face. I will do your thinking for you, and, in exchange, I'll give you a world of guiltless pleasure and confident laughter and privileged indulgence. You will feed on innocence and corrupt all that is good, thus you will grow to fear the true light of day, but you will also grow cunning and deceptive, and the ugly truth of you will thus be hidden forever by the delicious tricks that shadows play in the dark …now ...lend me your neck. We are the creatures of our own understanding. Kill the light and the dark outside is invited in. If the natural purpose of magic is to reveal what only magic knows, is it not then the trick of magic to hide itself in exactly what is unknown? In the beginning there was the WORD. There’s a natural magic in the words we use, like when we describe ourselves as “mature, responsible, honest, conscious, beautiful”, our conscience is alerted and expects us to ACT accordingly, but our conscience doesn't sheepishly adopt society's definitions, and when we don’t ACT in accord with the WORDS, our biological system nags at us in an effort to realign us with truth. If we go on ignoring the appeals of the conscience, ignorance festers in our system and drains our true nature like a karmic vampire. To kill the light of the truth inside is to invite the darkness in. If the natural purpose of ignorance is to help us feel confident in our environment, is it not then a function of ignorance in our modern age to reflect only a cheap plastic consumable in the mirror? A love of confidence is a lesson of irony unlearned. Intuition flows eternal from the fountain of our innocence; innocence is literally consumed by our confidence ...Irony fills the cup equally for friend or foe. With your head on straight your neck is thoroughly protected. The WORDS that ignorance uses are “free choice”, the WORDS of reality are “ironic slave”. Ignorance is the default of our for-profit social system and your "free will" was sucked out of you in the age of your innocence. The REAL choice is to listen to your conscience; it won’t regurgitate the sheepish words of fleeting trends or glamorous movies, and nor will it charge you a fee for the wisdom it reveals ...you are born with a conscience and it knows by instinct the true nature of freedom, and it knows the enlightened purpose of love. Are you not truly empowered? If our words are not our own, we cast the dying spell of stagnant facts. The harmonious song that nature sings is the living truth of magic in the present moment …and I am no more a teacher than is the spirit of an innocent child who cries out to the nurturing instinct of your true nature. Did you know we humans were once free enough in our minds to contemplate the dangers of ignorance and create insightful metaphors to inform an enlightened society? Did you know that not so long ago we loved one another as a general condition of our social character, and it was possible to walk out your door secure in the knowledge that you'd be treated by others in a way that exactly mirrored the love that you respected upon yourself? Richen, don't cheapen. Ennoble, don't enable the delinquency of your own species. (DUH) Best a luck out there!

Great movie. It's been a great one to watch for me since it first came out.

Excellent horror movies for your family, keep you entertained and on the edge of your seat.

Ich habe den Film seinerzeit mehrmals im Kino gesehen und auch heute noch gehört er zu meinen absoluten Lieblingsfilmen. Im Gegensatz zu so manch anderen Vampirfilmen der letzten Jahre ("Blade", "Underworld", "Van Helsing") setzt "Interview mit einem Vampir" nicht auf pures Gemetzel im Matrix-Stil, sondern baut voll und ganz auf einer Handlung auf, die vom Roman nur im geringen (und somit erträglichen) Maße abweicht. "Interview mit einem Vampir" spielt für mich in einer Liga mit Francis Ford Coppolas "Dracula"-Verfilmung: üppiges Dekor, barocke Kostüme, großartige Schauspieler und ein stimmiger Soundtrack; beide Filme sind eher Drama als Horrorfilm. Man muß nicht unbedingt die komplette Chronik der Vampire von Anne Rice gelesen haben (die zudem in ihren letzten Bänden auch arg zu wünschen übrig ließen), um diesen Film zu mögen. Im Gegensatz zu der grauenhaft schlechten "Königin der Verdammten"-Verfilmung mit R'n'B-Sternchen Aaliyah , die auf dem dritten Roman basiert und den zweiten -fürs Verständnis so wichtigen- Band vollkommen negiert, steht die Geschichte von "Interview mit einem Vampir" für sich alleine und ist in sich abgeschlossen. Der Film weicht vom Roman nur in kleineren Passagen ab, ist also ziemlich werkgetreu, und -für mich als Freundin schwelgerischer Kostümfilme- grandios ausgestattet. Alle weiblichen Zuschauer dürfen sich über eine äußerst schmucke Darstellerriege freuen, allen voran natürlich Brad Pitt als Louis und Tom Cruise als Lestat. Brad Pitt ist ein ungemein sensibler Louis, der es vor allem durch seine Blicke schafft, daß der Zuschauer die innere Zerrissenheit seines Charakters begreifen lernt. Hin- und hergerissen zwischen Liebe, Hass, dem moralischen Konflikt seines Vampirdaseins, Claudia und Lestat (tatsächlich gibt es mehrere homoerotische Momente im Film, nicht nur zwischen Cruise und Pitt) zeichnet Pitt das Bild eines unsterblichen Vampirs, der lieber ein sterblicher Mensch geblieben wäre. Tom Cruise als Lestat liefert mit dieser Rolle eindeutig die bis dato beste darstellerische Leistung seiner gesamten Karriere ab. Ja, Lestat ist der "böse" von den beiden, und man merkt Cruise deutlich an, daß er Spaß an dieser für ihn doch ein wenig ungewohnten Seite hatte. Gleichzeitig stattet Cruise seinen Lestat aber auch mit einer gehörigen Portion Sarkasmus und Humor aus ("Claudia... you have been a very, very naughty girl"), daß es eine Freude ist. Hätte man nach dem Erfolg von "Interview mit einem Vampir" gleich auch noch die anderen Romane mit Cruise als Lestat besetzt, so wären diese Filme sicherlich auch allesamt Blockbuster geworden. Vergeßt Stuart Townsends blasse Darstellung Lestats in "Die Königin der Verdammten", Cruise ist der wahre Film-Lestat. Eine besondere Entdeckung ist auch die damals gerademal 12jährige Kirsten Dunst als Claudia. Fast schon beängstigend, wie sie es in ihrem jungen Alter schafft, eine Frau im Körper eines Kindes zu spielen. Auf der einen Seite zerbrechlich-zart, auf der anderen Seite eine eiskalte Mörderin ohne Skrupel, ein bemerkenswertes Talent. Antonio Banderas spielt den Armand als sinnlichen Dämon, der ähnlich wie Louis, wenn auch nicht so offensichtlich an seinem unsterblichen Leben zweifelt. Und zumindest in der englischen Originalfassung wartet er mit einem herrlichen Latin-Lover-Akzent auf. ("Remember my name. Armand.") Einzig Stephen Rea als Santiago kommt nicht allzu gut weg, was meines Erachtens aber daran liegt, daß seinem Charakter einfach zu wenig Zeit gelassen wird, um sich im Film zu entfalten. Schade, aber verzeihlich. Was mich an diesem Film erstaunt hat, war das unglaublich gute Zusammenspiel zwischen Originalfassung und Synchronisation. "Interview mit einem Vampir" ist einer der wenigen Filme, wo es egal ist, ob man sich nun die englische oder die deutsche Fassung ansieht. Nicht nur, daß die deutschen Stimmen den englischen sehr ähnlich sind, auch die Übersetzung ist als gelungen zu betrachten. Die "Special Edition" wartet des weiteren mit einem Feature, "Im Schatten des Vampirs", auf, einem Making-of zum Film, das allerdings scheinbar erst für die DVD gedreht wurde, da man Brad Pitt in Archivaufnahmen aus der Mitte der 1990er Jahre sieht, während die Interviews u.a. mit Autorin Anne Rice noch relativ neu zu sein scheinen. Wer etwas mehr über den Film, die Romane von Anne Rice und die Umstände der Entstehung des Films wissen möchte, ist mit diesem Making-of gut bedient. Fazit: "Interview mit einem Vampir" ist einer der besten Vampirfilme aller Zeiten, kein brutales, von Spezialeffekten dominiertes Gemetzel, sondern in allererster Linie ein Drama mit wirklichen Charakteren, grandioser Ausstattung und durch die Bank weg tollen Darstellern. Unbedingt kaufen!

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Essential vampire movie, great sets, costumes & actors

100% OK Goede verzending en besteld item beantwoorde volledig aan de beschrijving van de verkoper ( uiterst tevreden ) :-):-):-)

Tres bon article neuf Super histoire et de très bons acteurs