INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
A film review by Eric Grossman
Copyright 1994 LOS ANGELES INDEPENDENT 1994
There is a scene in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMMPIRE when the nefarious Lestat (Tom Cruise) takes a rat, kills it and pours its blood into a wine glass for his new, angst-ridden companion and fellow vampire, Louis (Brad Pitt) to drink. This scene is both revolting and silly and is indicative of the film's dual nature.
Adapted for the screen by Anne Rice from her best-selling novel, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is a story told in flashback by Louis to a young interviewer (played by Christian Slater in a role originally intended for River Phoenix) that begins with him as a rich, New Orleans plantation owner who has given up on life after the death of his family. The lonely Lestat discovers Louis and gives him the choice between death or eternal life. Louis picks the latter and from there, the story takes us on a trip through two centuries, from 18th Century New Orleans to 19th Century Paris to the present. Like the characters, we live in the dark and are surrounded by blood, angst and suffering. We watch as Louis struggles to come to grips with what Lestat, a vampire who relishes his own evilness and who kills the unsuspecting in large numbers, has made him.
After sleepwalking through his last several roles, Cruise has taken on a hefty challenge playing Lestat and the results, while not disastrous, are not terrific either. At times, his performance works, the evilness and selfishness of his character is convincing and his English accent isn't even that bad. Other times his performance makes you want to bust out laughing. There are moments where, despite all the make-up and fangs (created by Alien and Jurassic Park effect's wizard, Stan Winston), Cruise's illusion falters. The performance weakens because we know its Tom Cruise and his movie star persona that he carries with him from film to film lessens our fear of him. In the final analysis, however, Cruise is just fine, it's just that movie isn't.
Brad Pitt has the film's critical role and it is a difficult one. He has to spend most of the time being terribly depressed, brooding over his fate as he walks the dark, empty streets of Paris. He also must make a vampire, an evil being, sympathetic. Pitt pulls off the sympathy because his character loathes the taking of human life, but in the area of the struggle to maintain his last few drops of humanity, Pitt's performance comes up short.
The toughest character to play actually comes off the best. Kirsten Dunst must be commended for rising to the very difficult challenge of playing the pre-pubescent vampire, Claudia. The twelve year-old actress (she was ten when she started filming) is able to find the right blend of sadness, scariness, and even sweetness for Claudia who is simultaneously innocent and evil.
There are other vampires such as Armand (Antonio Banderas), a 400-year-old Parisian of the night who desires Louis and Stephen Rea as the fiendish, clown-like Santiago. There is quite a bit of homo-eroticism amongst these vampires. Their longings are surges of desire for companionship, for mothers, for fathers and for lovers all at the same time. These moments are reminiscent of the old days of cinema when filmmakers were forbidden to show a man and a woman in a bed, even if fully clothed, much less anything more risque. In those days, the acts of love, lust and sex were suggested through looks and gestures not all that different from the way the Lestat, Louis, Armand and Claudia look and gesture to each other.
For his part, Neil Jordan did an excellent job directing this film. There is a never-ending supply of stunning imagery and he was able to get strong performances from each of his actors. The film pushes mood to the max with its outstanding costumes by Sandy Powell and its period sets by production designer Dante Ferretti. Academy award winning cinematographer Phillippe Rousselot deserves another nomination for this film's soft, yet dark look. The score by Elliot Goldenthal and the editing by Mick Audsley will make you jump out of your chair, although, there were a few too many of these cheap thrills.
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMMPIRE is well crafted but its lacking narrative is often slow and just downright goofy. It is successful in de-mything the vampire, making them into real beings with real problems. Unfortunately, in humanizing the vampire, they become less frightening and eventually, less interesting. After watching Lestat and Louis for over two hours, I understood why Count Dracula was the prince of his kind.
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