Interview with the Vampire (film)

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles is a 1994 film in which a vampire tells his epic life story: love, betrayal, loneliness, and hunger.

Directed by Neil Jordan. Written by Anne Rice, based on her 1976 novel.

Drink From Me And Live Forever.taglines

Armand

I know nothing of God... or the Devil. I have never seen a vision, nor learned a secret, that would damn or save my soul. And as far as I know, after four hundred years, I am the oldest living vampire in the world.
The world changes, we do not; therein lies the irony that finally kills us.

Claudia

Which one of you did it?! One of you did it! Which one of you made me the way I am?!
And here it is. And I hate you both!
Locked together in hatred. But I can't hate you, Louis. Louis, my love, I was mortal until you gave me your immortal kiss. You became my mother and my father, and so I'm yours forever. But now it's time to end it, Louis. Now it's time to leave him.
I'll put you in your coffin!
You have found your new companion, Louis! You will make me mine!
Your evil is that you cannot be evil. And I shall suffer for it no longer!
Snatching me from my mother's hands, like two monsters in a fairytale. And now you weep! I haven't tears enough for what you've done to me.
Locked together in hatred. But I can't hate you, Louis. [Puts arms around him] Louis, my love. I was mortal till you... gave me your immortal kiss. You became my mother and my father. And so I'm yours forever. But now it's time to end it, Louis. Now it's time to leave him. He will never let us go.

Lestat de Lioncourt

Don't be afraid. I'm going to give you the choice I never had.
Have you said your goodbyes to the light?
Your body's dying. Pay no attention. It happens to us all.
Evildoers are easier... and they taste better.
[After stuffing a prostitute into a coffin and shutting it] It's your coffin, my love. Enjoy it. Most of us never get to know what it feels like.
All I need to find you, Louis, is to follow the corpses of rats.
Evil is a point of view. God kills indiscriminately, and so shall we, for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him... as ourselves.
I assume I need no introduction.
Oh, Louis, Louis. Still whining, Louis. Have you heard enough? I've had to listen to that for centuries!
[Appears in doorway of Louis comforting Claudia, found in house with the body of her plague victim mother, laughing] My philosopher, my martyr. "Never take a human life". Oh, yes. This calls for a celebration. [Picks up the body of Claudia's mother and dances with it energetically across room singing in Italian and Louis runs out out door] There's still life in the old lady yet! [Drops body of Claudia's mother on floor, walks out door calling to Louis] Come back! You are what you are! Merciful death. How you love your precious guilt.
[Walking through sewers] All I need to find you, Louis, is follow the corpses of rats. Pain is terrible for you. You feel it like no other creature, because you're a vampire. You don't want it to go on. [Louis agrees] Then do what it is in your nature to do... and you will feel as you felt with that child in your arms. Evil is a point of view. God kills indiscriminately... and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we are. None so like Him... as ourselves. I have a gift for you... [Louis asks where] You need... company... more congenial than mine. Remember how you wanted her? The taste of her? Don't worry. Your conscience is clear.
[Walks in when Claudia has finished feeding off her tailoress and drops her on the ground] Claudia. Claudia! Now... who will we get to finish your dress?! You need to practice daily! [Slaps Claudia's wrist] Never feed in our home!
[Playing piano after returning from swamp from being left after killed] Listen, Louis... there's life... in these old hands still. Not quite furioso. Moderato... cantabile, perhaps. [Claudia inquires how] Ask the alligator. His blood helped. Then, on a diet of the blood of snakes... toads... and all the putrid life... of the Mississippi... slowly... Lestat became something... like himself again. You've been... a very... very... naughty little girl.

Louis de Pointe du Lac

I'm flesh and blood, but not human. I haven't been human for 200 years. Please, how shall I put you at ease? Shall we begin like David Copperfield? 'I am born...I grew up.' Or shall we begin when I was born to darkness, as I call it? That's really where we should start, don't you think?...1791 was the year it happened. I was 24. Younger than you are now. But times were different then. I was a man at that age. The master of a large plantation, just south of New Orleans. I had lost my wife in childbirth. She and the infant had been buried less than half a year. I would've been happy to join them. I couldn't bear the pain of their loss. I longed to be released from it. I wanted to lose it all: my wealth, my estate, my sanity....Most of all, I longed for death. I know that now. I invited it. A release from the pain of living. My invitation was open to anyone. To the whore at my side. To the pimp that followed. But it was a vampire that accepted.
That morning I was not yet a vampire, and I saw my last sunrise. I remember it completely, and yet I can't recall any before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time as if it were the first. And then I said farewell to sunlight, and set out to become what I became.
Forgive me if I have a lingering respect for life.
[Walks out front door to meet lynching intentioned mob of torch wielding slaves while carrying lifeless body of house servant Yvette] Hear me now! This place is cursed! Damned! And, yes, your master is the devil! Get out while you can! You're all free! Do you hear me?! [Hands body of Yvette to slaves] Run! Run! [Grabs a torch, swipes it at slaves to scare them off only to have them follow him to door and he proceeds set fire to the plantation master house]
[Referring to feeding on Claudia] Her blood coursed through my veins sweeter than life itself. And, as it did, Lestat's words made sense to me. I knew peace only when I killed. When I heard her heart in that rhythm, I knew only what peace could be.
How do we seem to you? Do you find us beautiful, magical? Our white skin, our fierce eyes? "Drink," you ask me. Do you have any idea of the thing you will become?
Whatever happened to Lestat, I do not know. I go on, night after night. I feed on those who cross my path. But all my passion went with her golden hair. I'm a spirit of preternatural flesh. Detached. Unchangeable. Empty.

Dialogue

[Lestat catches Louis killing the poodles of his victim; a wealthy plantation owner woman instead of her. He then breaks her neck and scolds Louis.]

Lestat: [Angrily] You whining coward of a vampire who prowls the night feeding on... rats and poodles! You could have finished us both!

Louis: [Baring fangs] You condemned me to Hell!

Lestat: I don't know any hell.

Lestat: You should consider yourself lucky. In Paris, a vampire must be clever for many reasons.

Louis: Paris?

Lestat: Here, all one needs is a pair of fangs. Heh.

Louis: You came from Paris?

Lestat: [Bored] As did the one who made me.

Louis: Tell me about him. You must've learned something from him.

Lestat: I learned absolutely nothing. I wasn't given a choice, remember?

Louis: But you must know something about the meaning of it all-

Lestat: [Yelling] Why?! [Angrily bangs fist on table] Why should I know these things? Do you know them? [Pauses; listens to drumming from outside] That noise. It's driving me mad; that noise! We've been in the country for weeks with nothing but that noise!

Louis: Yes, they know about us. They watch us dine on empty plates and drink from empty glasses.

Lestat: [Calmly] Come... to New Orleans, then. The Paris Opera is in town; we can try some French cui- cuisine.

Louis: Forgive me if I have a lingering respect for life. [Sighs]

Lestat: You'll soon run out of chickens, Louis.

Lestat: [Crashes through window of ablaze plantation master house] Perfect! Perfect! Just burn the place! Burn everything we own! Have us living out in a field, like cattle!

Louis: [Sitting on floor leaning against wall] You thought you could have it all...

Lestat: Shut up, Louis! [Grabs Louis by shirt and forces him up] Come on! [Slaves cheer and dance at sight of ablaze plantation master house]

Louis: Where are we?

Lestat: Where do you think, my idiot friend? We're in a nice, filthy cemetery. Does this make you happy? Is this fitting, proper enough?

Louis: We belong in Hell.

Lestat: And what if there is no Hell, or they don't want us there? Ever think of that?

Louis: [Narrating] But there was a Hell, and no matter where we moved to, I was in it.

Louis: [Standing at hotel balcony with Lestat cavorting with two prostitutes inside, voice of thought] But there was a Hell. And no matter where we moved to, I was in it. We rented rooms on the waterfront of New Orleans.

Prostitute 1: [Lestat is pinning down a prostitute on a couch with her legs around him] Your skin is icy.

Lestat: [Turning his attention to Prostitute 2] Your friend has no head for wine.

Prostitute 2: Don't worry. I can warm that cold skin of yours better than she can.

Lestat: Do you think so?

Prostitute 2: Why... you're warm now! But the price is high.

Lestat: Your pretty friend, I exhausted her. [Caressing prostitute's cheek] Soft. So soft. I can see you lying on a bed of satin.

Louis: Such things you say.

Lestat: Do you know what manner of bed? Should we put out the light? And then put out the light. But once I've put out thy light... I cannot... give it vital breath again. Its needs must wither. [Bites prostitute's wrist, pours it out in glass and holds out the glass to Louis] For you, Louis. You can pretend it's wine.

Louis: She's not dead!

Lestat: You're in love with your mortal nature. You resist what can bring you peace. You call this peace?! We're predators, whose all-seeing eyes give them detachment! The girl, Lestat! Take her! End that hunger!

Louis: No!

Lestat: Now, my child. You're tired, you want to sleep! [Swipes coffin lid off and picks up prostitute 2 and dumps her in]

Prostitute 2: It's a coffin! A coffin! Let me out! [Lestat slides coffin lid shut] I'm not dead! [Lestat leaps to sit on coffin and knocks at coffin's head]

Lestat: It's your coffin my love, enjoy it! Most of us never get to know what it feels like!

Prostitute 2: Why do you do this?

Lestat: I like to do it! I enjoy it! Take your aesthete's taste to purer things! Kill them swiftly if you will, but do it! For do not doubt you are a killer, Louis! [Flips coffin lid off and kneels down] What's that?!

Prostitute: It's a coffin!

Lestat: So it is! You must be dead!

Prostitute 2: I'm not dead, am I?

Lestat: You're not dead. Not yet. [To Louis] Finish this now!

Louis: You finish it!

Prostitute 2: Save me from him! Save me! You'll let me go? I can't die like this! I need a priest!

Lestat: My friend is a priest. He'll hear your sins before you die. Unless... I make her one of us. No! Then take her, Louis, end her suffering. End yours!

Louis: No!

Lestat: [Grabs prostitute 2 and drinks last blood] Now... are you happy?

Louis: My God! To think you... are all I have to learn from.

Lestat: In the Old World.... they called it the "dark gift." And I gave it to you.

Claudia [Watching a nude young woman bathing from a street window] I want to be her. Can I, Louis? Be like her one day?

Lestat: [Irritated] Mon dieu, more melancholy nonsense. I swear, you grow more like Louis every day. Soon you'll be eating rats!

Claudia [Disgusted] Rats? When did you eat rats, Louis?

Louis: It was a long time ago, before you were born. And I don't recommend them.

[Louis weeps after recounting how the Parisian vampires killed Madeleine and Claudia]

Daniel Molloy: So a vampire can cry.

Louis: Once, maybe twice, in his own eternity. Maybe it was to quench those tears forever that I took such revenge on them.

Lestat: What is it now? You irritate me. Your very presence... irritates me!

Claudia: Does it?

Lestat: I found someone who'll be a vampire better than you both!

Claudia: Is that supposed to frighten me?

Lestat: You're spoiled, because you're an only child. You need a brother. Or I do. I'm weary of you both.

Claudia: I suppose we could people the world with vampires... the three of us.

Lestat: Oh, not you... my little Claudia.

Claudia: You're a liar. But you upset my plans.

Lestat: What plans?

Claudia: I came to make peace with you. Even though you're the father of lies... I want things to be as they were.

Lestat: Stop pestering me then.

Claudia: I must do more than that. I've brought a present for you.

Lestat: Then I hope it's... a beautiful woman... with endowments you'll never possess.

Claudia: Why do you say such things? You haven't fed enough. I can tell by your color. Come and see. Don't be angry with me. When I saw them, I knew they were for you. [Brings Lestat to couch with two prepubescent boys] Drunk... on brandywine. A thimbleful.

Lestat: You certainly have... outdone yourself.

Claudia: I promise I'll get rid of the bodies. We forgive each other then?

Lestat: Yes. Absinthe? You've given them absinthe?

Claudia: No. Laudanum.

Lestat: Laudanum.

Claudia: Yes. It killed them, unfortunately. But it keeps the blood warm.

Lestat: You let me drink... dead blood? You let me... drink...

Claudia: One lesson you taught me... never drink from the dead.

Lestat: Put me in my coffin. Put me in my coffin.

Claudia: I'll put you in your coffin! [Slits Lestat's throat and watches him bleed out with Louis]

Louis: My God!

Claudia: Lift me up! Good night, sweet prince. May flights of devils wing you to your rest.

[After Louis destroys the Parisian vampires in revenge for Madeleine and Claudia's deaths]

Armand: You made me see their failings, Louis. They were... doomed. Stuck in their decadent time. And they had forgotten the first lesson: that we must be powerful, beautiful, and without regret.

Louis: And you can teach me this?

Armand: Yes.

Louis: To be without regret?

Armand: Yes.

Louis: Then what a pair we could make...

[Armand chuckles]

Louis: ...but what if it's a lesson I don't care to learn?

Armand: What do you mean?

Louis: What if all I have is my suffering, my regret?

Armand: Don't you want to lose it?

Louis: So you can have that too? The heart that mourns her? Her, that you burnt to a cinder?

Armand: Louis, I swear I didn't—

Louis: Ah, but I know you did. I know. You, who regrets nothing. You, who feels nothing. And if that's all I have left to learn, I can do that on my own. [Starts walking away]

Armand: Louis.

Louis: Yes?

Armand: I will die.

Louis: No, you are dead, and you want me to quicken you once more. And as much as your invitation might appeal to me, I must regretfully decline.

Santiago: Two lovers... wandering down their violet way... whose passionate embraces, each to each... permit no meditations on decay... until they find themselves... within my reach!

Louis: Vampires who pretend to be humans pretending to be vampires.

Claudia: How avant-garde.

Santiago: The monk whose soul with Heaven doth commune... and spends his days... in pious contemplation... finds he will meet his Maker all too soon. For all his prayers gets no remuneration. The lesson endeth here... and it is this: Each one of you, my clammy hands must touch. Each one must bend his forehead to my kiss. But, hark! Methinks a mortal doth approach! What have we here? What beauty by my side? A rose in bloom, a shrinking violet? Perhaps she has a mind to be my bride. Perhaps my lesson has not ended yet!

Mortal woman: I don't want to die!

Santiago: But Death we are and have always been.

Mortal woman: Someone help me! Please! [Santiago minions grab ahold of woman prey and begin to undress her] What have I done?!

Santiago: We all die!

Mortal woman: But I'm young!

Santiago: Death is no respecter of age! It can come any time, any place. [Undoes her blouse and takes it off] Just as this flesh is pink now... so it will turn gray and wrinkle with age.

Mortal woman prey: Let me live! I don't care!

Santiago: Then why should you care if you die now? And suppose Death had a heart to love and to release you? To whom would he turn his passion? Would you choose a person from the crowd there? A person to suffer as you do?

Audience woman: [Stands up] Monsieur Vampire, take me! I adore you!

Santiago: You wait your turn! [Audience chuckles] Well... Do you know what it means to be loved by Death? To become our bride? [Fire explodes with Armand making entrance]

Armand: No pain. No pain.

Louis: [Armand pulls down woman's dress having her fully nude] Monstrous.

Armand: We live beneath. Let me show you.

Louis: Monstrous.

Armand: Yes. But very beautiful. Welcome to my home. [Prepubescent boy walks over and Armand puts arm around him] Try him. [Louis takes boy's hand, realizes of previous bite marks then finds another unbitten spot and chomps]

Armand: [In his quarters with Louis and Claudia] Two vampires... from the New World... come to guide us into the new era... as all we love slowly rots... and fades away.

Louis: Are you the leader of this group?

Armand: If there were a leader... I would be the one.

Louis: So you have the answers?

Armand: So you have questions?

Louis: What are we?

Armand: Nothing... if not vampires.

Louis: Who made us what we are?

Armand: Surely you know the one who made you?

Louis: Yes, but the one who made him? The source... of all this... evil.

Armand: I understand. I saw you in the theater. Your suffering... your sympathy for that girl. You die... when you kill. You feel you deserve to die and you stint on nothing.

Louis: But does that make you evil?

Armand: Since you comprehend what you call goodness, doesn't that make you... good?

Louis: Then there is nothing?

Armand: Perhaps. But perhaps... this... is the only real evil left.

Louis: Then God does not exist?

Armand: I know nothing of God. Or the Devil. I have never seen a vision, nor learned a secret... that would damn or save my soul. As far as I know... after 400 years... I am the oldest... living vampire... in the world.

Taglines

[From trailer] His name is Lestat. He chose one man. He gave him infinite power, eternal life and a daughter who would be forever young. And then he took the light of day.
[From TV spot] They live for the pleasure, the passion, the thrill. And they will live forever.
Drink from me and live forever.

Cast

External links

Wikipedia

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Interview with the Vampire (film)