Bound to arrive in the UK heaped with hype from its massive take in the US,
where the 1976 Anne Rice book became a record blockbuster, this film is
almost impossible to dislike. It culminates in a pop musical joke which
works as a punchline -- for the whole story, which crosses 400 years,
addressing class, aesthetics, questions of life, death and sacrifice. With
the exception of hero Louis de Pointe du Lac, the vampires are wonderfully
portrayed: narcissistic and snobbish as well as dashing and pale. Put it
this way: they know what "dashing and pale" can MEAN to a guy. Yet the
undead are terrified of falling behind, each is doubly doomed as the
creature of the age which spawned his mortal self.
Letting Tom Cruise play the most unlikeable, most short-sighted vampire of
the lot makes it a film even Tom Cruise-haters can relish. And as Louis,
Brad Pitt is suprisingly versatile -- ditto Antonio Banderas as a
Euro-vampire longing to understand a new age. This Banderas is very similar
to the dashing, evil Michael Wincott of 1492 but, never mind, it's a
perfect schtick and it works. Interview does, of course, depend on
accepting conventions. Basically, its themes and emotions (like those of
the book) are not shallow, but they are teenage. Thus the film's true coup
is not to take itself too seriously -- and to push the envelope in some
interesting ways. All should stay secret, of course, until you see it.
Kudos especially to Stan Winston's makeup studio, who came up with a new vampire look -
- which, for once, is not based on gallons of prosthetics and goo...but on very simple, highly aesthetic touches. This is further heightened by the cinematographer Philippe Rousselot: who lit the whole film with Chinese paper lanterns!
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