Interview with the Vampire thoughts
27 February 2023 - 2 April 2023
EP01
okay going into this, this is what i know. anne rice is like THEE queen of vampire fiction. she's buried in new orleans. this is an adaptation of a book (?). i think i heard it's mostly faithful to the original but a girl (?) character got aged up. it is queer (?). there are vampires. and that is the sum total of my knowledge.
oh holy shit that wasn't a commercial that was part of it lemme go back and rewatch. okay so a masterclass rip off. okay so we're setting daniel up as a character who is a renowned journalist. but he's watching the commerical from his living room in sweatpants. so maybe he's Over It.
he's got some scar on his neck—i don't think that /looks/ like a vampire bite but who knows. what's that puzzle? i'm getting hieronymus bosch vibes. shaky hands. doing a puzzle because he's bored.
ah we're in the time of covid from the phone call. honestly i think i'm not a fan of fictional works referencing covid. let me be in fantasy world. (do you think people thought the same thing about other major historical events?)
it seems like daniel recognizes the signature on the letter. oh! so daniel literally interviewed the vampire in the past. but he didn't have the tapes until now?
this is the dubai skyline, yes?
shared a room in san fransisco—how did they first meet? why meet again now? is it because daniel has parkinson's? louis gets to face the idea of mortality of someone he was close to?
oh sure, piss off the vampire with super speed. "i'm an old man" sure but probably still seems a child to louis
oh okay so he died in 1910. nola, baby!
oh fuck this man. alderman's classism trumps racism i guess. interesting that louis's brother is child of god in contrast to him. two brothers fighting. hey that sounded like creole.
okay maybe it's just something with the lighting, but it looks like louis's eyes are dark rather than the light blue? and then the blonde guy looks at him, and his eyes are quite light. also. i get the whole "can't look weak on liberty" thing but louis seems much more out of control than later. which makes sense, here he's young and full of life.
oh so louis loves paul. but paul is unstable in some way?
i'm just going to say, i don't generally love the narrative device of "non minority person says thing that sounds a bit off, minority person begins to take offense, non minority person explains that they meant it in a different way." it feels like a psych out punch. makes the minority person seem unreasonable, untrusting. but i think it works okay here, because we've already seen multiple examples of people looking down on louis for his race, and also this time it frames lestat as being legitimately Different from anyone louis has met before.
oh the tension !!!! when lestat kisses lily. "and the food" he says, staring at lily. "going to make a life for myself in st louis, and now i know i was right" oh the TENSION
okay so are we meant to take lestat making louis be still at the table as some kind of supernatural power? some charisma at work, that makes louis think only of him? or is he just that cool and suave with a hundred years of practice seducing people?
seat at the table. but what a fucking table. because after all this time, how much louis is known and established, just now he gets invited and lestat is fresh off the french boat and is already there, because he's white.
TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION?? AND FREEZING TIME?? anne rice's vampires blow stephanie meyers' out the fucking water
hey jackson square !! "let the tale seduce you, just as i was seduced." huh, so if lestat was out of fashion, what was he up to recently before new orleans? why only update now?
lestat staring at his neck !!! lestat with that arrow collar ;)
so louis is a sweet brother, at least sometimes. very protective. i think the story lestat tells about wanting to be a priest is true, but it seems like louis doesn't think it is, and that hurts lestat.
louis doesn't want his family to know how much he loves the opera
ah yes, normal bro friend thing to do- buy your bestie a prostitute. oh lestat wants to touch louis my god
OH
and LEVITATION ???
unraveling the vampire lore—so it's difficult for them to stop feeding once they've started. but a bite doesn't turn them.
AWW :) and the brothers are still in sync after all this time. that's love baby. and climbing up to see the sunrise !! that's so SWEET. something something struggling to rise to the top and see something beautiful. NO PAUL !!!
WHY WHY NOW PAUL ???
and she's BLAMING HIM ??? interesting point though, paul had to have known the church didn't look too well on suicide. so why? did lestat get into his mind? he wasn't anywhere near there, that we can see?
new orleans second line funeral parade. i can't tell what song they're playing?
god what horrific timing lestat. okay so maybe lestat did kill paul, to cut louis's ties to humanity/mortality. especially if lily died too
oh it's a fucked up love, lestat says "you're better than the shit you think is worth it". wait so WHY did he kill lily?? did he think she was unworthy in some way? why does lestat like louis?? okay, beauty + sorrow
more vampire lore: the stabbing doesn't kill him. lestat asks louis to say yes—is the consent bit necessary to the turning? fingernail/claws. hearts still beat
LOVE AS BLOOD LOVE AS BLOOD "the love i send to you, you send it back to me." lestat drinks louis's blood, has louis drink lestat's blood.
EP02
before we start i'd like 2 talk about the title. interview with THEEEE vampire. and yet so far, it really feels like lestat is more theee vampire than louis is. so where is he? i feel like the absence is very present. is lestat dead? (how do vampires die?) did they break up? it kind of sounded like maybe louis and daniel were maybe a thing back in sf. so maybe louis and lestat weren't together anymore?
i like how the music playing at the beginning when the title card shows sounds like an orchestra warming up. feels right
who is this dude. louis's assistant?
the building groans. the building is alive & in pain.
"i serve a god. it is my honor to serve." !!! WHAT an interesting framing omg. because yeah sure vampires are on the list of cliche sexy or scary halloween costumes. we as a culture know what they are, sometimes they sparkle and sometimes they have bad eastern european accents and sometimes they count numbers to small children on tv. but if u actually met a super fast undying telepathic talker who drinks blood—yeah sure man maybe it's a god !!
louis will join him at course seven. that's specific. mm foie gras. eating of an animal's pain. i mean like more than usual, because u gotta force feed a duck to get a fancy fatty liver. i'm making connections i'm seeing patterns. and with an apple thing on the side !! oh hello there symbol of sin
only the fanciest blood in a goblet for monsieur pointe du lac. but earlier it seemed like drinking blood makes vampires go a bit feral. maybe it's different to drink from a cup than from a body?
"can we turn down the music" LMAO i was thinking the same thing
daniel wants to ask about the farm but louis wants to get back to the story. it's his story, and he's going to tell it the way he wants to. is he a reliable narrator?
hold the phone. lestat warns louis not to drink the blood of the dead. but we just watched louis get blood poured into his goblet. is this a magic rule? like you don't have to drink the blood from the person so long as the person is still alive when you drink it? or does blood "go bad" really fast?
"you were fucking loaded." "beyond articulation." fucking iconic.
"the prettiest girl at the party" the way hunger and lust gets intertwined. haha louis is sooo fucking bored by this man. and he's acting so weird
i'm cackling. louis fucking pouncing on the man the second lestat gives him the go-ahead. "bite the neck, not the blood" this is peak comedy
lestat's so. casual. in his seduction. of course, he says, you'll get used to it. we're going to have an extraordinary time, you and me. it's okay, you can be on top.
louis forcing daniel to look. watch me kill this fox. "our book must be a warning." does louis regret turning? and yet he compares himself to a god.
i wonder if the "every human wants sex/food/home" is a direct-ish quote from the original. if it had been written today, are those still the things lestat would say?
lestat can't read louis's mind anymore, making him a little vulnerable. also making them equals. he calls it "the dark gift"
oh SO fucking condescending, louis EAT HIM !!!! oh nice, same idea.
two coffins next to each other. sharing an unlife together. but separate coffins? and what's the point. do vampires need perfect dark to sleep or something? oh lol i thought maybe louis wasn't even in there, instead he was just sulking hahaha
renamed to azalea hall.
NO PLS DONT EAT THE BABY. okay but did he EAT THE BABY????
wait so they CAN hear each others' thoughts? when they want to?
is louis crying blood? oh so lestat is only like 200 years older. honestly i was kind of expecting him to be even older than that. lestat says i love you in all the ways that you are
louis having to play at being a valet :( love in the dark, love hidden, love ashamed. are there really only a hundred vampires? will we get to met any others?
clearly idk anything about opera because this guy doesn't sound that bad to me??
louis is so out of touch. "i try and have a human meal once a week to maintain the thread," he says, gesturing to a strawberry pavlova (?), a very fancy dessert, from his fancy dubai penthouse.
i love how daniel is almost aggressively blunt. in contrast to how sophisticated and coy lestat and later louis are. but daniel says he loved his wife's half blonde eyebrow. flaws and all. and closes his audio equipment. louis's bloody story has no place here, with the memory of a proposal in his mouth
EP03
that's jackson square i'm pretty sure. lestat romanticizes the past, louis is like "sure but unspeakable violence happened here too".
"shall we walk the night as gods of attainable dreams?" okay but i love that. also interesting the tension of ambition. like louis is ambitious in some ways with his business, but he doesn't care to be a god. at least not now, maybe dubai-louis does?
lestat thinks any of the humans are capable of abomination. so. did he think louis was too? but now that he's a vampire he's somehow above all that? interesting too how lestat is framed as the sophisticate, but he's also very simple. you're a vampire, and your purpose is pleasure. meanwhile louis is reading philosophy. and lestat takes offense at louis, in his eyes, not being honest with who he is.
even when lestat is being a dick, he's defensive of louis? i like the way we suddenly jump to dubai
daniel trashes the old recordings. does he have duplicates elsewhere? i feel like that would be a responsible thing for a journalist to do. and louis can LIGHT THINGS ON FIRE WITH HIS BRAIN WTF??
hunger & lust, lust & hunger. when louis isn't eating people, he doesn't desire lestat in the same way. a double rejection of lestat
oh the manipulation. lestat says "we'll be together forever, so me fucking other people is a good thing, actually, because we have to do whatever we can to stave off boredom if we're going to live hundreds of years. and you can fuck anyone else you like too, as long as you come home to me."
oh ho there is some chemistry here between louis and jonah. why do i feel like lestat is going to eat jonah
oh YIKES louis is hearing jonah's heartbeat is LOUIS the one who is going to eat jonah????? biting at his own wrist
lestat seems kind of proud of louis for being with jonah, louis is feeling guilty
the odessy of recollection, what a phrase
"here comes the ghost" oh louis :(
AND MASS MIND CONTROL??? what CAN'T these vampires do
brick is my fav <3
louis says, when everyone [your mother/tom/fenwick] sees you as less than [the devil/just a black man], even when you're trying hard to be good [eating animals not humans & visiting your sister/be a good businessman], it's hard not to match that perception [break a door/go off the rails].
"i'll let you reload." power move
"what are you?" "i'm a vampire." okay i would have to go back to check but i feel like maybe this is the first time louis has said those words out loud to anyone (except lestat?). he was in denial before, but everything pushed him up this breaking point, and now he has to accept it.
oh i don't think there's anything louis could have said that would hurt lestat more than "we're never going to work"
enter claudia