INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
Adapted by Neil Jordan
From the novel by Anne Rice
INT. ROOM. NIGHT (SAN FRANCISCO)
A small bare room, illuminated only by the streetlight coming through
the window.
A hand press a castte into a recorder and fiddles with a small
microphone.
Malloy sits over a table fiddling with the tape. He is young, half-
shaven, dresd in T shirt and jeans. He looks too --
LOUIS, who stands by the window, looking out on the streeet, with his
back to Mallowy. Louis is dresd in an old-fashioned suit.
LOUIS
So you want me to tell you the story of
MALLOY
That's what I do. I interview people. I collect lives. F.M. radio.
F.F.R.C. I just interviewed a genuine hero, a cop who -
LOUIS
(quietly interrupting)
You'd have to have a lot of tape for my story. I've had a very unusual
life.
MALLOY
So much the better. I've got a pocket full of tapes.
LOUIS
You followed me here, didn't you?
MALLOY
Saw you in the street outside. You emed interesting. Is this where
you live?
LOUIS
It's just
MALLOY
So shall we begin?
(Playfully, almost teasing)
What do yo do?
LOUIS
I'm a vampire.
Malloy laughs.
MALLOY
See? I knew you were interesting. You mean this literally, I take it?
LOUIS
Absolutely. I was watching you watching me. I was waiting for you in
that alleyway. And then you began to speak.
MALLOY
Well, what a lucky break for me.
LOUIS
Perhaps lucky for both of us.
Still in shadow he turns from the window and approaches the table.
LOUIS
I'll tell you my story. All of it. I'd like to do that very much.
Malloy is uneasy as he studies the shadowy figure, fascinated but
afraid.
MALLOY
You were going to kill me? Drink my blood?
LOUIS
Yes but you needn't worry about that now. Things change.
Louis stands opposite, hand on the chair. Malloy is riveted.
MALLOY
You believe this, don't you? That you're a vampire? You
LOUIS
We can't begin this way. Let me turn on the light.
MALLOY
But I thought vampires didn't like the light.
LOUIS
We love it. I only wanted to prepare you.
Louis pulls the chord of the overhead naked light bulb.
LOUIS' FACE
appears inhumanly white, eyes glittering. Inhuman or not alive. the
effect is subtle, beautiful and ghastly.
MALLOY
Good God!
He struggles to suppress fear and understand.
LOUIS
Don't be frightened. I want this opportunity.
The light appears to go out by itlf and suddenly Louis is in the
chair, dimly lit by the street-light from the window. The castte is
turning.
MALLOY
How did you do that?
LOUIS
The same way you do it. A ries of simple gestures. Only I moved too 李亚鑫
fast for you to e. I'm flesh and blood, you e. But not human. I
haven't been human for two hundred years.
Malloy is speechless, frightened yet enthralled.
LOUIS
What can I do to put
you at ea? Shall we begin like David
Copperfield? I am born, I grow 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?
MALLOY
You're not lying to me, are you?
LOUIS
Why should I lie? 1791 was the year it happened. I was twenty-four -
younger than you are now.
MALLOY
Yes.
LOUIS
But times were different then. I was a man at that age. The master of a
large plantation just south of
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. LOUISIANA. DAY. (1791)
A dishevelled Louis, hair in pigtail, in deep pocket frock coat, rides
his hor through the fields of indigo, passing an overer and slaves
at work.
He pass slave quarters and the distant colonial mansion of Pointe du
Lac.
He comes to a small parish church and a graveyard. he dismounts and
促音walks through the tombs to an elaborate one in Greek Style.
LOUIS (V.O.)
I had just lost my wife in childbirth. She and the infant had been
buried less than half a year.
There is a marble angel above the tomb, feminine, with a tiny cherub
angel in her arms. Louis looks from the angel, down to the inscriptions
on the tomb:
DIANNE DE POINTE DU LAC 1763 - 1791
INFANT JEAN MARIE - 1791
Louis rps away the vines already covering the inscription, then drinks
from a pocket-flask. His face is ashen.
LOUIS (VO)
I was twenty-four and life emed finished. I couldn't bear the pain of
thier loss. I longed for a relea from it.
INT. WATERFRONT TAVERN. NIGHT.
Louis in ragged lace and dirty brocade sitting between two whores at a
gaming table, drinking absinthe. All around him flatboatmen, whores,
gamblers, black african freedmen.
LOUIS (VO)
I wanted to lo everything. My wealth, my estate, my sanity. But Lady
Luck didn't oblige.
Louis dsiplays a hand of four aces. A gambler at the table stands in
fury, over turning money, cards, drinks.
LOUIS
You're calling me a cheat?
GAMBLER I'm calling you a piece of shit -
The gambler pulls out a pearl-handled pistol and points it at Louis.
The crowd hushes and draws back. Louis smiles drunkenly and stands. he
rips open his lace shirt, exposing his chest.
LOUIS
Then do me a favour. Get rid of this piece
The gambler's finger on the trigger. His hand shakes.
LOUIS
You lack the courage of your convictions, sir. Do it.
LESTAT, a hooded figure in the corner, smiles from beneath the shadow
of his hood. Gleaming blue eyes.
LOUIS (VO)
Most of all I longed for death. I know that now. I invited it, a
relea from the pain
The gambler lowers his gun, scowling. Louis pockets the fistfulls of
coins he has won.
EXT. WATERFRONT. NIGHT.
Loud, crowded riverfront taverns full of ruffians. Louis staggers down,
an arm around a whore, drinking from a bottle. A pockmarked pimp
follows behind.
LOUIS
My invitation was open to anyone. Sailors
,
thieves, whores and
<
EXT. WHARF. NIGHT.
Louis, quite innsible, being propped up against a wall by the whore
in a dank wharf over the water. The pimp rifles his pockets, then pulss
a knife, about to slice his throat, when a shadow falls over him. He
turns, and we e the face of Lestat, who lifts him into the air by his
throat, breaking his neck. the whore screams and Lestat's other hand
clamps over her mouth. Lestat drags her towards him. Louis falls to the
ground, supported no more, innsible. Clo on his face, as we hear
the last breaths of life of the whore, off.
LOUIS (VO)
But it was a vampire that accepted.
IN THE WATER -
The bodies of the thief and whore float by. Above on the wharf, Louis,
now awake, stares down at them. He turns, to e Lestat, towering above
him.
LESTAT
They would have killed you -
LOUIS
Then my luck would have changed.
LESTAT
You want death? Is it death you want?
LOUIS
<
Lestat floats down on top of him, then lifts him in the air, draws his
head back by the hair and sinks his teeth in his neck.
ON LOUIS' FACE - every muscle rigid, teeth clenched, as the blood is
drained from him.
ON THIER FEET - hovering above the ground, like two quivering dancers.
THE WIND - billows through the ghostly white sails and rigging of the
boats around the wharf.
LESTAT - floats higher, with Louis in his arms, draining his blood. One
hand reaches out and grips a rope, hanging from a shipmast. The other
holds Louis. He withdraws his teeth, and looks into Louis' drained
face.
LESTAT
You still want death? Or have you tasted it enough?
Louis can barely get the words out.
LOUIS
<
Lestat smiles and lets him go. Louis falls and plummets into the water
below.
LOUIS' FACE - coming to the surface, in the water lapping by the wharf.
The bodies of the whore and thief float beside him. He looks up and
es Lestat way above him, dangling from the rope of the shipmast.
INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO.
ON MALLOY'S FACE
captivated, terrified, enthralled.
MALLOY
That's how it happened?
LOUIS
No. The Gift of Darkness requires more than that, as you'll e.
EXT. WATERFRONT. DAY.
Louis floating by mudflats, surrounded by dead fish, the carcas of
animals, eighteenth century rubbish. He gets to his feet and walks
weakly through the mudflats. The sun is coming up over the a behind
him.
LOUIS (VO)
He left me half dead that morning. he wanted something from me. He came
back the following night.
INT. LAVISH FRENCH-FURNISHED BEDROOM AT POINT DU LAC.
Louis is delerious in a four-poster bed, shrouded with mosquito
netting. A female slave, YVETTE, bathes his face with a rag. She is
crying. Other slave women hover in the shadows. Yvette puts out all
candles save one by the bed, and withdraws, with the others.
Candlelight flickers on the face of the bisque virgin.
Louis toss and turns, dreaming, murmuring incoherently. Then he opens
his eyes.
LESTAT, exquisitely dresd in French clothing, stands by the bed
smiling. In the light of the candle we e that he is not human; skin
too white; eyes too bright. Lestat looks amiable, even mischevious, but
impossible - and angel or monster.
Louis grabs his pistol from the table and cocks it.
LOUIS
Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my hou?
LESTAT
And a beautiful hou it is too. Yours is a good life, isn't it?
Louis takes aim. Lestat puts his hand over the barrel. Louis fires. The
bullet tears a hole in Lestat's hand. Lestat is unfazed. He takes the
gun from Louis' hand and throws it away. His hand begins to heal.
LESTAT
You're not afraid of anything, are you?
LOUIS
Why should I be?
Louis reaches for his sword, hanging by the bed, and point it. Lestat
laughs indulgently. He draws clor.
LESTAT
Are you going to put that through me too? Ruin my beautiful clothes?
He comes clor to Louis, right up to his face, so the sword pass
through his waistcoat.
LESTAT
Were all last night's promis for nothing?
He reaches out with his now-healed hand and plucks out the sword.
LOUIS
What do you want from me?
LESTAT
I've come to answer your prayers. You want to die, don't you? Life has
no meaning anymore, does it?
Lestat sits down on the bed, drawing up one knee. Louis is becoming
spellbound.
LESTAT
The wine has no taste. The food sickens you. There ems no reason for
any of it, does there? But what if I could give it back to you? Pluck
out the pain and give you another life? And it would be for all time?
And sickeness and death could never touch you again?
The vampire theme ris, with the sound of a heartbeat. Dissolve to:
EXT. GRAVEYARD. NIGHT.
The camera drifts through the graveyard where Louis' wife is buring.
Everything is lit with an eery glow, as if en through some unearthly
eye.
LESTAT
Vampires, that's what we are. Creatures of darkness, only we e it
that darkness more clearly than any mortal has
Louis and Lestat drifting, dreamlike, through the overhanging vines,
comes to the grave of his wife and child. Above the crypt, the statue
of angel, mother and child.
LESTAT
Wouldn't it be sweet to bid pain goodbye? To wave away anguish and
grief? To embrace the peace of the unending night?
The marble fingers of the child on the statue move. The angel rais
her head and has the face of Louis wife, Diane. she rais her hand and
touches Louis tear-streamed face. The child speaks.
MARBLE CHILD
<
Louis reaches out to embrace them and finds himlf touching cold
marble. He cries out in anguish-
LOUIS
Diane!!!!
LESTAT
They are gone, Louis. Death took them. Death which you can now
<
LOUIS
NO!!!!!
INT. LOUIS BEDROOM. NIGHT.
Louis, thrashing
on the bed in a delerium. Lestat places a hand on his
forehead and soothes him.
LESTAT
You have to ask me for this. You have to want it, do you hear me?
LOUIS
Give it to me!!!
LESTAT
Vampires. We thrive on blood.
LOUIS
I want it!
Lestat bends clo as if to drink Louis' blood. Louis does not shrink
back, but stares into his eyes. Lestat draws back, then stands up and
goes to the French doors.
LESTAT
Tomorrow night. You must prove yourlf. I will give you the choice I
never had.
He looks outside.
LESTAT
The sun's coming up. Watch it carefully. If you come with me tomorrow,
you'll never e it again.
He leaves. Louis sits dazed, staring at the empty French window. The
sun ris with unnatural beauty, over the swamplands and the
plantation, filling the room, striking water-pitcher, glass, mirror,
and the picture of his dead wife.
LOUIS (VO)
My last sunri. That morning I was not yet a vampire, and I saw my
last sunri. I remember it completely, yet I don't remember any
sunri before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the
last time, as if it were the first. And the I said goodbye to sunlight
and went out to become what I became.
EXT. PLANTATION. NIGHT.
Lestat and Louis walk through the slave quarters, huddles groups around
fires, music, singing. The sound of whipping is heard.
LESTAT
Your grief has unhinged you. You've let your estate rot.
In the woods beyond the quarters, the white overer is whipping a
black slave, with horrifying savagery.
LESTAT
You let your overer run riot, work your slaves to the bone. We'll
start with him.
LOUIS
How do you mean, start?
LESTAT
Call him.
Louis calls.
LOUIS
Carlos!!!
The overer turns and comes towards them, with the bloodied whip.
LESTAT
Why the bloody whip, Carlos?
The overer looks into his eyes, shivers with terror, drops the whip
and runs for the trees. Lestat is on him in an instant. He sinks is
teeth in his neck. Louis runs to him, tries to pull him off. But Lestat
turns to Louis and smiles, with his bloodied mouth.
LESTAT
Let's call that a start.
LOUIS
I can't do it.
LESTAT
You've just done it -
LOUIS
Kill me if you will, but I can't
He flees, as Lestat ends to finish off the overer.
EXT. POINTE DU LAC. NIGHT.
Louis running up the steps leading to the gallery. He is crazed with
guilt. He looks up and es -
LESTAT --
Sitting collected at the head of the steps.
LOUIS
Backs away as Lestat ris and descends the steps so fluidly he hardly
ems to move.
LESTAT
Don't worry. He was white trash, they come at two a penny. I dumped him
in the swamp and untied the slave, licked his wounds clean.
LOUIS
You're the devil, aren't you? That's who you are.
竹笋的做法LESTAT (GENTLY)
I wish I were. But if I were, what would I want with you?
enjoy形容词LOUIS
I can't go throug
h with it, I tell you.
LESTAT 北极霞水母
Your perfect. Your bitter and you're strong.
LOUIS
最新广告法But why do you want me?
LESTAT
Becau you're as strong as I was when I was alive.
Louis takes out his flask and drinks. Drunkely, he turns and heads for
a nearby swamp.
EXT. CEMETERY. NIGHT.
Louis stops again in front of the crypt. Drinks from the flask, leans
his forehead against the stone.
Lestat appears beside him, radiant, beautiful.
LESTAT
You really want to be with them?
LOUIS
Yes. Kill me. Kill me like you promid -
踢毽子教案
LESTAT
You asked for death. I didn't promi it -
In a quiet rage, Lestat rai his fist and shatters the marble face
stone, revealing a coffin below. His fist shatters that in turn,
revealing the half-rotted body of a women, holding an infant, no longer
recognisable as individuals, a tangle of gruesome rotted hair, flesh,
eaten away lace, incts and worms crawling over it.
Louis gasps.
LESTAT
It's not your wife and child my friend. It's death. Just that simple.
Think and choo. It happens to everyone. Except us.
Lestat stares at him, smiling, becoming a hazy dreamlike vision, then
hyperclear. Louis again is spellbound. He drops the flask, which
shatters on the stones.
Lestat appears angelic in his radiance.
LESTAT
We shall be this way always, my friend. Young as we are now. I'm lonely
for a companion, lonely for your strength. But I'm not that lonely. Do
you want to come or not?
Louis capitulates in one long sigh.
LOUIS
<
Lestat comes clor, smiling.
LESTAT
Did I hear a yes?
LOUIS
<
Lestat embraces Louis, obscuring his face. He drinks his blood. We hear
two heartbeats, out of sync, coming together. We e Louis' face,
growing paler, paler, as his blood is drained. His eyes stare upwards,
losing thier focus.
LOUIS POV --
The moon, through hanging vines. The marble statue of his wife and
child smile at him, as if come alive. Her hair blows in the breeze,
wonderful gold tress, the child's fingers
BACK TO SCENE
Lestat lets Louis fall down beside the broken crypt. Louis looks from
the rotting bodies to Lestat above him. radiant. Lestat speaks gently.
LESTAT
I've drained you to the point of death. If you drink from me you live
for ever. If I leave you here you die.
Lestat lifts his hand to his lips and blows Louis a kiss. 电脑怎么切到桌面
LOUIS
No. Don't leave me here. Give it to me.
Lestat lifts his own right wrist to his teeth. Fangs slash his own
flesh, blood falls.
LESTAT
You're sure?
LOUIS
<
Louis ris to accept the first drops with his open mouth. Lestat
gathers him up, as Louis clamps his hand on Lestat's arm and drinks
from the wrist.
The VAMPIRE THEME swells.
Lestat watches him drink his wrist with wry amument. Louis finishes,
staggers away from him as if drunk.
LOUIS' POV -
Vampire vision. The world is transf
