Sunday 18 May 2008

FLASH OU LE GRAND VOYAGE - BY CHARLES DUCHAUSSOIS


French an Portuguese editions of C.Duchaussois book


The author's "pilgrimage" from France to Katmandu as describes it on his book

I just read this book when I was very young (about the age of 15). It was a time of when the use of drugs had a "romantic" and adventurous look on my generation. For the good and the bad he was one faithfull companion for many years, until he disappeared from my bookshelf.

JONATHAN (by Cosey) - BOOKS COVERS



PETITION TO CHINESE PRESIDENT HU JINTAO (Taken from : Bloggers Unite for Human Rights)

Petition to Chinese President Hu Jintao:

As citizens around the world, we call on you to show restraint and respect for human rights in your response to the protests in Tibet, and to address the concerns of all Tibetans by opening meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Only dialogue and reform will bring lasting stability. China’s brightest future, and its most positive relationship with the world, lies in harmonious development, dialogue and respect.

After nearly 50 years of Chinese rule, the Tibetans are sending out a global cry for change. But violence is spreading across Tibet and neighboring regions, and the Chinese regime is right now considering a choice between increasing brutality or dialog, that could determine the future of Tibet and China.

China is a sprawling, diverse country with much brutality in its past, so it has good reasons to be concerned about stability - some of Tibet’s rioters killed innocent people. But President Hu must recognize that the greatest danger to Chinese stability and development today comes from hardliners who advocate escalating repression, not from those Tibetans seeking dialog and reform.

We can affect this historic choice. China does care about its international reputation. Its economy is totally dependent on “Made in China” exports that we all buy, and it is keen to make the Olympics in Beijing this summer a celebration of a new China that is a respected world power.
President Hu needs to hear that ‘Brand China’ and the Olympics can succeed only if he makes the right choice. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention. Click below to join me and sign a petition to President Hu calling for restraint in Tibet and dialogue with the Dalai Lama — and tell absolutely everyone you can right away.

The petition is organized by Avaaz, and they were aiming to reach 1 million signatures to deliver directly to Chinese officials. 1,672,416 have signed–1 million target reached in just 7 days! The petition will grow and be delivered until talks begin… help us get to 2,000,000

References:Prominent Tibetan Figure Held by ChinaTibetan TV reporter and entertainer detained in ChinaHow Open Is the International Internet?Related posts found on this blog:WordPress: Bloggers Unite for Human RightsBloggers Unite for Human Rights
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
This entry was posted on May 14, 2008 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Blog Catalog, Human Rights, blogging, blogging miscellany, legal issues, wordpress, wordpress.com, wordpress.org. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

SITUATION IN TIBET

China detains Drakar and Gaden Choeling Nuns in Kardze – 17 May 2008
In aftermath of the series of pro-Tibet protests in many parts of Tibet since 10 March 2008, the Chinese government has stepped up unprecedented "Patriotic re-education" campaign in an attempt to counter the growing voices of dissidence in the Tibetan society. The "Patriotic re-education" campaign was originally launched to "stem out" Tibetan nationalism in Tibet's religious institutions. However, in recent years it was conducted in secular Tibetan society such as schools and communities.
China arrests 55 nuns of Pang-ri Nunnery for protesting – 17 May 2008
Over 55 nuns in Kardze protested against the Chinese authorities on 14 May 2008 according to reliable information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
China arrests 16 monks for defying "patriotic re-education" – 15 May 2008
China arrests 16 monks and 2 lay Tibetans in Markham County according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE - QUOTATIONS FROM THE FILM

Armand

I have never seen a vision, nor learned a secret, that would damn or save my soul.

The world changes, we do not; therein lies the irony that finally kills us.

Claudia

Locked together in hatred. I can hate Lestat. 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.

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

I'll put you in your coffin!
Lestat

Do you still want death? Or have you tasted it enough?

I've come to answer your prayers. Life has no meaning anymore, does it? The wine has no taste, food sickens you and there seems no reason for any of it.

Don't be afraid. I'm going to give you the choice I never had.

Your body's dying. Pay no attention, it happens to us all.

All I ever need to find you is to follow the corpses of rats.

Pain is terrible for you. You feel it like no other creature because you are a vampire.

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.

[After dancing with a rotting corpse] There's still life in the old lady yet! Louis! [laughing] Come back! You are what you are! Merciful death, how you love your precious guilt.

Claudia ... you've been a very, very naughty little girl
.
Oh, Louis, Louis. Still whining, Louis. Have you heard enough? I've had to listen to that for centuries!

Louis

Do you have enough [tape] for the story of a life?

I'm flesh and blood, but not human. I haven't been human for two hundred years.

-To Daniel Malloy

You lack the courage of your convictions, sir. Do it.

I saw it as though it was my last, but I could recall no other before it.

Forgive me if I have a lingering respect for life.

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, and when I heard her heart in that terrible rhythm, I knew again what peace could be.

A little child she was, but also a fierce killer, now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood with all a child's demanding.

How do we seem to you? Do you find us beautiful, magical? Our white skin, our fierce eyes? "Drink me," you ask me; do you have any idea of the thing you will become?

But the world was a tomb to me, a graveyard of broken statues, and each of those statues resembled her face.

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

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

Claudia: You ... fed on me.
Louis: Yes. And he found me with you, and he cut his wrist and fed you from it, and you were a vampire, and have been every night thereafter.
Claudia: You both did it.
Louis: I took your life ... he gave you another one.
Claudia: And here it is, and I hate you both!

Lestat: More melancholy nonsense. I swear, you grow more and more like Louis each day. Soon you'll be eating rats!
Claudia: Rats? When did you eat rats, Louis?
Louis: It was a long, long time ago, before you were born. [playfully slurps] And I don't recommend them.

[Lestat has just given Claudia a doll]
Claudia: Another doll? I have dozen, you realize.
Lestat: I thought you could use one more.
Claudia: Why always on this night?
Lestat: What do you mean?
Claudia: You always give me a doll on the same night of the year.
Lestat: Oh? I didn't realize.
Claudia: Is this my birthday? You dress me like a doll. You make my hair like a doll. Why?
Lestat (trying to change the subject): Some of these, Claudia, are so old ... tattered. You should throw them away.
Claudia: I will, then!
[Claudia begins removing the dolls from her bed, revealing the naked corpse of a woman lying underneath.]
Lestat: Claudia? Claudia? Claudia! What have you done?
Claudia: What you told me to do!
Louis: Leave a corpse here to rot?
Claudia: I wanted her! I wanted to be her!
[Claudia pushes past Louis and exits the room]
Lestat: She's mad!
Louis: Claudia.
Lestat: Pollutes the very house we live in!
Claudia: Do you want me to be a doll forever?!
[Takes out a pair of scissors and holds them to her hair]
Louis: Claudia, don't!
Claudia: Why not? Can't I change, like everybody else?!
[Proceeds to cut off her hair then runs into her bedroom. Seconds later Claudia's screams are heard from within her room. Louis busts in to find Claudia in front of the mirror with a full head of curls]
Claudia: Which one of you did it?! [pushes past Louis and confronts Lestat] Which one of you made me the way I am?!
Lestat: What you are? A vampire gone insane, that pollutes its own bed?
Claudia: And if I cut my hair again!
Lestat: It will grow back again.
Claudia: But it wasn't always so. I had a mother once. And Louis, he had a wife. He was mortal, the same was she. And so was I!
Louis: Claudia!
Claudia: You made us what we are! Didn't you?
Lestat: Stop her, Louis!
Claudia: Did you do it to me?
[Claudia cuts Lestat's cheeks with the scissors. Lestat looks at Claudia stunned]
Claudia: How did you do it?
Lestat: And why should I tell you? It's in my power.
Claudia: Why yours alone? Tell me how it was done!
Lestat: Be glad I made you what you are.
[Lestat jumps out of the chair he had been sitting in and grabs Claudia by the throat]
Lestat: You'd be dead now if I hadn't. Liked that damned corpse. Now get rid of it!
Claudia: You get rid of it!
[She drops the scissors, then storms out]

Lestat: Absinthe. You've given them absinthe.
Claudia: No, laudanum. It killed them, unfortunately, but it keeps the blood warm.
Lestat: Listen, Louis. There's life in these old hands still. Not quite Furioso. Moderato? Cantabile, perhaps.

Claudia: How could it be?
Lestat: Ask the alligator. His blood helped. Then on the diet of the blood of snakes, toads, and all the putrid life of the Mississippi, slowly, Lestat became something like himself again. Claudia ... you've been a very, very naughty little girl.

Louis: Vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires.
Claudia: How avant-garde!

Armand: They had forgotten the first lesson, that we are to 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 ... 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: Why? So you can have that too? The heart that mourns her; her, that you burnt to a cinder?
Armand: Louis, I swear that I ...
Louis: Ah, but I know you did. I know. You who regrets nothing, you who feels nothing, if that's all I have left to learn, I can do that on my own ... and as much as your invitation may appeal to me, I must regretfully decline.

Lestat: No one could resist me. Not even you, Louis.
Louis: I tried.
Lestat (smiling): And the more you tried, the more I wanted you.

Taglines

Drink from me and live forever

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE - THE FILM

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles is a 1994 film, based on the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. The film was directed by Neil Jordan, and stars Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, and Kirsten Dunst.

Plot

In present time, San Francisco reporter Daniel (Christian Slater), is sitting in a room with a man named Louis (Brad Pitt), who claims to be a vampire. Daniel is unconvinced until Louis turns on the light and instantly appears in front of him, moving extremely fast. Daniel agrees to interview Louis, who recalls his previous life and his turn to darkness.

It is 1791, and Louis is struggling to cope with the loss of his wife and child not caring if he lives or dies. The vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise) attacks him but also offers him a chance to be reborn. Louis decides to take him up on the offer and Lestat proceeds to transform him into a vampire. Lestat begins showing Louis how to live the life of a vampire: sleeping in coffins by day and preying on unsuspecting mortals by night. Louis is not comfortable bringing harm to humans however, and opts for draining the blood of animals instead. Louis continues to defy every attempt that Lestat makes to turn Louis to the vampire lifestyle, having retained his conscience. A fed up Louis finally succumbs and bites his maid and then kills her. He burns down his estate and he and Lestat flee, now homeless.

While wandering the streets of New Orleans, the two continue to terrorize the public with Louis still trying to refuse Lestat's ways. Again Louis gives in to his blood lust and bites a young girl, Claudia (Kirsten Dunst). Lestat arrives at the scene and congratulates him but Louis takes off, disgusted by his actions. However, Lestat later takes him to the girl, who has become ill from the blood loss. With a promise to make her better Lestat transforms her too, as part of his plan to make her his and Louis's daughter to prevent Louis from leaving. Louis reluctantly accepts her but his scorn for Lestat grows.

Claudia, under Lestat, soon turns into a merciless killer, draining everyone around her of their blood, while all the time developing a strong bond with Louis as father and daughter. Thirty years pass and Claudia is left wondering why she is stuck in the body of an eternal child. Lestat explains that she can never grow up due to the effects of the transformation, which she resents him for. She asks Louis how she came to be and Louis takes her to the place where he bit her 30 years before. Outraged, Claudia expresses her hate for him too and walks away, leaving Louis by himself in tears. However, Claudia forgives him for the deed, citing him as "my love, my maker", showing their close bond. She wishes that they leave New Orleans but Louis knows Lestat would never allow them to leave. With that in mind, Claudia tricks Lestat into drinking blood from two dead children. Weakened, she slashes his throat and she and Louis dump his body in a swamp but he later returns, having drained the energy from crocodiles and other swamp life to survive. He attacks the two but Louis sets him on fire and flees to Paris with Claudia, leaving Lestat for dead.

In Paris, Louis and Claudia live in perfect harmony but he is still bothered by the question of how vampires and such an evil came to be. While walking the streets, he is met by a vampire called Armand (Antonio Banderas), who tells him that there are other vampires in Paris and tells him he knows the answers he has been searching for. With that in mind, Louis takes Claudia to see the vampires' show at the Theater. Armand later takes him to their lair and offers him a place by his side while telling him Claudia must leave him. Louis refuses to leave his beloved daughter and turns to leave. Armand warns him that the vampires know about Lestat's murder and that it is forbidden for vampires to kill another vampire. Louis leaves.

Brad Pitt as Louis

Back at his residence he finds that Claudia has brought home a woman, intent on making the woman, named Madeline, her mother, realizing that Louis may leave her to join Armand. Claudia demands that he transform Madeline but Louis is reluctant to do so. He gives her what she wants and tells her they are finally even, having breathed his last breath of mortality still within him by turning Madeline into a vampire. Soon after the Parisian vampires abduct all three of them, imprisoning Louis in a metal coffin meant for all eternity and exposing Claudia and Madeline to sunlight, destroying them. Armand frees Louis, who searches for Claudia and is horrified and grief-stricken to find that the vampires have killed her and Madeline. He later takes revenge upon them all, save for Armand, and burns them alive in their own theater as they sleep. Armand arrives in time to help him escape and once again offers him a place by his side. Louis once again refuses, knowing that Armand did nothing to prevent the vampires from murdering Claudia, and leaves him for good.

Decades pass with Louis exploring the world by himself, alone. He later finds Lestat, still alive but forever traumatized. He asks Louis to rejoin him, like old times, but Louis rejects him and leaves. At this point Louis concludes the interview, which Daniel, the interviewer, cannot accept. He asks Louis to transform him so he can see what is truly like to be like him, but Louis grasps him in a fit of rage and vanishes. Daniel hurriedly runs out of the hotel room into his parked car and drives away, feeling happy with his interview as he plays it through the cassette player. Just then, Lestat attacks him and takes control of the car. He then offers Daniel "the choice [he] never had."

Cast

Tom Cruise ... Lestat de Lioncourt
Brad Pitt ... Louis de Pointe du Lac
Kirsten Dunst ... Claudia
Stephen Rea ... Santiago
Antonio Banderas ... Armand
Christian Slater ... Daniel Malloy
Virginia McCollam ... Whore on Waterfront
John McConnell... Gambler
Mike Seelig ... Pimp
Bellina Logan ... Tavern Girl
Thandie Newton ... Yvette the Creole slave
Indra Ové ... New Orleans Whore
Helen McCrory... Whore #2
Lyla Hay Owen ... Widow St. Clair
Lee E. Scharfstein ... Widow's Lover (as Lee Emery)
Domiziana Giordano ... Madeleine


Differences between the book and the film

Film-F:
Book-B:

F:Louis is grief-stricken over the death of his wife and child.
B:Louis is depressed and blames himself for the death of his brother.

F:After Lestat 'sires' Louis, they sleep in separate coffins.
B:In the novel, Louis and Lestat initially share a coffin.

F:Lestat never appears in Paris after Louis sets him on fire in New Orleans.
B:After Claudia and Madeleine are destroyed, Louis encounters Lestat at the Théâtre des Vampires, where he has testified to Armand that Claudia had tried to kill him.

F:Claudia cuts off her hair in a fit of rage in order to try and change her appearance. It grows back immediately afterwards.
B:Lestat's mother does this in "The Vampire Lestat" after Lestat changes her into a vampire in order to save her from death.

F:When Lestat drinks from the twin boys Claudia has given him as a "gift" (both have been drugged with laudanum, Claudia says she used "brandywine"), he is severely weakened as drinking "dead blood" has negative effects on vampires.
B:It is not the dead blood that weakens Lestat, it is the fact that Claudia has drugged them with absinthe and laudanum.

F:At the end of the film, Daniel the interviewer is attacked in his car by Lestat, who implies that he'll turn him into a vampire.
B:Daniel leaves Louis intending to seek out Lestat in New Orleans. He is turned into a vampire by Armand in The Queen of the Damned.

F:It is implied that Claudia and Louis travel to various countries without finding any other vampires.
B:Louis and Claudia find a race of mindless vampires in Transylvania.

F:After the burning of the Théâtre des Vampires, Louis rejects Armand and travels the world alone.
B:After the burning of the Théâtre des Vampires, Louis and Armand travel the world together, until parting ways in New Orleans.

F:There is no mention whatsoever of any of Lestat's family.
B:Lestat's father is still alive, yet blind and near death.

F:Lestat viciously kills the prostitutes in the hotel room, which in turn upsets Louis, making him wander the streets of New Orleans in a depressed daze, until he comes upon Claudia and feeds on her.
B:Lestat kills the prostitutes in the hotel after Louis feeds on Claudia. Claudia is in an orphan hospital, on the verge of dying from her wounds when this scene takes place.

F:Claudia appears to be around 11 years of age when she's turned into a vampire.
B:Claudia is said to be no older than 5 years old when she's turned into a vampire.

F:The Vampires cry regular tears and do not sweat.
B:The Vampires in the books weep tears of blood and their sweat is also tinged with blood.

F:After Louis burns down his manor, he and Lestat seek refuge in a "filthy cemetery".
B:After Louis burns down Pointe Du Lac Manor, he seeks the help of a beautiful plantation master by the name of Babette. He convinces her to give him and Lestat shelter from the sun. The next night, she attempts to kill Louis, thinking he's from the Devil himself.

Casting

British actor, Julian Sands was considered to play the role of Lestat by Rice herself, but because Sands was not a known name, being only famed for his performance in A Room with a View, he was rejected and the role was given to Tom Cruise. This was initially criticized by Anne Rice, who said that Cruise was "no more my Vampire Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler" and the casting was "so bizarre, it's almost impossible to imagine how it's going to work." Nevertheless, she was satisfied with Cruise's performance after seeing the completed film, saying that "from the moment he appeared, Tom was Lestat for me" and "That Tom did make Lestat work was something I could not see in a crystal ball," yet Cruise's casting remains controversial[citation needed].

River Phoenix originally was cast for the role of the interviewer before he died.[1] The film was dedicated to him.

Johnny Depp turned down the role of Lestat.[2]

Soundtrack

Interview with the Vampire soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal was nominee for the Academy Award, but it lost the Oscar to The Lion King (soundtrack by Hans Zimmer)


Trivia

In the Spider-Man novelization, Harry tells Mary Jane that he is reading Interview with the Vampire. Mary Jane replies that she saw the movie and the little kid in it creeped her out. Kirsten Dunst plays Claudia in Interview with the Vampire and Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man.


References

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE - THE NOVEL

Interview with the Vampire is a vampire novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976. The novel, the first to feature the enigmatic vampire anti-hero Lestat, was followed by several sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles. A film version, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, was released in 1994 starring Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst and Tom Cruise.


Publication and critical reaction

Published in 1976, Interview with the Vampire quickly became a cult success, and a prominent influence on present Goth culture. The novel was set apart from its predecessors of the vampire genre by its confessional tone from the vampire's perspective, touching on existential despair and the sheer boredom of lifeless immortality.

Rice reported in her biography that the themes of vampirism and the tone of the book echoed the loss of her daughter Michele from leukemia in 1972. Interview is distinct from its sequels in its sombre tone, and subsequently the perspective shifts to that of the vivacious Lestat. Nevertheless, it remains the best-selling and best-received of Rice's books.

Plot summary

In San Francisco, a vampire named Louis tells his 200-year-long life story to an interviewer (Daniel Molloy, although only referred to as "the boy" in the novel).

In 1791, Louis was a young plantation owner living south of New Orleans, Louisiana. Distraught and suicidal over the death of his brother (his wife and daughter in the movie), which he blames himself for, Louis is approached by a vampire named Lestat, who desires his plantation. Lestat turns Louis into a vampire (although initially Louis merely begs to be killed) and the two become immortal companions. Lestat spends some time feeding off the local plantation slaves, while Louis feeds from animals; Louis finds it impossible to disconnect himself from his mortal morals and engage in murder.

Louis and Lestat are forced to leave when Louis' slaves begin to fear the monsters with which they live and instigate an uprising. Louis sets his own plantation aflame; he and Lestat exterminate the plantation slaves to keep word from spreading about vampires living in Louisiana. Louis bends under Lestat's influence and begins feeding from humans, slowly coming to terms with his 'killer' nature while also becoming increasingly repulsed by what he perceives as Lestat's total lack of compassion for the humans he preys upon. Escaping to New Orleans proper, Louis feeds off a plague-ridden young girl one night, whom he finds next to the corpse of her mother. As the girl reaches the point of death, Lestat then turns her into a vampire "daughter" for them, naming her "Claudia" (her real name is never revealed).

Louis is horrified that Lestat has turned a child into a vampire, but instantly falls in love with Claudia and cares for her tenderly and dotingly. She takes to killing easily, but Claudia begins to hate Lestat as she realizes she can never grow up; although her mind matures into an intelligent, assertive and seductive woman, her body remains that of a five-year-old girl. After 65 years of living together, Claudia hatches a plot to dispose of Lestat by poisoning him and cutting his throat. Claudia and Louis then dump his body into a nearby swamp. After realizing that they seem to now be the only vampires living in America, Claudia desires to travel to Europe with Louis and seek out "Old World" vampires.

As Louis and Claudia prepare to flee to Europe, Lestat appears, having survived and recovered from Claudia's attack, and attacks them in turn. Louis sets fire to their home and barely escapes with Claudia, leaving a furious Lestat to be consumed by the flames.

Arriving in Europe, Louis and Claudia seek out more of their kind. They travel throughout eastern Europe first and do indeed encounter vampires, but these vampires appear to be nothing more than animated corpses, mindless and unintelligible. It is only when they reach Paris that they encounter vampires like themselves - specifically, the 400-year-old vampire Armand and his coven, the Théâtre des Vampires. Inhabiting an ancient theater, Armand and his vampire coven disguise themselves as humans and feed on live, terrified humans in mock-plays before a live human audience (who think the killings are merely a very realistic performance). Claudia is repulsed by these vampires and what she considers to be their cheap theatrics, but Louis quickly falls under Armand's spell and becomes very attracted to him.

Fearing that Louis will leave her for Armand, Claudia demands that Louis turn a human Parisian dollmaker, Madeleine, into a vampire to serve as both a mother figure and a replacement for Louis. Louis at first refuses but, after realizing Claudia's plight, gives in and makes Madeleine into a vampire. Louis, Madeleine and Claudia live together for a brief time but all three are abducted one night by the Theatre vampires. Lestat has arrived - having survived the fire and attempted murder in New Orleans - and his accusations against Louis and Claudia result in Louis being locked in a coffin, while Claudia and Madeleine are thrown into a cell with an open roof. Louis survives, but Madeleine and Claudia are burned to death by the rising sun. Armand arrives and releases Louis from the coffin. Louis finds the ashen remains of Claudia and Madeleine and is devastated. He later returns to the Theatre late the following night, burning it to the ground as the sun rises and killing all the vampires inside, and leaves with Armand.

Louis and Armand then travel across Europe together for several years, but Louis never fully recovers from Claudia's death and, eventually, he and Armand drift apart and go their separate ways. Tired of the Old World, Louis eventually returns to America and New Orleans in the early 20th century, living as a loner; he feeds off any humans that cross his path but lives in the shadows and never creates another companion for himself.

Telling the boy of one last (either fictitious or simply neglected by Lestat in later books) encounter with Lestat in New Orleans, Louis ends his tale; after 200 years, he is weary of immortality as a vampire and all the pain and suffering to which he has had to bear witness. The boy, however, seeing only the great powers granted to a vampire, begs to be made into a vampire himself. Infuriated that his interviewer learned nothing from his story, Louis refuses, attacks him, and vanishes without a trace.

Recovering from the attack, the boy notes the address of the house where Louis last saw Lestat in New Orleans, and then leaves to track down Lestat - and the "Dark Gift " - for himself.

Film adaptation

Before the novel's publication, Anne Rice had sold the film rights to Interview with the Vampire to Paramount Pictures, who did nothing with the property for the ten years of their contract. With Paramount's option expired, Rice moved the film rights to Lorimar Productions, which was taken over by Warner Bros. in 1988. Producer David Geffen purchased the rights for $500,000, and director Neil Jordan co-wrote the script with Rice, with her receiving the sole credit. The film was released in 1994 with Tom Cruise as Lestat, Brad Pitt as Louis, Christian Slater as the interviewer (a role he received after the death of the originally cast River Phoenix), Antonio Banderas as Armand, and a young Kirsten Dunst as the child vampire Claudia.

The film was a major success, causing a resurgence of interest in the book and sending it back onto the bestseller lists. Rice initially voiced her objections to the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat (her original choice was Rutger Hauer) but, after seeing the finished film, she paid $7,740 for a two-page ad in Daily Variety praising his performance and apologizing for her previous doubts about the film.[1]

Manga adaptation

A Japanese manga adaptation of the book was published in 1994 by Tokuma Shoten. It was also serialized in both Animage and Chara Comics magazines. The manga is by Udou Shinohara.[2]

References

THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS


The Fearless Vampire Killers (Original titled Dance of the Vampires) is a 1967 movie directed by Roman Polanski and written by Gérard Brach. It has been produced as a musical, named Dance of the Vampires.


Plot

This film takes us into the heart of Transylvania where Professor Abronsius and his apprentice Alfred are on the hunt for vampires. Abronsius is old and withering and barely able to survive the cold ride through the wintry forests. Alfred is bumbling and introverted. The hunters come to a small Eastern European town seemingly at the end of a long search for signs of vampires. The two stay at a local inn, full of angst-ridden townspeople who perform strange rituals to fend off an unseen evil.
Whilst staying at the inn, Alfred develops a fondness for Sarah, the daughter of the tavern keeper Yoine Shagal. After witnessing Sarah being kidnapped by the vampire, Count von Krolock, the two follow his snow trail, leading them to Krolock's ominous castle in the snow-blanketed hills nearby. They break in to the castle, but are trapped by the Count's lecherous hunchback servant, Koukol. Upon being taken to see the count, he affects an air of aristocratic dignity whilst he cleverly questions Abronsius about his interest in bats and why he has come to the castle. They also encounter the Count's son, the foppish (and homosexual) Herbert. Meanwhile, Shagal himself has been vampirized and sets on his plan to turn Magda, his beautiful maidservant, into his vampire bride.

Despite misgivings, they accept the Count's invitation to stay in his ramshackle gothic castle, where Alfred spends the night fitfully. The next morning, Abronsius plans to find the castle crypt and kill the Count, seemingly forgetting about the fate of Sarah. The crypt is guarded by the hunchback, so after some wandering they climb in through a roof window. However, Abronsius gets stuck in the window and it is up to Alfred to kill the Count, which he feels unable to do. He has to go back outside to free Abronsius, on the way coming upon Sarah having a bath in her room. She seems oblivious to her danger when he pleads for her to come away with him.

Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski in The Fearless Vampire Killers.

After freeing Abronsius, who is half frozen, they re-enter the castle. Alfred again seeks Sarah but meets Herbert instead, who first attempts to seduce him and then, after Alfred realizes that Herbert's reflection does not show in the mirror, reveals his vampire nature and attempts to bite him. The two flee from Herbert through a dark stairway to safety, only to be trapped behind a locked door. They also realise night is falling. As they watch horrified, the gravestones below open up and they see that there are many vampires at the castle. The Count appears, mocking them and tells them their fate is sealed. He leaves them to attend a dance, where Sarah will be presented as the next vampire victim.

However, the hunters escape by boiling water under a cannon and blowing off the door, and come to the dance in disguise, where they grab Sarah and flee. Escaping by horse carriage, they are now unaware that it is too late for Sarah, who bites Alfred, thus allowing vampires to be released into the world.

Cast

Jack MacGowran as Professor Abronsius
Roman Polanski as Alfred, Abronsius's assistant
Ferdy Mayne as Count von Krolock
Iain Quarrier as Herbert von Krolock
Terry Downes as Koukol, Krolock's servant
Alfie Bass as Yoine Shagal, the innkeeper
Jessie Robins as Rebecca Shagal
Sharon Tate as Sarah Shagal
Fiona Lewis as Magda, Shagal's maid

Production

Coming straight on the heels of Polanski's international success with Repulsion, the film was mounted on a lavish scale - color cinematography, huge sets in England, location filming in the Alps, elaborate costumes and choreography suitable for a period epic. Previously accustomed only to extremely low budgets, Polanski chose some of the finest English cinema craft artists to work on the film: cameraman Douglas Slocombe, production designer Wilfrid Shingleton. Polanski engaged noted choreographer Tutte Lemkow, who played the titular musician in Fiddler on the Roof, for the film's climactic danse macabre minuet.

During filming the director decided to switch formats to anamorphic while filming on location. Flat scenes already filmed were optically converted to match.

In his autobiography, Roman Polanski discusses some of the difficulties in filming The Fearless Vampire Killers: "Our first month's outdoor filming became a series of ingenious improvisations, mainly because the last-minute switch from one location (Austria) to another (Ortisei, an Italian ski resort in the Dolomites) had left us so little time to revise our shooting schedules. The fact that we were filming in Italy entailed the employment of a certain number of Italian technicians, and that, in turn, bred some international friction. Gene Gutowski (the film's European producer) rightly suspected that the Italians were robbing us blind."

Despite numerous production headaches, Polanski is said to have enjoyed making the film. His cinematographer, Douglas Slocombe, was quoted by Ivan Butler in his book, The Cinema of Roman Polanski, as saying, "I think he (Roman) put more of himself into Dance of the Vampires than into another film. It brought to light the fairy-tale interest that he has. One was conscious all along when making the picture of a Central European background to the story. Very few of the crew could see anything in it - they thought it old-fashioned nonsense. But I could see this background....I have a French background myself, and could sense the Central European atmosphere that surrounds it. The figure of Alfred is very much like Roman himself - a slight figure, young and a little defenseless - a touch of Kafka. It is very much a personal statement of his own humour. He used to chuckle all the way through."

When the film was first released in the United States, MGM wanted to market it as a farce by saddling it with a longer title - The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck. The director was less than pleased. Not only did Martin Ransohoff, the American executive producer, change the original title from the more eloquent Dance of the Vampires, he also chopped out 16 minutes of footage, redubbed some of the actors' voices, and tacked on a pre-credit slapstick cartoon sequence as well as a scene of the famous MGM lion transforming into a grinning, fanged vampire.

Though it was critically panned on its initial release, The Fearless Vampire Killers has garnered latter-day praise for its vivid atmosphere and audacious balance of broad comedy with Hammer Films-style horror. The eventual murder of Sharon Tate at the hands of the Manson Family gang has lent an additional notoriety to the production.

This film was the source material for the wildly popular European stage musical Tanz der Vampire. It is peppered with numerous references to King Richard III of England, who even appears in the ball scene.


Style and Themes

The Fearless Vampire Killers was Polanski's first feature to be photographed in color and using a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film's striking visual style, with its snow-covered, fairy-tale landscapes, recalls the work of Russian fantasy filmmakers Aleksandr Ptushko and Alexander Row. Similarly, the richly textured, moonlit-winter-blue color schemes of the village and the snowy valleys evoke the magical, kaleidoscopic paintings of the great Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall, after whom the innkeeper in the film is named.

The Transylvanian village in the film appears to be a kind of Jewish shtetl. The terror that the tall blond vampires inflict upon the local Jewish peasant community there can be interpreted as a faint analogy for the pogroms carried out by the Cossacks against the Jews in Tsarist Russia[citation needed] — or even a metaphor for the German occupation of Poland during World War II and the Holocaust.[citation needed] If the latter interpretation is accepted, The Fearless Vampire Killers may have been inspired (in part) by Polanski's own traumatic childhood experience in Krakow. The film certainly seems to evoke the sense of a perfectly innocent and joyous childhood experience that is suddenly threatened and despoiled by malign outsiders.

The film is also notable in that it features Polanski's love of winter sports, particularly skiing. In this respect, The Fearless Vampire Killers recalls Polanski's earlier short film, Ssaki.

Soundtrack

The score was provided by Krzysztof Komeda, who also scored Rosemary's Baby.

External links

BLOOD FOR DRACULA - ANDY WARHOL'S DRACULA

Blood for Dracula (also known as Andy Warhol's Dracula) is a 1974 film directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Andy Warhol and Andrew Braunsberg. It stars Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Maxime McKendry, Stefania Casini, and Arno Juerging. Roman Polanski and Vittorio de Sica appear in cameo roles.

The film was shot on locations in Italy and was partly improvised as the filming of Flesh for Frankenstein by the same team had been quicker and less costly than expected.


Plot synopsis

A sickly and dying Count Dracula must drink virgin blood to survive travels from Transylvania to Italy. With a shortage of virgins in Romania and thinking he will be more likely to find a virgin in a Catholic country, Dracula befriends Marchese di Fiori (played by de Sica), an impecunious Italian landowner with a lavish estate falling into decline, who wants to marry off his daughters to a wealthy aristocrat.

Of di Fiori's four daughters, two regularly enjoy the sexual services of Mario, the estate handyman (played by Dallesandro), a bemuscled Marxist with a hammer and sickle painted on his bedroom wall. The youngest and eldest are virgins, but the latter is thought too plain to be offered for marriage, and the youngest is only age fourteen. Dracula obtains assurances that all the daughters are virgins and drinks the blood of the two who are considered marriageable. However, both are non-virgins and their tainted blood make Dracula ill. Mario realises the danger to the youngest daughter in time and ostensibly rapes her for her own protection. But in the meantime Dracula has drunk the blood of the eldest daughter, turning her into a vampire. After more carnage, the peasant Mario commands the estate.


Themes

In one interpretation, di Fiori and his family represent European traditional values, and Morrisey produces a narrative of a doomed Europe that is self-destructing as the bourgeoisie attempts to survive making an alliance with the aristocracy while the aristocracy (represented by the pathetic Dracula in what some consider one of Kier's best performances) is losing the battle of power against the powers of industry and modernity.


External links

TO BE OR NOT TO BE - MEL BROOK'S WAY

To Be or Not to Be is a 1983 20th Century Fox comedy film directed by Alan Johnson, produced by Mel Brooks with Howard Jeffrey as executive producer and Irene Walzer as associate producer. The screenplay was written by Ronny Graham and Thomas Meehan, based on the original story by Melchior Lengyel, Ernst Lubitsch and Edwin Justus Mayer. It is a remake of the 1942 film of the same title.

This remake was one of the first major American films to acknowledge that homosexuals were persecuted by the Third Reich, along with other Holocaust victims. Aside from the homosexuality issue, this version was extremely faithful to the 1942 version, and in many cases dialogue was taken verbatim from the earlier film. The character of the treacherous Professor Siletsky (here spelled Siletski) was, however, made into more of a comic figure, and even into somewhat of a buffoon, whereas in the original he was the one completely serious character in the film.

Notes

A gag starts off the Mel Brooks version with Brooks and Bancroft performing the song "Sweet Georgia Brown" in Polish, and after the performance the two engage in a quarrel backstage - still in Polish - until an announcer calls out: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the interest of clarity and sanity the rest of this movie will not be in Polish."

In an evident tribute to Jack Benny (Benny Kubelsky) the beleaguered couple moves into the apartment of their friend, Sascha, at Number 52 Kubelsky Street.

Whenever the beleaguered German commanding officer, Colonel Erhardt, falls for the numerous tricks played on him, he roars for his assistant, "Schulz!". For his humorous performance of Erhardt, Charles Durning was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.

On the movie's soundtrack album, but not in the movie, is a novelty rap song entitled To Be or Not to Be (The Hitler Rap). This song was released as a single, complete with music video, and peaked at #12 on the US charts in February 1984.

External links

TO BE OR NOT TO BE - HAMLET'S SOLILOQUY

Kevin Kline in Hamlet's Soliloquy



“To be, or not to be, that is the question;

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to — 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life,

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.”
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...