Neil Jordan
Intervista Col Vampiro

I still remember when I used to go to the library with friends, back in elementary school. The goal was to spend a few hours together watching some movies, mostly horror, perhaps because when you're younger, they stimulate the imagination, perhaps because you're looking for thrills. On the shelf of videotapes, there was "Interview with the Vampire," but I never had the courage to watch it because of that face drawn on the cover. Those eyes and that smile have passed down to me over the years a strange feeling of terror: as a child, I couldn't even look at the cover of that tape. A few nights ago, I found this film in my hands, after having forgotten it for who knows how many years. It was an opportunity to savor that old childhood nightmare...

Director Neil Jordan (Academy Award winner in 1993 for Best Original Screenplay with the film "The Crying Game"), brings to the big screen in distant 1994 this "Interview with the Vampire," based on the eponymous novel by Anne Rice. The protagonist is Louis (Brad Pitt) who, after receiving the notorious "bite" from vampires by Lestat (Tom Cruise), becomes a night wanderer himself. But Louis tries in every way to maintain his old semblance of being human, attempting at least initially to avoid human blood in favor of animal blood. His way of thinking and acting has nothing to do with that of Lestat, who is ruthless, sadistic, and exaggerated in his behavior. Their lives will change when, because of Louis, Claudia (played by a very young and extraordinary Kirsten Dunst) arrives.

There are plenty of stories about vampires, their supposed customs, blood, and similar trivialities, and that's precisely why "Interview with the Vampire" is quite a pointless film: it adds nothing to the legends, and as an ensemble entertainment, it doesn’t even manage to convince. For goodness' sake, Jordan's film is perfect from a reconstructive point of view: music, costumes, and atmosphere are of fine quality, but the director's hand has nothing to do with it. His film is a strange and quirky reflection on immortality which doesn't fit well in two hours where nothing happens but smiles and giggles while drinking the blood of some unfortunate prostitute. Moreover, I found the performances by Pitt and Cruise frankly ridiculous, as in their roles as handsome and self-indulgent vampires, they seem like hysterical queens bickering over a handful of flies.

In short, a film that is almost perfect in stylistic appearance, but not at all engaging in purely cinematic terms. There are no noteworthy insights, no air of mystery that such a title would suggest. An opus full of glassy eyes and bloodied fangs. Nothing to lose your (long) hair over...