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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:31:50 GMT 10
Here's the script for it...
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:33:27 GMT 10
Part 1 -- Introduction
(*Music starts) Geffen Pictures Presents Neil Jordan film Tom Cruise
Brad Pitt
Antonio Banderas Stephen Rea And Christian Slater
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
The vampire chronicles Kirsten Dunst
Domiziana Giordano Thandie Newton Indra Ove Laure Marsac casting Juliet Taylor and Susie Figgis Vampire makeup and special effect Stan Winston Costume designer Sandy Powell Music Elliot Goldenthal Film editors Mike Audsley Joke Van Wijk Production designer Dante Ferretti Director of photography Co-producer Remond Morris
screenplay by Anne Rice based on her novel
Producers David Feffen and Stephen Woolley Directed by Neil Jordan
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:34:14 GMT 10
Part Two -- San Francisco
EXT. SAN FRANCISCO - (Street noise, and street people. The Camera moves along the streets of San Francisco, then it scans upward at a window in an apartment building. There is a person in shadows standing at the window.) INT. ROOM-NIGHT (San Francisco) - A small bare room, illuminated only by the streetlight coming through the window. A hand presses a cassette into a recorder and fiddles with a small microphone. Malloy sits over a table fiddling with the tape. He is young, half-shaven, dressed in T-shirt and jeans. He looks too -- Louis, who stands by the window, looking out on the street, with his back to Malloy. Louis is dressed in an old-fashioned suit.
Louis (L):So you want me to tell you the story of my life. Interviewer-Malloy (I): Like I said, (*Music ends) That's what I do, I...ah interview people I'm a collector of lives. FM radio KFRC. L: (quietly interrupting) You would have to have a lot of tape for my story. I: That's no problem, I've got a bag full of tape right here. L: You followed me here didn't you. I: I suppose I did. You seem very interesting, this is where you live? (Light cigarette) L: No, just a room. I: Now what you say we get started? (Playfully, almost teasing) So what do you do? L: I'm a vampire. I: (Malloy laughs) hu, That's something I haven't heard before, you ah you mean this literally I take it. L: Absolutely, I was waiting for you in that alleyway, watching you watching me, then you began to speak. I: Oh, What a lucky break for me. L: Perhaps lucky for both of us. I:(Smoke) You ah said you where waiting for me, what where you going to do, kill me, drink my blood? All that stuff? L: Yes, but you needn't be concerned of that now. I: You really believe this don't you? That you're a vampire. L: (Still in shadow he turns from the window and approaches the table.) We can't begin this way, let me turn on the light. I: I thought vampires didn't like the light. L: We love it. I only wanted to prepare you. (With super fast speed, Louis cross the room flipping the switch to the overhead lamp. Louis sits down in his chair again. LOUIS' FACE-appears inhumanly white, eyes glittering. Inhuman or not alive. the effect is subtle, beautiful and ghastly.). I: Christ! (The Malloy jumps from his chair. He struggles to suppress fear and understand.) L: Don't be frightened, I want this opportunity. I: How the hell did you do that? L: Same as you do. A series of simple gestures, only I move to fast for you to see. I'm flesh and blood, but not human. I haven't been human for 2 hundred years, please (offer hand). How can I put you at ease, shall we begin, like David copper field, I am born I grew up, Or shall we begin when I was born into darkness as I call it.(The Interview sits down. Malloy is speechless, frightened yet enthralled. ) L: That's really where we should start, don't you think? I: Your not lieing to me are you? L: Why should I lie. Louie's Voice (LV): 1791 was the year it happened,(Dock men) I was 24 younger then you are now, but times where different then, I was a man at that age, the Master of a large plantation just south of New Orlands,
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:35:19 GMT 10
Part Three -- Meeting Lestat
DISSOLVE TO: EXT. LOUISIANA-DAY (1791) (A disheveled Louis, hair in pigtail, in deep pocket frock coat, rides his horse through the fields of indigo, passing an overseer and slaves at work. He passes slave quarters and the distant colonial mansion of Pointe du Lac. He is in front of an elaborate tomb one in Greek Style, drinking at the foot of a statue.) LV: I had lost my wife in childbirth, she and the infant had been buried less then half a year. (The statue is of a marble angel, feminine, her arms crossed on her chest) LV: I would have been happy to join them,(Crickets chirping. He drinks from a pocket-flask. His face is ashen.) I couldn't bare the pain of their loss, I longed to be released from it.
INT. WATERFRONT TAVERN-NIGHT (Chicken clucking, more crickets, Tavern People) (Louis in ragged lace and dirty brocade sitting between two whores at a gaming table, drinking absinthe. All around him flatboat men, whores, gamblers, black African freedmen.) LV: I wanted to loss it all, my wealth, my estate, my sanity. (Whore hugging Louis, Louis displays a hand of four aces.) Man Playing Cards: How many aces are in that deck? L: You calling me a cheat?(Man at the table stands in fury, over turning money, cards, drinks. The gambler pulls out a pearl-handled pistol and points it at Louis. The crowd hushes and draws back) Man Playing Cards: I'm calling you a piece of stinking awful.(Man Raise gun, Louie smiles, and opens his lace shirt, exposing his chest. Man's finger on the trigger, his hand shakes.) L: You lack the courage of your convictions sir, do it. (Lestat Enters, looking down from the second floor at Louis.) LV: Most of all I longed for death, I know that now, I invited it. A release from the pain of living.
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.) (Lestat watches quietly, on the street.) LV: My invitation was open to anyone, (Chickens clucking) to the whore at my side, to the pimp that followed, but it was a vampire that accepted. (Lestat standing prominate)
EXT. WHARF - Night (Louis, quite insensible, being propped up against a wall by the whore in a dank wharf over the water. The pimp rifles his pockets, then pulls a knife, about to slice his throat) Pimp: (The Pimp holds the dagger at Louis throat.) Give me your money or you die. (A shadow falls over him. He turns, and we see 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, insensible. Close on his face, as we hear the last breaths of life of the whore.) (Lestat hisses, and bites Louis. Louis Gasps. On Louis's face every muscle rigid, teeth clenched, as the blood is drained from him. They float in air. They are 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. ). Lestat (E): Do you still want death? Or have you tasted it enough. L: (Louis can barely get the words out) Enough. (Lestat drops Louis, Louis falls
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:36:04 GMT 10
Part Four -- Louis Becomes A Vampire
EXT. WATERFRONT. DAY. Louis gets to his feet and walks weakly through the mudflats. The sun is coming up over the sea behind him.
INT. LAVISH FRENCH-FURNISHED BEDROOM AT POINT DU LAC.
Louis is delirious in a four-poster bed, shrouded with mosquito netting. Louis tosses and turns, dreaming, murmuring incoherently. Then he opens his eyes.
L: (Louis grabs his pistol from the table and cocks it.) Who are you, what are you doing in my house. I've come to answer you prayers. (Lestat is exquisitely dressed in French clothing, stands by the bed smiling. In the light of the candle we see that he is not human; skin too white; eyes too bright. Lestat looks amiable, even mischievous, but impossible - and angel or monster. Louis is becoming spellbound. )
E: Life has no meaning any more does it? The wine has no taste, the food sickens you, there seems 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, one you could never imagine, and it would be for all time. and Sickness and death could never touch you again. Don't be afraid, I'm going to give you the choice, (Lestat helps Louie sit up) I, never, had.
EXT. PLANTATION. DAY. Louis walks along for a short while leaning against a tree. The sun rises with unnatural beauty, over the swamplands and the plantation.
LV: That morning I was not yet a vampire, and saw my last sunrise, I remember it completely. and yet I can't recall any sunrise before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn as if it where the first. And then I said farewell to sunlight and set out to become what I became.(Louie sitting down quietly)
EXT. CEMETERY. NIGHT.
Louis sits again in front of the crypt. Lestat appears beside him, radiant, beautiful.
E: Have you said your good byes to the light? (Lestat Bite Louie's neck, Louie Scream, moan, claw at Lestat. Lestat embraces Louis, obscuring his face. He drinks his blood. We hear two heartbeats, out of sync, coming together. We see Louis' face, growing paler, paler, as his blood is drained. His eyes stare upwards, losing their focus.)
E: (Whispering in Louie's ear) I have drained you to the point of death. If I leave you here, you die, or you can be young always. my friend, as we are now, but you must tell me, will you come or no? L: (Whispered breath) yes...yess.. (Lestat bites his own wrist, Fangs slash his own flesh, blood falls. A few blood drops land on Louie's lips. Louie drinks the blood moving to drink blood from Lestats's wrist. Lestat makes faces, They fly apart, Louie releasing first. Louie groans against the stairs falling onto his back). E: (Laughing abit) Your body's dieing, pay no attention, it happens to us all. (Louie heavy breathing) Now look with your vampire eyes. (The marble statue of Louie's wife looks at him, then close eyes)
INT. ROOM-NIGHT (San Francisco) - Night. I: What did you see? L: No words can describe it. Might as well ask heaven what it sees, no human can know. LV: The statues seemed to move but didn't, (The Statue opens it's human looking eyes, and looks down at Louis, only to close them again, silently.) LV: The world had changed yet stayed the same. (Owl hoot. Lestat leads him into the swamp. Everything astonished Louis, as if he's never seen it before.) I was a new born vampire weeping at the beauty of the night. (Owl hoot, flies across)
INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO. NIGHT. L: Perhaps you would like another cigarette I: Yeah I would, It's not bothering you is it? (Malloy stares at Louis, terrified and enthralled. ) L: No. I: No I wouldn't assume it would be. It's not like your going to die of cancer or anything. L: I don't think so I: What about crucifixes L: Crucifixes I: Yeah, Can you look at them. L: actually I am quiet fond of looking at crucifixes I: What about the old stake threw the heart thing? L: Non-sense I: coffins, how about coffins. L: coffins. coffins unfortunately are a necessity.
INT. BASEMENT. POINTE DU LAC. A brick walled storage room. Two coffins stand on the floor. Lestat enters with a lantern, Louis behind. Lestat is apprehensive and protective of Louis. He pulls back one lid to reveal a satin interior. Louis approaches the coffin, hands trembling as he peers into it. E: Don't worry, Soon you will be sleeping as soundly as you have ever slept. When you wake, I'll be waiting for you, and so will all the world (Louie enters coffin, fearful yet fascinated. He closes the lid.) LV: Blood I was to find was a necessity as well. I awoke the next evening with a hunger I had never felt.
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:36:49 GMT 10
Part Five -- Training Louis, Act one
EXT. NEW ORLEANS. NIGHT. A big, lavish drinking place with a raised stage. Italian actors in buffoonish costumes act crude commedia dell'arte on the stage. Plantation owners in soiled brocade, lace, crooked wigs watch the show as tavern wenches move about. Louis and Lestat by a table, in the shadow of a tree. Teresa, a tavern wench, sits on Lestat's lap, pouring drinks for the two of them. She lifts a fresh glass to Lestat's lips as he flirts with her. Theater Noise: With a ho, and a bang, and a...(Noises in background) Theater Wench: Once you taste this, you will never go to a tavern again. E: You think so cherrie, but what if I rather taste you lips. Theater Wench: My lips are even sweeter still. E: (She kisses him. He lets his tongue play with hers, then runs it down her neck. She swoons with pleasure. Then he sinks his teeth gently in her neck, looking playfully behind at Louis, who if appalled and fascinated. ) My friend, you should taste those lips. Theater Wench: Is his kiss as deep as yours. E: Deeper, Mou Cher (Louie kisses wench, Lestat drinks from wrist) ANTICS ON THE STAGE Laughter rocks the tavern. Theater: (Noises of arguing) What about me? A romp retired a romp... L: I will not take her life.
E: I've done it for you. She's dead, as a door nail, my friend. (He lays gold coins on the table) It's so easy you almost feel sorry for them.
INT. DINING ROOM. NIGHT. E: (Lestat looks up at him and grins.)You'll get use to killing, just forget about that mortal coil. You'll get accustomed to things all to quickly Slave Girl: Your not hungry Mesour. E: Contraire he could eat the whole colony (Laugh cover face with a handkerchief) L: I'm finished with that, Now leave us. (Yvette reaches for his uneaten plate. Louis stops her hand. Holds it for a beat too long, looking at the veins in her wrist. The veins pulsing on her neck.) E: Yet you pretend you fool, don't give the game away. Where lucky to have such a home. (His hand snakes out under the table. It comes up holding a large gray rat. He bares his fangs and slices the rat's throat. He pours the blood into a crystal glass. ) E: Would you Pretend to drink at least, such fine crystal shouldn't go to waste. (He hands the glass to Louis. Louis drinks the blood and stares at it in surprise, then at the dead rat on the fine lace tablecloth. ) I know it gets cold so quickly. L: We can live like this, off the blood of animals? E: (Lestat shrugs) I wouldn't call it living, I'd call it surviving. Useful trick if your caught for a month on a ship at sea. (Lestat strokes the belly of the dead rat, studying it sadly.) There's nothing in this world now that doesn't hold some... L: ...Fascination E: yes. I'm bored with this prattle (He throws the rat away.) L: But we can live without taking human life, it's possible. E: Any thing is possible, Just try it for a week, come in to New Orlands Let me show you some new sport. (laugh)
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:37:46 GMT 10
Part Six -- Training Louis, Act Two
INT. FRENCH QUARTER MANSION -- BALLROOM Small orchestra plays for colonial couples in fine wig and garb prancing to a French minuet. Young women sit in chairs along the walls with their chaperones. Young men stand opposite.
LV: Lestat killed two sometimes three a night. A fresh young girl that was his favorite for the first of the evening. For seconds he preferred a gilded beautiful youth But the snob in him loved to hunt in society. and the blood of the aristocrat thrilled him best of all. A youth of preternatural beauty, silhouetted against French windows. He is talking to an elegant widow, seated, holding two manicured poodles. Lestat stares at the youth with longing. E: The trick is not to think about it. You see that one, Oud Sinclair. She had that gorgeous young phop murder her husband. L: How do you know? E: Read her thoughts. Read her thoughts. L: I can't. E: (He sighs, He leads Louis closer to them. ) The dark gift is different for each of us. But one thing is true everyone grows stronger as we go along. E: Just take my word for it. She blamed a slave for his murder. Imagine what they did to him. Evildoers are easier and they taste better. (He smiles at the young man, who smiles in return.) Oud Sinclair: Ah shantey (Lestat kiss hand), Monsieur Ah shantey.(Louie kiss hand)
EXT. LAWNS. NIGHT. Lestat walks the youth towards a copse of trees. He looks back at Louis, who holds both poodles on a delicate leash, walking with the widow. The minuet spills from the french windows. Young Phop: Where are we going? E: Nowhere. (Trace line on Phop's cheek) Oud Sinclair: Now young man, you really amaze me. I'm old enough to be your grand mother. (She leans towards him concquettishly. Louis, crazed with hunger, sees her as beautiful in the moonlight. He allows her lips reach his. He takes her in his arms, gently, romantically, and kisses her neck.) E: Yes that's the melody I remember this. (The poodles growl. He shoots out an arm and grabs one, then the other. ) Murder, my little papillions. My desilon killed them.
EXT. TREES. NIGHT. Lestat, bending over the body of the dead youth. A scream pierces the night.
EXT. LAWNS. NIGHT The widow on the grass, her poodles dead beside her. Louis is trying to quiet her. E: (Lestat comes from nowhere, claps a hand over her mouth and breaks her neck. He spits in fury at Louis.) Wining coward. of a Vampire who prowls the night, killing rats and poodles, you could have finished us both. L: You can Damn me to hell. E: I don't know any hell. (Louis throws himself on Lestat with extraordinary force, pummeling him towards the trees. Lestat laughing) Now That's more like it, anger fury, that's why I chose you (Flying across a second time. Lestat looks up at him, amazed and amused at the same time.). E: But You couldn't kill me Louie. Feed on what you will rats, chickens, (He laughs.) poodles, I'll leave you to it, and I'll watch you come around. Just remember life without me would be even more unbearable. (He smiles. A sly, pleasurable secret smile.)
EXT. SWAMP BY FIELDS. DAY. Bodies of slaves floating in the swamp, with the bodies of goats. Slaves at the edge throw ropes around the bodies, pull them towards the shore. The drumming grows louder.
EXT. SLAVE-HUT. NIGHT. The woman's scream pierces the sky, as Lestat walks into the night.
EXT. CHICKEN-COOP. NIGHT. Every chicken is dead, bloodies necks hanging down from the cribs. Louis emerges from the entrance, blood on his lips. He hears the scream.
EXT. SLAVE QUARTER. NIGHT. The sound of drumming is heard, African, primal. The woman runs through the quarters, screaming grief. Others gather at doorways, restrain and console her.
EXT. DOVE-COTE. DAY. A beautiful, elaborate eighteenth century dove-cote. Every dove inside is dead, pierced at the neck. A black hand throws in a flaming torch and it bursts into flame.
INT. CABIN. NIGHT. A doll, made in the image of Lestat, is pierced with needles.
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:38:50 GMT 10
Part Seven -- Louis' Rebellion
INT. DINING ROOM IN MANSION. NIGHT. Lestat and Louis sit at the table, the untouched food between them. E: (Throw grapes) Consider yourself lucky, in the Paris a vampire must be clever for many reasons. L: Paris? E: here all one needs is a pair of fangs. L: You came from Paris. E: As did the one who made me. L: Tell me about him, you must have learned something from him. E: I learned absolutely nothing, I wasn't giving a choice remember? L: But you must know something about the meaning of it all. E: (Slam fist on table. Lestat spits out in anger.) Why, why should I know these things, do you know them? (The drumming grows outside. Lestat gripping his temples) That noise, It's driving me mad, that noise. We've been in the country for weeks with nothing but that noise. L: Yes they know about us. They watch us dine on empty plates, and drink from empty glasses. E: Come to New Orlands then, the Paris opera is in town, we can try some French cu, cuisine. L: Forgive me if I have a lingering respect for life. E: (Louis stares. Lestat turns childishly, petulantly. )You'll soon run out of chickens Louie.
EXT. SLAVE QUARTERS. NIGHT. The slaves, gathered on mass around fires. Frenzied drumming, dancing. Lestat rides through, scattering the flames. The drumming stops. The slaves look towards the house. Slowly, they begin to move towards it.
INT. POINTE DU LAC DINING ROOM. NIGHT. Louis, sitting in despair by the table. Yvette, the slave girl enters. Slave Girl: Master Louie, You don't want any supper, no. L: No Mon cher. Slave Girl: We worried about you Master. Why is it that you go riding in the field, and how long sense you've been to the slave quarter. Everywhere there is death. Are you still our master at all. L: That will be all, Yvette. Slave Girl: I will not go unless you listen to me. You must, you must send away this friend of yours. The slaves they are all frightened of him, and they are frightened of you. L: (She comes closer, and he can hear her beating heart. She touches his hair. He takes her hand and brings it to his lips.) I'm frightened of myself. (He kisses her wrist. She suddenly gasps, sharply, withdraws her hand. She sees her wrist is red with blood. She sees the blood on his lips. She screams. Louis stands. She screams even louder. Louis clamps his hand over her mouth. Her hand grips the tablecloth, pulls, bringing the empty glasses and crockery to the floor. )
EXT. MANSION. NIGHT. Fires burning in the distance, round the slave-cabins. The slaves are gathered at the foot of the mansion steps. They see Louis come out, holding the body of Yvette. He is deranged with grief. L: (Slaves gather around Louie, as he carries out the Slave Girl) Here me now, this place is cursed, damned, and yes your master is the devil. Get out while you can. You are all free men, do you here me,(Hand girl to someone else, grab torch, threaten with torch) run, flee, save yourselves.
INT. BURNING MANSION. NIGHT. Louis sets fire to the place. He goes from window to window, lighting drapes, lace curtains, everything. Louis, wandering from room to room of the burning mansion. he sees paintings of his wife consumed by the flames. He is weakening with the fumes, the heat. We can see this in his face, the texture of his skin. Suddenly a large French window cascades inwards and Lestat stands there. E: Auh. Perfect, perfect. Just burn it all, burn everything that we own. Would you have us sleeping in the field like cattle. L: (Solemn) You thought you could have it all. E: Oh, Just shut up Louie. Come here. (Louis stands there, weakened, then collapses onto the floor. Lestat darts forward and catches him before he drops.)
EXT. MANSION. NIGHT. Slaves dance for joy, in the light of the burning house.
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:39:53 GMT 10
Part Eight -- Training Louis, Act three
INT. CRYPT. Darkness. Louis lying on the floor of a large crypt. He slowly comes to.
L: Where are we? E: Where do you think, my idiot friend. We're in a nice filty cemetary. Does this make you happy, is this fitting, proper enough.
L: (Louis laughs softly.) We belong in hell. E: and what if there is no hell or they don't want us there. Ever think of that.
LV: but there was a hell, and no matter where we moved to I was in it. We rented rooms on the water front of New Orlands.
EXT. NEW ORLEANS. EVENING. From the sea, at evening, shrouded in mist.
INT. INN. EVENING. A lavish little supper chamber with coffered bed, fancy French furniture. Open to rooftops of colonial city. Louis sits by an open window looking out over the city. Behind, we can hear the laughter of Lestat and tow female voices. Louis turns and sees -Lestat, in the main chamber with two drugged or drunken whores. One runs her finger down his chest. The other seems out of it. E: Your friend has no head for wine. (Laugh) Whore:(laugh) Don't worry, I can warm that cold skin of yours better then she can. E: you think so? Whore: (laugh) Your warm now. E: But the price is high, your pretty friend I exhausted her. So soft. I can see you lying on a bed of satin. Whore: Such things you say. E: Do you know what manner of bed? (Whore gasps in ecstasy.) Should we put out the light? (Whore whimpers) E: Then put out the light. (More whimpers, Lestat covers her mouth. He slashes her wrist with his teeth, and lets the blood drip into a glass.) It once put out thy light, we cannot give vital breath again. It's needs must wither. (Lestat offers the glass to Louis.) For you Louie, you can pretend it's wine. L: She's not dead. E: you’re in love with your mortal nature. You resist the one thing that can give you peace. L: You call this peace. E: Where predators Our all-seeing eyes are meant to give them detachment. L: The girl, Lestat. E: Then take her Louie end that hunger. L: No. E: Now my child, your tired, you want to sleep. (Lestat picks her up. He walks to his coffin, puts her inside and sits on the lid. We hear muffled screaming and banging from inside. ) Whore: It's a coffin, a coffin, let me out (She keeps screaming 'let me out' from the coffin) E: It's your coffin my love, enjoy it, most of us don't get to know what it feels like. L: Why do you do this? E: I like to do it, I enjoy it. Take your resitece taste pure things, kill them swiftly if you will, but do it. For do not doubt, You are a killer Louie. (He stands up. Lestat flips the lid off. The girl sits up, hysterical. She looks at Louis.) What's that my love? Whore: It's a coffin. E: Why so it is, you must be dead? Whore: I'm not dead am I? L: No you’re not dead. E: Not yet. L:(Louis screams at Lestat) You finish this you finish this now. E: You finish it. Whore: save me from him, save me. You'll let me go, I can't die like this. I need a priest. (The girl grabs Louis and pleads.) E: My friend is a priest, he'll heal your sins before you die, unless unless we make her one of us? L: No. E: Take her Louie, end her suffering, end yours. L: No. E:( Then Lestat, in a fit of pique puts his teeth to her neck. She dies at last. A terrible silence descends. Lestat looks at Louis. ) Now are you happy, Louie? L: My god, to think you are all I have to learn from. E: The old world, they called it the dark gift, and I gave it to you. (Louis leaves without a word. )
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:40:46 GMT 10
Part Nine -- Meeting Claudia
EXT. DANK NEW ORLEANS BACK STREETS. NIGHT. A rat scurried down a gutter, then another and another. Louis' hand grasps the rat. We see him from behind, walking down the street, gripping one, then another. Smaller side street, in which every house is marked with an X. The street is crawling with rats, and Louis is following them. A man passes with a lantern. Man pushing cart: Don't go that way Monsieur, it's the plague. Go back the way you came. L: (Louis smiles bitterly at these words, repeating them to himself.) The way I came.(He walks on, following the rats. ) (A house, the door slightly open, marked with an X. The sound of a child crying inside. Louis walks towards it.)
INT. HOUSE NIGHT. Claudia's Voice: Mama. (A little girl, pulling at a figure in a rocking chair.) (As Louis enters, he sees the woman is dead. Louis gasps in horror. Claudia turns. She is a radiant doll or angel as she stretches out her hand to Louis. She runs to him. Instinctively, he gathers her in his arms. He looks down pitying on her beautiful face. ) Claudia: Please help us. Pa left us and didn't come back. Please wake mama misour. (She snuggles into him, suddenly utterly secure. She tugs at his hair, brings his head down towards her. And we see Louis shiver, as his lips go to her neck. Louie bites Claudia's neck, Claudia Whimpers abit. Her breathing becomes calm as she goes into the swoon. Gradually another sound replaces it.) (Lestat appears, laughing. Suddenly Louis backs away, caught red-handed, the child in his arms. He sees Lestat slapping his knee and laughing in the doorway.) E: My philosopher, my martyr, never take a human life. Oh yes, This calls for a celebration. (Lestat snatches up the dead mother from the chair and begins to dance with her in great circles, humming and talking. Her head falls back.) E: ah nortcha drif far falorna, ah maralorana solo, Áno ta jorn, no de corn no jeraten no.
(Louis stares at the unconscious Claudia in horror, then lets her slip gently onto the bed. Shamefully he wipes his mouth, sees the tiny wounds on her throat.) E: There's still life in the old lady yet.(Louis flees into the street. Lestat drops the mother.) Louie, come back. You are what you are, Merciful death, how you love your precious guilt.
EXT. STREETS. NIGHT. Louis running through an assortment of streets. All the night life of New Orleans flows by him.
LV: Her blood coursed threw my veins sweeter then 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.
EXT. WATERFRONT. DAWN. Fingers of light in the sky. Louis, pale and shivering, walks splashing through the water. He comes to a huge sewer-pipe, crowded with rats. He crawls inside.
EXT. TOWNHOUSE. EVENING. Lestat standing at a window, looking out into the rain.
EXT. WATERFRONT. SOME EVENINGS LATER. The same sewer-pipe. Now the bodies of dead rats lie all around. A pair of fine leather boots splash through the water.
INT. SEWER-PIPE. EVENING. (Louis huddled there, so pale and shivering he seems close to death. Lestat comes through.) E: I'll I need to find you Louie is follow the corpses of rats. Pain is terrible for you, you feel it like no other creature because you are a vampire. You don't want it to go on. L: No. E: (He bends down to him.)Then do what it is in you nature to do. And you feel as you felt with that child in your arms. 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 our selves. I have a gift for you, come. (Lestat offers his hand) Please. (Louie takes Lestat's hand, Louis seems baffled. He follows silently.)
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:41:31 GMT 10
Part ten -- Claudia Becomes A Vampire
INT. INN. SUPPER ROOM. E: (Lestat Enters) She's here. L: Your saying E: You need company, Louie. More congenial then mine. (Lestat holds up a candle and walks towards a large four-poster bed. Claudia lies there, angelic, under the coverlet, two marks on her neck.) Remember how you wanted her, the taste of her. L: I thought I killed her. E: Don't worry Louie, your conscience is clear. (Lestat strokes Claudia's face lightly.) E: Claudia, Claudie. Yes, listen to me. Your ill my precious, I'm going to give you what you need to get well. (Louie grabs Lestat's wrist as he is going to cut it, to feed Claudia) L: No. E: You want her to die then? (Louie releases Lestat's wrist, Lestat punctures wrists and feeds Claudia. Claudia sucks on the wound, reviving, making little noises.) That's it. Yes. Yes. stop, stop. Enough. (Lestat pulls away gasping) (Claudia being transformed. Becoming white yet robust, bright-eyed yet crazed. Her hair becomes beautiful curls, shining in the candlelight. Claudia sits up.) Claudia (C) : I want some more. E: Of course you want more. Maid: Vous m'avez appellez Monsieur? Oh! Quelle belle enfant! E: (The maid comes near the bed, kneels in front of Claudia. Lestat lays his hand on the maid's throat and Claudia watches keenly. Claudia lunges for the throbbing vein in the neck, locking on to the flowing blood. The Maid is transfixed.) E: Gently cherrie, your so innocent, you must not be made to suffer. Good, yes, all right now, stop. ah, ahahaha, that's enough cherrie. You must stop before the heart stops. C: (Claudia looks at the corpse.) I want some more. E: oh I know, but it's best in the beginning, less the death takes you down with it. And you have done very well, not a drop spilled. very good. C: Where's Mama? (Lestat and Claudia sit on the Louis XVI settee. Claudia is a vision, a doll made out of pearl. Animated, voice crisp. ) E: Mama, mama has gone to heaven, like that sweet lady right there, They all go to heaven. L: All but us. E: You want to frighten our little daughter C: I'm not your daughter. E: Oh yes you are, Your mine and Louie's daughter now. You see Louie was going to leave us, was going to go away. but now he's not. Now he is going to stay and make you happy. C: (Claudia runs over to him. She smiles at him.) Louie... L: (Louis is conflicted. He cannot leave her. He touches her cheeks, her hair. Same as his. Vampire skin and hair. He draws in his breath, shocked by her beauty, then he embraces her as a father might a daughter. He looks over her shoulder to Lestat. ) You fiend. E: (Lestat smiles ) One happy family.
INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO. I: (Malloy is open mouthed. ) He did it to make you stay with him. L: Perhaps. he knew me, he knew I would love her more then the waking world But there was more to it. He lavished affection on her there is no doubt about that perhaps in the end he did it because he was lonely to.
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:42:17 GMT 10
Part eleven -- Training Claudia, Act One
EXT. NEW SPANISH TOWNHOUSE. (RUE ROYALE, NEW ORLEANS) Two husky movers bring in furniture through the back courtyard, past the fountain and the banana trees, up the back stairs and into ---
INT FLAT
Striped wallpaper gives way to flowers in the bedrooms. Huge four-poster beds in the bedrooms, and large chests, as big as coffins standing against the wall. Everywhere there are candles and pretty Louis XVI furniture. Lestat gives instructions to the movers.
A DIMLY LIT PARLOUR We see Claudia draped in lace standing on a petit point chair as a DRESSMAKER measure out a garment. Seamstress: Mousier I need more light. I shall go blind if you do not bring me another lamp. Or let me see this child during the day. E: I'm afraid madam my days are sacrosanct. LV: A little child she was, but also a fierce killer, now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood With all a child's demanding. (Dress maker has pricked her hand. A spot of blood appears on her finger Claudia takes her hand.) C: let me kiss it better. (Claudia brings the hand to her lips. The dressmaker abruptly pulls her finger away, in pain again.) E: (Lestat walks through - sees the dressmaker lying dead at Claudia's feet, Claudia still on the chair in the half-finished dress.) Claudia,Claudia now who will we get to finish your dress. The practicality,( Lestat taps claudia's hand lightly in punishment.) remember never in the home.
INT. LOUIS' BEDROOM. NIGHT. Claudia and Louis, sleeping in a coffin together, Claudia's fingers curling his hair. LV: She slept in my coffin at first, curling her little fingers around my hair, until the day came when she wanted one of her own.
INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM. NIGHT. The child's coffin on the floor. The lid lifts. Claudia emerges, yawning, wanders through the flat into. - LOUIS' BEDROOM Where his coffin sits. She slides the lid off, and curls in beside him. LV: But still when ever she awoke she would crawl into mine. They found out fast in those days, before she learned to play with them, to delay the moment till she had taken what she wanted.
EXT. SQUARE. NIGHT. A well-dressed lady, walking through a square lit by gaslight. The lady hears a child's sobbing and stops, turns. Claudia, the picture of lost innocence, sitting on a bench and crying. Large Lady: Ma chere petite fille, why are you crying child? Are you lost my love? (The woman, all solicitude, goes to Claudia. ) C: Mama. Large Lady: ah shush, hush now, don't cry, will find her. Ah monshere (The woman takes Claudia in her arms. Claudia nestles her head in her shoulder, her teeth near her neck.)
INT. PARLOUR. NIGHT. Claudia tinkling with her child's hands on the piano, picking out a hesitant tune. A stern, stiff piano-teacher (male) beating time with a ruler as Claudia picks out scales on the piano. He raps her on the knuckles. Piano Teacher: Miser thumb girl, miser thumb Exact little digit. (Claudia glares at him, then returns to playing, improving rapidly. )
INT. DOLL-SHOP. NIGHT. Piano music over. Mozart, now well played. Claudia staring at a glass case, inside of which are an array of eighteenth century dolls. An old doll-maker looks down on her. Doll Maker: Their expensive my dear, maybe to expensive for a young girl like you. (Claudia looks over at the Doll Maker with an evil gleam in her eye.)
EXT. STREET. NIGHT. Claudia walking along, clutching the doll.
INT. PARLOUR. NIGHT. Claudia playing the piano, now with remarkable dexterity. The piano-teacher sits mute beside her.) (As she plays, he topples over and falls to the ground. We see the puncture-marks in his neck. Lestat, hearing the noise, comes in. E: Claudia what have we told you. C: (Claudia fakes distress) Never in the house. E: Give me some room. (Claudia moves over the Corpse falls off the stool, Lestat starts keeping time to Claudia's playing.)
LV: To me she was a child, but to Lestat a pupil An infant prodigy, with a lust for killing that match his own. Together they finished off whole families. (Family Scene) E: Wonderful, wonderful. Now try something on a more somber note. LV: Time can past quickly for mortals when their happy. With us it was the same, the years flew by like minutes. the city around us grew. Sailboats gave way to steam ships. disgorging an endless menu of magnificent strangers, A new world had sprung up around us, And we where all American’s now.
EXT. RUE ROYALE. NIGHT (1800'S) Street lamps are oil at this period. Houses are now tall two-story Spanish style. Streets are flagstone. Passing carriages are black. Claudia, Louis and Lestat, dressed in the same clothes walking through a raucous carnival with sideshows. Crowd milling around, sailors, whores, children, thieves, freed slaves, Indians.
E: Ah. What I wouldn't give for a drop of good old-fashioned Creole blood. L: Yankees are not your taste? E: Their democratic flavor doesn't suit my palate, Louie. Creole: (Singing) E: Now that is pure Creole, trust Claudie to have found her. What, don't you want her? C: I want to be her. Can I Louie? Be like her one day. E: Oh, Mon Dieu! More melancholy nonsense, I swear you grow more like Louie every day. Soon you'll be eating rats. C: Rats? When did you eat rat's Louie? L: It was a long long time ago, before you where born (Slurp) And I don't recommend them.
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:43:00 GMT 10
Part twelve -- Training Claudia, Act two
LV: Thirty years had pass, Yet her body remained that of an eternal child. Her eyes alone told the story of her age, staring from under her doll like curls, with a questioning that would one day need an answer.
INT. FLAT NIGHT. Claudia is writing at a secretaire. She is writing in a diary with a quill pen in an adult hand. Lestat appears in the doorway. He has a big box in his arms. C: Another doll, I have dozens you realize. E: I thought you could use one more. (He hands her the box. It is a fine Parisian Jumeau doll. She likes it and stokes its face.) C: Why always on this night? E: Why what do you mean? C: You always give me a doll on the same night of the year. E: Oh, I didn't realize. C: Is it my birthday? You dress me like a doll you make my hair like a doll, why? E: (He examines the other dolls.) Some of these are so old, tattered. You should throw them away. C: I will then. E: Claudia, Claudia, claudie, what have you done. C: What you told me to do. L: Leave a corpse here to rot. C: I wanted, I wanted to be here. E: She's mad, L: Claudia E: Once in the house we live in. Claudia stands up quickly, and strides out into the - PARLOUR, She walks to a mirrored cabinet, takes out a pair of scissors. C: Do you want me to be a doll forever. (Lestat doesn't answer.) L: Claudia don't. C: Why not, can't I change? Like every body else? (She continues cutting. She sees Lestat emerge from her bedroom in the mirror behind her then turns to him, an angelic little boy's face now with soft curls around her face, she then runs into her room. Claudia Screams! She stands before the dressing-table, all her long hair grown back over her shoulders. She holds it with both hands, screaming and screaming. Lestat and Louis come through the door.) C: Which one of you did, which one of you did it, which on of you made me the way I am. E: What you are, a vampire gone insane that pollutes it's own bed. C: And If I cut my hair again. E: It will grow back again. C: But it wasn't always so. I had a mother once, and Louie he had a wife. He was mortal same as she and so was I. L: Claudie C: You made us what we are didn't you. (She turns on Lestat.) E: Stop her Louie. C; Did you do it to me? (She runs at him with the scissors, scoring his face. The cut heals. She scores it again. It heals again. She stares at him in horror.) C: (whispering) How did you do it? E: Why should I tell you? It's in my power. C: Why yours alone. Tell me how it was done. E: Be glad I made you what you are. You'd be dead now if I hadn't like that damned corpse. Now get rid of it. C: You get rid of it.
EXT. BALCONY. -NIGHT. Louis follows her outside, onto the porch. There is an old flower-seller going by. C: Tell me why, you got to tell me. L: You see the old woman, that will never happen to you. You will never grow old, and you will never die. C: but it means something else to you, that I shall never , ever grow up. I hate him. Tell me how it came to be that I am this. . . thing.
EXT. NEW ORLEANS STREETS. NIGHT. Louis walking, holding Claudia as if he was about to lose her. LV: For thirty years I had avoid that place, yet I found my way back there, with hardly an upward glance. Louis back in the same street, outside the same house. He stands with Claudia at the window. Claudia stares at him, suddenly very cold, very alert. He can't go on. Claudia's eyes are remorseless. C: You... feed on me. L: Yes. And he found me with you. and he cut his wrist, and feed you from him, and you where a vampire then, and every night there after. C: You both did it. L: I took your life, he gave you another one. C: (Claudia speaks through indrawn breath.) And here it is, and I hate you both. (She runs. )
EXT. STREETS. NIGHT. Louis, walking the streets, shivering. LV: I walked all night, I walked as I had walked years before when my mind swarmed with guilt at the thought of killing. I had thought of all the thing I had done, and couldn't undo. And I longed for one seconds peace.
INT. FLAT. NIGHT. Louis enters, silently, like a corpse. He hears a voice behind him. C: Locked together in hatred. (He turns, sees her sitting in the darkness. She is wearing a tiny nightgown of stitched lace and pearls, weirdly adult and seductive. She comes towards him.) But I can't hate you Louie. (She whispers.) Louie my love, I was mortal to you. 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, Louie. Now it's time to leave him. L: He will never let us go. C: (Claudia smiles.) Oh, really?
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:43:50 GMT 10
Part thirteen -- Claudia's Rebbellion
INT. FLAT. NIGHT Lestat playing the piano. Louis reading. Claudia enters, wearing a cape and hat. She walks to the piano, sits at the end of the piano and stares at him as he plays. E: What is it now? You irritate me! Your very presence irritates me! C: (Sweetly) Does it? E: Yes. And I'll tell you something else! I've met someone who will make a better vampire than both of you. C: Is that supposed to frighten me? E: You're spoilt because you're an only child. You need a brother. Or I do. I'm weary of you both. C: I suppose we could people the world with vampires, the three of us. E: Not you my dear, Claudia. C: You're a liar. But you upset my plans. E: What plans? C: I came to make peace with you, even if you're the father of lies. I want things to be as they were. E: Stop pestering me then! C: Oh, Lestat. I must do more than that. I've brought a present for you. E: Then I hope its a beautiful woman with endowments you will never possess. Claudia stares at him for a moment. C: Why do you say such things? C: You haven't fed enough. I can tell by your color, come. Lestat sighs. She takes his hand and leads him into an inner room. INT. DINING ROOM. NIGHT. Two beautiful youths, lying asleep on a couch, by a table full with a half-eaten meal. Lestat sighs. E: Oh, Claudia, you've outdone yourself. C: Drunk on brandy wine. A thimbleful. When I saw them, I knew they were for you. E: We forgive each other then? Claudia stares at him, sitting. She nods. Lestat bites into the neck of one of the youths, sucks greedily and horribly. Claudia watches him without expression. He finished one, is about to take the other when he staggers. He looks at Claudia. E: Absinthe? You gave then absinthe? C: No. Laudanum. Lestat stares wildly at her, tries to move towards her, and then slips to the floor. E: Laudanum! C: Yes. It killed them, unfortunately. But it keeps the blood warm. Lestat tries to rise. E: You...you let me drink dead blood...you... C: One thing you taught me, never drink from the dead. E: Louis! Louis enters the room. L: My god. E: Louis, put me in my coffin... C: I'll put you in your coffin. She pulls a knife out from under her shawl, walks rapidly to him and slashes his throat. Blood explodes from it. He falls back, fangs bared. Louis looks. The floor is a sea of blood. Lestat has begun to shrivel, as if he'd been a bag of blood. His skin is shriveling against his bones like parchment, his eyes are slipping back into his skull-like face. His lush, beautiful hair remains unchanged. But his clothes are virtually being emptied of the body. It is no more than bones, wrapped in paper and the pupils of the eyes suddenly roll up into the papered skull. C: Louis, pick me up. Louis puts her up above the blood. She stares at the shriveled skeleton in its skin wrapping. She is fascinated. She sees the vampiric blood flow all over the floor. C: Goodnight, sweet prince, may flights of devils wing you to your rest. She stands up, all business suddenly. C: Should we burn him? Bury him? What would he have liked, Louis? Louis looks at her upset. C: The swamp... EXT. CARRIAGE. NIGHT. Louis whipping the horses. Claudia beside him. Lestat's skeleton in the back, with the bodies of the two dead youths. Louis drags out the bodies of the boys. He slides them into the waters of the swamp. We see ripples in the water and the churning of alligators, as they attack the corpses. Louis takes Lestat's skeleton in his arms. He slides it into the waters. The alligators speed towards it. C: He belongs with those reptiles, Louis. L: Then maybe so do we. Every night of our lives. He was my maker. He gave me this life, whatever it is. C: I did it for us, Louis. So we could be free. He stands there, saying nothing. Louis walks her towards the carriage. He lifts her into the carriage and drives off, leaving the silent waters of the swamp.
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Post by spike on Oct 3, 2004 16:44:31 GMT 10
Part Fourteen -- Lestats Vengance
INT. ROOM. SAN FRANSICO I: You missed him. L: He was all I knew, It as simple as that. We where like two orphans learning to live again. We booked passage to Europe. LV: Over the weeks while we waited for the boat to arrive, she studied the myths and legends of the old world, obsessed with the search for what she called our kind.
(Piano music, birds) INT. FLAT. NIGHT. Sturdy mulatto workmen lifting cases and trunks out of the apartment. All the furniture is covered in white sheets. Claudia dressed in a cap and hat, is playing the piano by the light of one remaining oil-lamp. Louis comes from her room with the cage of canaries.
L: Look who we forgot. Let's set them free, yes? C: Yes. L: Yes. (Door bell) It's the carriage (Door bell) He goes downstairs. Claudia plays a moment, then stops. She goes to the window.
THE STAIRWAY -- Louis walking to the door. He opens the door. But Louis has opened the door. Nothing there. He looks around, then back at the room, puzzled.
C: (Claudia appears in the hall.) No Louie! Then at the door again when, swooping into his vision comes the nightmare image of -- Lestat, In filthy swamp-soaked rags, robust again, but his flesh shriveled, covered in scars, his eyes riddled, bloodshot. he roars. Louis throws his body against the door, slamming it on Lestat's reaching hand. The hand withdraws, as Lestat roars. Louis bolts the door.
.
Louis runs up the stairs, sweeps Claudia in his arms, watching appalled as the door shudders with the force of Lestat's body.
IN THE PARLOUR Louis runs through with Claudia in his arms. Lestat is sitting at the Piano playing.
E: Listen Louie, There's life in these old hands still, not quiet fully useful, morerto, catobly perhaps, bless the alligator his blood helped, better dine on the blood of snakes toads, and all the putrid life of the Mississippi, Lestat became like himself again. Claudia you have been a very naught, naughty little girl.
Lestat lunges again at Claudia. Louis hurls the lamp, which explodes him in flame. Louis gathers up Claudia, smothering the burning house, carries her down the back stairs, through the carriage way and through the gathering crowds of mortals into the street.
EXT. STREET. NIGHT. Louis running, with Claudia behind him, holding his hand. He looks back at the flames of the house. Sound of a ship's horn.
C: The ship is sailing without us.
EXT. DECK OF SHIP. NEAR DAWN. Louis stands at the railings in the morning mist as the ship moves down the river. He sees...
LV: Thought the fire spread threw the quarter, I stood on that deck, fearful he would come out again, in the very river like some monster to destroy us both, and all the while I thought Lestat you deserve you vengeance, You gave me the dark gift and I delivered you into the hands of death for the second time.
CITY OF NEW ORLEANS With flame lighting up the sky.
EXT. SHIP. EVENING. The ship, shrouded in mist. A body is slipped into the sea. A priest reads last rites to a mourning family.
L: Though the ship was blessedly free of rats, a strange plague none the less struck it's passengers. Claudia and I seemed immune, we kept to ourselves pondering the mystery of each other.
EXT. SHIP. NIGHT. Passing through the Straits of Gibraltar.
L: We reached the Mediterranean. I wanted those waters to be blue but they where black. Night time waters. And how I suffered then, straining to recall the color in my youth I had taken for granted
EXT. DECK. NIGHT. Claudia, sitting with an easel and sketchpad, sketching the bay of Naples. A beautifully realized drawing, all in shades of grey and black. Louis observes.
L: We searched village after village,
The sketch changes to a sketch of -
THE ACROPOLIS -- In the moonlight.
L: ruin after ruin,
The sketch changes to a sketch of --
TRANSYLVANIA -- And the traditional shapes of the vampire landscape.
L: country after country,
A montage of sketches now - A TRANSLYVANIAN VILLAGE, A GRAVEYARD. RUINED CASTLE AFTER CASTLE, LOOKING INTO THE SKIES... L: and always we found nothing. I began to believe we where the only ones.
INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO. Malloy and Louis, sits in the room together. L: There is a strange comfort in that thought. For what could the damned really have to say to the damned... I: You said you found nothing. L: Peasant rumors, superstions about garlic, crosses, the old stake in the heart, but one of our kind, not a whisper. I: So there are no vampires in Transylvania, no, no Count Dracula L Fictions the vulgar fictions of a demented Irishman.
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