Interview with the Vampire

The first time I saw Interview with the Vampire was my freshman year in college. I had always been interested in seeing it, so when I noticed my friend had a copy of it on his self I made him watch it with me. I liked the film but it never became one of those films that I felt I had to own. While flipping through channels tonight I saw that the SyFy channel was showing it and decided it was time for another go. The film was just like I remembered it. I liked the way they made you look at the old ideas of vampires and question our fascination with them. I enjoyed Louis and his attempt to keep his humanity and you can't help but love Cruise's eccentric Lastat. I also find Kristen Dunst's portrayal of Claudia to be particularly haunting and an interesting look at the effects that being a vampire has on the person. I will agree with the critics that Louis does get annoying after a while with his constant brooding and that the film does have it's moments when it just drags on but I still love the ideas it presents.

However while I was watching the film it really wasn't the film that truly intrigued me this time but the way the SyFy channel presented it. The first thing I noticed were the commercials. I realize any time you watch a movie you always have to deal with commercials but Interview with the Vampire really seemed to emphasize the change. Interview is an extremely dark film and really emphasizes that darkness throughout the film. So when the channel went into commercials the difference almost seemed exaggerated. You went from watching an almost black screen to a bright white background. It really drug you out of the film and really reminded you where you were. Another aspect of this viewing that I noticed was the way they handled the sexuality in the film. Throughout the film there are quite few scenes that are very explicit. And even though it is being shown on cable it's still a little too much to be shown the way the film intends. There are two scenes in particular that I noticed while watching the film. At one point Claudia sees a woman washing herself through a window. Claudia becomes obsessed with the woman and what she represents, growing up. In every scene involving this woman she is naked to truly show what it is that Claudia is lacking. It was interesting to see this on television because they completely removed her chest. Even in a drawing that Claudia was doing of the woman they removed the breasts so that they show the film on television. Another scene occurs while Claudia and Louis are in Paris. They go to show that involves only vampire actors and in one act they bring out a woman and feed on her in front of the audience. At one point they entirely undress her and have her standing on the stage. To make the scene presentable SyFy blurred out all of the parts that would be inappropriate for television. It's always interesting to see censorship in action and it just seemed ridiculous in this film. In the end watching this movie on television was an interesting look at the effects television has on the viewer and the way they look at a movie.