Be prepared for vampires who are real creatures

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 1998)

Neither did I read Anne Rice's book, nor am I familiar with movies about vampires.
Anyway I'd like to comment on this movie which is still beautiful in all its ugliness and sort of disturbing in all its beauty. I hate vampires only supposed to look like horrifying monsters (like those from "From Dusk Till Dawn", which I haven't seen), that is trash! These vampires instead - whatever a vampire may be - are real creatures, they feel love and hate, they are powerful and dumb, they try to enjoy themselves and they are desperate. Desperately seeking for the meaning of it all - which isn't there. The movie doesn't make sense - but the way these vampires live and the way they fail to cope with their bizarre existence makes sense.
Brad Pitt is appropriate in the lead, but the really good actors here are Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst and Stephen Rea.
Someone else already objected to Brad Pitt's and Antonio Banderas' hair. So do I. There are scenes when Brad Pitt looks like an ugly woman. But Tom Cruise's make-up is great, remember the scene when Claudia and Louis are leaving for Europe and Lestat returns and plays the piano. His make-up is emphasizing his voice in a fascinating way. Kirsten Dunst's make-up is great as well, but it's scary since it really makes her look like a doll. The scene when she freaks out and tries to cut her hair is unpleasantly eerie.
However, her performance is amazing. This 11-years-old girl is an even younger child and she is old, she is loving, she is evil, she is "avant-garde", her facial acting is terrific. I'm glad she was at least nominated for a Golden Globe.
Tom Cruise's Lestat is not a villain as far as I can see. He is a vampire who enjoys being one. And in the movie he is even funny in a macabre way, especially when he "makes" Claudia and talks about "one happy family".
The relationship of Claudia and Louis is very sweet, isn't it? The only scene which actually disgusts me is when Louis takes revenge on Santiago and the other vampires, it's nothing but brutal and ugly. And I don't like the frightening music that suddenly comes up several times - it just doesn't fit to the movie's basic tone. I voted 8 out of 10.
Check it out, but be prepared: It's a world apart - and any search for the meaning of this world will be desperate.
Oh... and if you mind, be prepared to the slight but not deniable homo-erotic tendencies of Lestat, Armand and even Louis. And still there is one thing I forgot: Great buildings!