I like the film in general, my dad said to me " if scuzz made a film it would be something like this". I know the film gets a lot of stick for being so different to the book, but as a film on its own (i.e. not comparing it to the book) then its pretty good, psibbly one of my favs. But if you compare it to the book, and as it is an adaptation of the book, its kinda insulting. But then again it is an adaptiation, they're not ment to be exact, things need to be changed, they only have around 2 hrs less that that even, to get it all across. 2 books of about 500 pages each, its a lot of information. And i hear there were some issues with time, so all in all its not such a bad film for what they had to do.

Although saying all that, boy they coulda done a better job. they definitly cut some corners here. And the Lestat/Jesse relationship, dont get me started, well actually im going to start. I can understand that most people like a good love story, so its good for selling, and it makes things a lot simpler, i guess it works with the script, but i think it makes Lestats character seem more shallow that he is. but as i said 1000 pages into 1hr 30mins of film, pretty hard to get across his depth.

I know it would have been hard to fit this into the film but i was disapointed there was nothing about the Twins in the film. Maharet and Mekare are amazing and with Jesse. I mean Jesse wouldnt go for Lestat, she was interested im him bcoz of the books, but she wasnt interested in him that way. But bcoz they took The Twins out of the film they had to get Lestat to turn her.

Everyone consertrates on how the film insults Lestat thinking that he would never go for Jesse, and I myself am guilty of this, but to be honset and fair to Jesse's character she wouldn't go for Lestat, she was in love ish with, oh god what was his name now, that guy that hung around with Maharet? ah darn its gone, anyway she liked him, ever since he bit her. And of course she was burried in her family atrifacts. She wouldnt have gone to Lestat's concert, unless the Talamasca got her interested in vampires in the first place.

So what do you reckon? and always consider both sides. it always bothers me when people are inconsiderate of the oposing argument. you know when people go " oh it was rubish, coz it isnt exactly like the book". so anyway... i say so alot, ill try and limit my soing.

So out of all 177 fans of this site, no one wants to discuss the film and/or book?

Well, I've given it some thought, and this is what I've come up with on how the film is inaqurate about her character and insults her;

Although inqusitive, she would never stalk a vampire. Yes, she went to New Orleans and explored Louis and Lestat's former home, against orders, but that was a location not an actual being.
She would have notified her loving "aunt" Maharent, had she intended to do go after Lestat, and I'm sure Maharet would have prohibited it, and Maharet is the only person Jesse truly listens to.

She is not stupid enough to so daringly put herself in danger, i.e. go to a vampire bar claiming she knows Marius.

She is in love with Mael, she wears his bracelet. And he is in love with her, he watches over her, and was there at the concert.
Jesse did not ask to be a vampire, and had she known that her beloved Maharet and Mael were vampires, she would not pester them to be one as she does in the film.

The film protrays her as desperate, lowly and highly 1-dimentional. In the book she is far more gracious, wise and has a brain.

And yes in the book Lestat and Jesse do share a moment on stage but this is most definitly not romantic. It was because Lestat is narcassistic, and loved being adored and worshipped by humans. He loved being near them and toying with them, and if I remember correctly ( I read the book a long time ago) he intended on drinking her blood, although I think I'm confused on this.

Jesse mean while felt a connection to Lestat because she read his book and was investagating him for the Talamasca. She'd been to his house, found hidden relics and seen the ghost of Claudia.
She climbed on stage to prove to herself that he was truly a vampire. That Maharent and Mael were vampires.

Lestat says " love you, Jessica" to play with her. Jesse on stage becomes a blubbering wreck, repeating "real" in astonishment.

For a while (untill I trully thought about it ) I regarded this relationship as an insult to Lestat, the book and to Rice only. When I saw the name Jesse I thought instantly of how she ruined the story in the film. But in all truth,the film ruined Jesse, her character, and the fanbase she never got to have.

I would've posted here earlier but i don't keep too much eye on the forums side anyway and then there's my poor eye vision, so I have missed this.

But here I am now. I've talked about my view and thoughts countless times but right now I feel very, very inspired.

Before we start - please remember - I do find the film entertaining and I don't think it completely sucks. Please read my post to the very end and you'll see.

"...and the Lestat/Jesse relationship, dont get me started, well actually im going to start. I can understand that most people like a good love story, so its good for selling, and it makes things a lot simpler, i guess it works with the script..."

It's not even a good love story - it's not even love to begin with - but it sells because people don't know that before they pay for seeing the shit and some don't see it even after that but go delusional. Unless, perhaps, if they they read criticcs first.

And one thing it doesn't do, is work with the script. Or rather, should I say, the rest of the script doesn't work with the Lestat&Jesse part, which is obviously the basic part. But then again, what the hell, the Lestat&Jesse thing in itself doesn't even work, whereas the rest of the script would've worked perfectly well without the L&J - so without the Lestat&Jesse relationship the script would've wotked perfectly! And if everythng else but the Lestat&Jesse parts were left out... it still wouldn't have worked but at least it wouldn't insult the books so much and it wouldn't look so stupid.

I feel, it is stupid to say "it's rubbish because it isn't exactly like the books" because naturally a film can not be that. It could not and it should not, be that.

But just as stupid it is to defend this practicular film for anything it does, in the name of limited minutes. Sure, THEY (the film makers) naturally use that excuse but it miserably false, once people start looking at what exactly the film makers have done.

They call this an adaptation of the books and give an excuse of "limited minutes and information overload" for not adapting the books more accurately. While - They. used. most. of. the. film. with. a. relationship. that. is NOT. in. the. books. what-so-ever. They cannot use limited minutes and information over-load as an excuse for not being more accurate to the books. For leaving so much out. There is no excuse when they did what they did.

And you wish they just left out stuff. But they totally distorted and dismissed whatever they did take from the books. And why did they do that? Clearly to aim at the part that isn't in the books - the Lestat&Jesse. The film screams their desperate efforts to pair the two and they in the end do it regardless of how their storyline doesn't support it at all but the exact opposite. This making the disrespective, abusive insult towards the book even worse.

And just when you thought it couldn'r get worse, you start to really think of how ridiculous the film's story in general is independently. How ridiculous, illogic and unrealistic that so called love story is. No chemistry, no realistic storyline and everything that truly was about love and bond, in the story (and I'm talking purely about the film's story now), is in the very final scene ignored and thrown to garbage box to have their own "lovers" end up together.

Whatever could I be refering to with that?! It's a perfect love story with perfect logic, why can't I see it?! Let me just say: HA. HA. HA.

In the film, Lestat was clearly fascinated by Akasha - in the first place when he meets her as a statue and a little even when he meets her in person - and he even more clearly could not live without Marius, obsessing to find him, to get him back. Becoming suicidally depressed and being obviously deeply touched the moment Marius leaps on the stage to protect him from actually being killed. And naturally, Marius does this because he loves Lestat so much that he would risk his own life to even try to save him. He DID - there was no way he could've with absolute certainty succeded and survived alive on the stage with all those vampires surrounding them. Not even though he was an ancient. Without Akasha's appearance - they would've both been killed right there. Unless of course if they flew away, which they were both capable of but I'm certain Lestat would not agree to do that even if it was Marius telling him. Would Marius have forced him to? Probably yes - sure as hell he would not see the kid getting himself killed because of his stanima and recklessness, even if those are ones of the things in Lestat Marius strongly loves. But the point was that Marius loved Lestat enough to risk his own life to try and rescue Lestat. And I think it originates from the Bible, the very true saying that there is no greater love than to die in the place of someone else. Which naturally of course equals efforts to save someone by risking your own life.
And I wish to remind you what I already said; Lestat really, really, REALLY wanted Marius back in this film. Starting from calling for him many times even though he never got an answer, noticing and saving someone he doesn't even know, just to find out if they know marius, inteniting to kill them if they don't know Marius, well, I could go on but I think I've made my point.

But as for Jesse - his so-called sweetheart in the final scene, who he walks with, hand in hand, smiling...

...he notices and saves her life only because she mentioned Marius's name and intents to kill her when finds out she doesn't know Marius and had lied about knowing him to save her own sorry ass from her own idiotic undertaking, and knew about the man only because she had snooped around his private journal pages, so he insults her with a "Your kind never satisfies my thirst."

When he gets home he seems somewhat impressed that she had figured out he still had the violin and probably hated her a bit less because she had stated the journal had touched her. But then, he seems to have forgotten about her. As later when Jesse makes her second appearance, he seems surprised and asks her in a sincere and slightly frustrated tone that why is she following him and what does she want - hence, HE doesn't want anything from her. And he says with disgusted expression and in annoyed and almost angered tone that he doesn't have time for her wishes, which wishes by the way were brainless. She argues his decision with a bitchy tone and for some unexplainable reason, he chooses to take her to a flying trip - to hang around with her when there would've been Marius around to spend time with and who he had obsessed about to get back for 200 years. But oh yeah, what is that possibility worth after only such a short time as 200 years of desperation and loneliness and yearning for the man. Not much, apparently. And even if we thought Lestat was mad enough at Marius not to want to spend a night with him, there were his band and his adoring fans who he naturally loved too. But why bother to spend time with them - he only said earlier that he had wanted the fans worship with all his black little heart. So let us just have him spend his night with this brainless twat, who he has clearly expressed he hates and doesn't want around.

After the flying trip Jesse almost gets killed by falling, which makes Lestat talk beaytifully about humanity and mortality, clearly saying he finds Jesse beautiful because she's human. He loves her humanity and thinks humanity is precious. He doesn't even imply in any ways that he'd love her. Jesse dismisses all this, begging him to let her be with him even though he never said he wanted that. She's begging him to kill in her the only thing he finds beautiful and interesting about her. And for some unknown reason again, he almost does turn her into a vampire. WHAT THE FUCK?! Way to go! No!!

However he stops just in time, violently psuhes her as far from himself as he could, and becomes angry and offended. (Gees, I wonder why!? Could it be her total disrespect for his feelings and values about humanity/mortality!?) And soon enough clearly intents to kill her again / tun her with anything but loving attitude.

Then in the concert, Jesse brainlessly screams out his name and wants his attention for no reason that I can think of, whatsoever, while Lestat doesn't seem to even remember she exists. And when Marius appears on the stage, Lestat clearly forgets about everything else but marius and how much fun he's having kicking the vampire ass with Marius.

With Akasha he clearly forgot about everyone but Akasha herself until he saw what Akasha really was like and that he had slaughtered mortals with her. So, when Akasha tells him to kill Jesse and he says "She's nothing to me." he most certainly really meant that but why he didn't want to kill her, was most likely because he already had killed so many mortals because of Akasha though he wasn't on her side.

The only thing Jesse had on her side for Lestat's good books was "it touched me" about his journal and that she had understood one bit of it on some deeper level. That really isn't much when looked at the entire picture of what she had said and done all along, which includes numerous major offensive attitudes and actions and total lack of respect towards him. Plus, Marius had returned and he and Lestat had in the concert made up and were all friends again.

So why the hell is he with Jesse in that hand-in-hand tone in the end, instead of having killed her off from bothering him, feeling even remotely sad about Akasha's death and enjoying Marius's company with all his black little heart? And not only does he hang around with J and not do those other things but he hangs with Jesse who he had turned into a vampire, so killing in her the only thing he ever found beautiful about her and so there should be no valid reason for him to care about even her exsistance at all at the point. I think the only valid reason for him to turn her into a vampire would be that he didn't want her to die just because of someone like Akasha, who he clearly didn't exactly love. But then again he obviosuly hated Jesse more than he didn't love Akasha, so... But then again, I think he respected Maharet, who Jesse clearly was important to.

So, after Akasha's death, he goes to Jesse and even looks up as if making a wish or something; that wish was most likely that he still has time to turn her into a vampire, so he wouldn't have yet another human life on his conscience because of his wayward behavour with Akasha. NOT as if he'd love Jesse. And as said, Maharet probably had an affect on that matter too. But after that act, he would've realistically and logically left Jesse with Maharet and hope beyond hope that she leaves him alone - and been sad about Akasha and how he can no longer be a rockstar but must remain in shadows again, and sought and received comfort in Marius's company.

This film has one of the most self-mocking storylines I've ever had the dispelasure to witness. And the saddest thing is I'm not even sure if the film makers see it. And, to add the insult to injury; they butchered the borrowed material (from the books) in the name of something they didn't even make work.

Someone said that the day Twilight was published was literature's blackest day. I might say the same about this film - only for the from-book-to-film part of film art.

Why not for the whole film art? Because I think - regardless of how self-mocking the storyline in general is and how without the Lestat&Jesse the film would've been gazillion times more believable and better...

...this is generally taken, a good film.
X This had a potentially working plot in the parts that were borrowed from Anne Rice's boosk even if they were horribly distorted. (I don't think they would've been without the Lestat&Jesse thing.)
X The actors are all very talented and portray the roles heartfelt and convincingly. It is not their fault the script writers suck and the director also affects how they portray things.
X The atmosphere is ok for a modern vampire film.
X The music is awesome.
X Whereas some scenes are cheesy, some are really good. For cheesy such as the night club scene (inside the club moments), and the scene where Lestat meets the band in the beginning. Also, the beginning's voice-over with Lestat's words is cheesy. The original one they intended was much better. And of course the end is the cheesiest and most horrific of them all. But the really good scenes were all the Lestat's journal entry scenes (except Lestat's birth scene bothered me for several reasons, but it was still ok.) And the entire concert scene kicks ass. Though... I think the way Akasha broke through the stage was ridiculously unoriginal.

So... This film had several good sides for it and is generally entertaining - if the Lestat&Jesse thing is ignored whatsoever. Sadly, it's impossible to ignore completely. Also, I can not seperate this film from the books. And I'm not even supposed to. It is clear from the DVD's commentary track that we are supposed to think of this as an adaptation of the books. They sure are thinking of this as such.

I have a HUGE love-hate thing for this film. Weighting on hate as I am a huge, passionate fan of The Vampire Chronicles and Anne Rice, and deeply care about quality movies and storylines. I like this film for the above mentioned things. Love comes in with the fact this includes Lestat & Marius, however abused they are, they're still in and have some in-characterness there anyway.

Oh, and I should add that of the change steh film made, what I like and have taken as my own vision too, is Marius as Lestat's maker, in which vision the film makers however miserably failed to make it show how perfectly logic and realistic it could be. See my article about it in the Artcicles section here. Of course this would've altered everything and had they even tried to adapt the books, this would've been a crucial change and should not have been done in order to save minutes or any other reason. But they didn't adapt the books anyway so this was good and could work well if given a better effort. But of course I'd have rather seen Magnus in this.

And I think the way the originally intended to make that relationship into some balance in the whole discipline matter, was respectable even though unnecessary and they also miserably failed by in the end completely ignoring any physical affection and gentlness from Marius's side.

I also like the way they had Marius appear on the stage in the conceert, to protect lestat. That's what he would've done in the books too if he could've but he was trapped in the ice. And that change made up for some of the bullshit the film had between the pair earlier - not for much, but some.

There was some in-character parts in Lestat's personality and Townsend highlighted and porrayed them very well. Same goes for Marius and Vincent for it. And for Akasha and Aalyah.

Otherwise the film, as an adaptation, sucks big time and not in a good way. If you read the earlier script versions, you may see that almost everything worked - definitely NOT well even in them - but still much more believably than in the actual film. I don't know what the hell happened on the way to make them end up with this extremely ridiculous storyline, when teh original scripts had at least some believable moments (taht are however always later destroyed by some bs) and they didn't have so many out-of-character lines than the film does.

This film really is more a pain than entertainment.

That just took me 15 minutes to read haha. I'm not in an analysis kinda mood right now, and I can't think of any response. I will however think about what you've said, probably re-read it, and try and see if I can find some way of watching the film again, then I shall get back to you with my thoughts on what you've said. right now all I can say is, OMG you're totally right!


Some of the points you brought up about Jesse (film version) reminds me so much of Twilight! but thats a whole nothing thing.

I think you should re-read it before you reply because I last edited it only some minutes ago. Mostly I've been corerecting typos but I have also added some more points I had forgotten to mention.

I think I'll make it tomorrows project, to watch the film again (once just isnt enough to go into such detail, I think I watched Tylluan Wen over 20 times for my exam on it, by the end of the month I could say each line), re-read your comment, and then read it again, and then try and make a convincing response (well as convincing as yours). Although I'll probably just end up agreeing with you, I usually do.

What do you (and anyone who's reading this and hass read the books), think;

In the books, was it Lestat's main goal to wake Akasha, with his rock music? 'Cause that's what someone thinks and so they also think that that's his main goal in the film as well.

And that I have debated that at least in the film it sure as hell isn't his main goal since it's, like, clearly stated in the beginning that he felt lonely and decided to become a rockstar god because they were never alone - and his songs have nothing to do with Akasha or the ancient secrets - and for the last but not the least, he was totally surprised when Marius told him Akasha had risen. In fact he had no clue about what the hell Marius was trying to tell him and when he consentrated in "feeling it" and saw she had risen, he seemed surprised. Plus, he clearly didn't love Akasha or think she loves him. His tone when he repeats Akasha's words "My love?"...

And in the books then? I may have forgotten something significant but as far as I recall; the reason he decided to become a rockstar was because he wanted to take the secrecy risking to more extreme than Louis had with his book that could pass as fiction. Yes the songs were all about Akasha and Enkil and vampire secrets and all that and so were the music videos. But then, he tells that in his dream where Marius askes him "Why did you risk my vengeange?", he tells he always replies "I just wanted to see what happes!" Heck, he even says himself that! That he JUST wanted to see hwt happens. Not that he did it because he wanted Akasha to wake. And in the end when he is trying to escape the other vampires with Louis and Gabrielle... Lestat has absolutely no clue about who is it setting the others into fire and even thinks it was Gabrielle, and when Gabrielle said she didn't Lestat is absolutely certain it's Marius. But when Marius doesn't appear from anywhere, they are all - invluding Lestat again clueless and ponder together who it was. Lestat doesn't at any point even consider Akasha. When he contacts Marius and is horrified that the man is trapped in the ice, only then he seems to realize Akasha has risen and was totally surprised but took notice that Marius had brought a tv-set to them. "I'd done it again!" he said. Hence, 200 years earlier he had gone and played the violin "just to see what heppens" and absolutely certain that nothing would happen. And as he had said to Marius in the dream, even in that rockstar thing he "just wanted to see what happens" and now was surprised that Akasha had risen because of his music and before that realisation he obviously had no clue.

So, whereas I could see in the books he might have subconsciously thought of the possibility of Akasha waking again for his music in his "just to see what happens", it however didn't seem like it ever was his main goal or even his exact intention.

And as said, in the film it was even less so. Not only because of what I analysed in this particular post but if you look into what I say in my first reply to this topic.

I don't know, am I forgetting or misunderstood something?

I think I recall something about, by becoming public about who he is, by revealing the true evil in the world, he would somehow do good, and that's what drove him, this notion of doing good by being the icon of evil. Plus there was the opportunity to do one better than Louis, and of course that was irresistible to Lestat.

There was something about, the concert would draw out all the vampires, and either unite them or destroy themselves, either of which Lestat saw as being good.

And then there was the chance to be adored, and for Lestat especially, this was delicious, to be worshipped like a god.

I think the fact Akasha waking was just a perk, a good consiquence of his actions, although in the long run turned out to be a bad thing.

That's all from the book, not the film.

Thinking about that makes me laugh. I think Louis' and Lestat's notions of good crystallizes their characters.

Louis tries to be good by appearing as a sort of guardian angel to Babette.

Lestat tries to be good by becoming an international rock star.

I got into more details with that longest post... Thought it best to analyse also the seemingly pairing-supportive moments. I mean, those that can be analysed because there are those that are simply random and nonsense, such as the flying trip.

Have you watched the film again yet? I'd really like to hear your take on this...

Haha, I have and I've decided its too much effort to analyse it (yes I know I'm a lazy toe-rag). I think I'm going to view it seperatly to the book so that I can enjoy watching it.

I'm sorry I never really got back to you on that, I think I was waitingto get QotD on dvd but when I did I had completely forgotten about this forum, and then school started and suddenly time had disapearred. I will reread it now and try to come up with a response =D

Talk about looking into the books...

Some say "she's just a little bit impulsive, not an idiot". Well, i say she's an impulsive idiot. Impulsivness is to go to a vampire nightclub alone, as a mortal being b/c you wanna know more and idiocy is to do so without anything to defend yourself with.

Some say "by reading the book I think Lestat was perfectly capable of doing that himself so why the hell hate someone for that?" I don't think Lestat was ever capable of doing that exactly. Let's think about the books for a sec then. The wolves for example: He left for the hunt alone because there was no one else in his village capable of it and he felt it was his responsibility, so it wasn't even impulsiveness. He had a horse, two good hunting dogs and numerous guns with him. And no fear whatsoever, which feeling was an alien to him. But was fear alien to Jesse? No - she was terrified and uncomfortable in the club and so had to improvise by lying her soul out and then she ran like a little girl and then would've been totally killed if Lestat hadn't saved her beause of her lie. Lestat on his behalf in the wolf hunt did what he came to do - killed the wolves and even though he almost got killed himself, he survived because of his own stanima and bravery.

Lestat in the books being hopelessly reckless, as in for example bracking to Gabrielle how he would've beaten one of the attacking vampires that were hunting them in the end even though he probably was more close to dying himself? And Gabrielle said "Monsieur, you are an imp. You're impossible. What did Marius himself say? The damnedest creature." Lestat had Louis and Gabrielle there to help him plus he thought Marius was somewhere out there nearby, protecting him too, so of course his attitude was that. Lestat does a lot of things "just to see what happens", he is impulsive, but he is not stupid. Unlike some others.

OHMYGOD they SO DON'T have any fucking chemitry and there is no way in hell he would fall in love or even be fascinated by her.

haha, I feel your frustration.

I like the film the best. 😊

In the novel, Jesse jumps into Lestat’s arms before being pulled back by the concert-goers, while in the film, she attempts to warn him of the attacks by the vampires in the crowd by calling out his name, but this doesn’t work — although he does a superb job with defending himself.

Near the end of the film, Akasha (the titular vampire queen) has bewitched Lestat and made him her king. Akasha orders Lestat to kill Jesse and he obeys (after initially refusing). Jesse, aware Akasha has done something to Lestat, is willing to let him drain her of all her blood if that means it will free him. After Lestat does exactly that, Akasha’s spell over him is broken, and he becomes enraged when he realizes what Akasha has made him do. With that, he leads the charge against Akasha, and the other vampires drink her dry. After Akasha’s death, Lestat cradles Jesse’s body in his arms and looks at Maharet (who is now a statue, as she had taken Akasha’s death into herself).

With that, Lestat makes Jesse a vampire. The last scene in the film shows Lestat and Jesse returning to the Talamasca in order to give Lestat’s journal back to David Talbot, the head of the order. Then the two head out into the city while holding hands (thus implying they are together).