Interview with the Vampire Page #9

GABRIELLE:

Listen to me, my youngest and mydearest. Listen well. I know

why you don't leave here...

LESTAT:

(resigned)

I'd never leave you, Mother.

Don't talk of such a thing.

She takes gold from her pockets. Lestat is shocked at

the sight of so many real gold coins.

(CONTINUED)

45.

CONTINUED:

GABRIELLE:

This is all I have left of myfamily's money. You're to take

it, do you hear me? You're to goto Paris and make your fortune.

Lestat tries to protest.

GABRIELLE:

(forcefully)

Lestat, I'm dying. I can't live

through another winter. Now youmust do this for me. Go to Paris

so that I know you are happy andaway from here as my eyes close.

Again, Lestat tries to protest. Gabrielle looks almost

cruel.

GABRIELLE:

Give me this gift, my son. For

my sake, leave tonight.

LESTAT (V.O.)

I could hardly bear to leave her.

But I couldn't deny her either.

That she knew.

Gabrielle kisses him, slightly intimate for mother andsone, but very full of love.

RETURN TO INN:

Lestat talking to Louis who is rapt.

LESTAT:

It was the boulevard theatres I

went to. I loved them. No decent

lord would have ever acted upon astage but what did that matter tome? Thanks to my mother I wasfree.

INT. RENAUD'S THEATRE

Lestat in the red cloak with its wolf lining, cavortsbefore the audience as the younger lover in the play. He

winks as he chases the beautiful heroine. A buffoonish

old man with a fake nose suddenly blusters between them,

grabbing the heroine, who takes one look at him and fleesinto Lestat's arms.

Roars of laughter from the audience.

46.

CLOSE ON LESTAT'S FACE

as he sees in the audience, third row:

MAGNUS:

A skull-like visage with dark, gleaming eyes, watchinghim from beneath a dark hood of black velvet.

LESTAT:

in a trance senses danger.

SOUNDS OF AUDIENCE GROW FAINT.

CLOSE ON MAGNUS:

MAGNUS (V.O.)

Wolf killer.

SOUNDS OF THEATRE GROW FAINTER. Magnus smiles.

LESTAT:

breaks into a sweat.

LOUIS (V.O.)

He could read minds as you could.

LESTAT (V.O.)

Oh, yes!

INT. ATTIC ROOM (PARIS) - NIGHT

Lestat and two actresses and actors sleep on pallets onthe floor. Snow falls outside. Lestat wakes, shivering,

hearing.

MAGNUS (V.O.)

Wolf killer.

The WINDOW SHATTERS. Lestat is dragged by a hoodedfigure out of the bed, out of the window and up into theswirling snow. He fights like mad, even biting at thewhite hand that holds him. We hear Magnus's LAUGHTER.

The HOWLING STORM.

47.

INT. TOWER ROOM - FUNERAL PYRE

Lestat newly made a vampire with blood on his lipswatches in terror as Magnus, leaping about like a spidermonkey, sets fire to the pyre and then ascends.

LOUIS (V.O.)

He told you nothing.

LESTAT (V.O.)

Only where I might find my coffin,

and how I must find it. And that

he'd left me the tower and all his

wealth.

LOUIS (V.O.)

He thought you were strong.

Lestat wanders through the dungeon of the tower. Comes

to a cell where he sees something which horrifies him.

LESTAT (V.O.)

And I was strong. I'd fought himthrough every step of it. That

must have been why he had let melive. Because there had been

others, lots of others whom he had

chosen and then allowed to die.

Lestat grabs the bars of the cell, staring at what'sinside.

CLOSE ON GREAT HEAP OF BODIES OF YOUNG BLOND-HAIRED MEN

Some long dead, some recently dead. All resemble Lestat.

All have his height, coloring, even similar garments. And

the most recent corpse, swarming with flies, has blue eyes!

Lestat backs up, doubled over with nausea and vomits astream of blood onto the stones. Stunned, he stares at

the blood and instinctively, arches his back and reachesdown and laps it back up with his tongue.

Realizing what he is doing, he rises, slamming back intothe bars, against the corpses and then he lets out a roar.

It is like the roar we have already heard from Louis inthe swamp. It echoes throughout the dungeon and the tower.

EXT. BOULEVARDS (PARIS)

Lestat, a vampire, beautifully dressed in brocade and lace,

walks through the crowds of jugglers, vendors, ladies ofthe street, city strollers and stops at Renaud's Theatre.

He watches from a distance, as the crowds go in.

(CONTINUED)

48.

CONTINUED:

LESTAT (V.O.)

Of course I learned how to hunt

instinctively. That was nothing.

But as for the rest, I was as

confused as you ever were. I

didn't dare return to my mortal

companions. To Gabrielle, my

mother. I sent vague letters

describing my turn of fortune,

and all the money she could

possibly desire. I thought I'd

never lay eyes upon her again.

Lestat turns away from the theatre and goes through thecrowd.

LESTAT (V.O.)

All around me, I could hear the

thoughts of mortals. I always

have been able to hear them. It's

like a chorus of whispers. And in

the midst of that chorus, I was

alone. Until one night, I heard

the voice of a different soul, a

monster like myself.

EXT. PLACE DE GREVE

Lestat stops, listening, wary. A shadowy shape rushesaway from the facade of Notre Dame.

LESTAT (V.O.)

Soon, I heard them often. They

were following me. I could feel

their hatred, and when I glimpsed

them, I saw ragged, filthy little

goblins. Why, they reeked of the

dirt of the grave!

EXT. DOORS OF NOTRE DAME (PARIS)

Lestat rushes toward them as a little band of raggedvampires in rags hurries silently after him. He sees

them up on the roofs. He rushes into the:

CHURCH:

He peers back out at them with curiosity and contempt.

Three little vampires hang out in the shadows trying tokeep an eye on him.

(CONTINUED)

49.

CONTINUED:

A man passes before the cathedral with a lantern and thethree vampires run cowering from the light.

LESTAT (V.O.)

It was very easy to elude them.

All I had to do was seek shelter

of a church. They were afraid togo into them! They ran from

crosses. They ran from the light.

RETURN TO:

INN (NEW ORLEANS)

Louis listens rapt, as Lestat talks, walking back andforth.

LESTAT:

I soon realized they lived in thecemetery of Les Innocents. It's

long gone, that place. But in

those days it was in the heart ofParis.

EXT. LES INNOCENTS CEMETERY

Gigantic place full of many crypts. Three vampires dartthrough the darkness and disappear through a crypt door.

LESTAT (V.O.)

They inhabited the catacombsbeneath the cemetery. And theybelieved the cross could hurt

them, that holy water would burnthem, they believed it, do youunderstand?

LOUIS (V.O.)

Yes, I can understand it.

RETURN TO:

INN (NEW ORLEANS)

Lestat talking to Louis.

LESTAT:

All that superstition. And I, the

orphan was breaking all theirrules, because I didn't know there

were any rules at all.

RETURN TO:

50.

INT. BALLROOM TUIELIERES (PARIS)

Lestat in dim light dances with a mortal woman.

LESTAT (V.O.)

What was it they later accused meof? Ah, yes, walking in theplaces of light. I didn't serve

the devil properly as they saw it.

I tempted the fiend to drag medown into hell for my sins. And

of course, there was another

thing. I'd made a companion soonafter. And broken more of their

rules when I'd done that.

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