インタビュー・ウィズ・ザ・ヴァンパイアの要約：「フランス人は吸血鬼になるのが大好き」

アン・ライス監督の『インタビュー・ウィズ・ヴァンパイア』第2シーズンの初回放送 後に私が抱いていた不安は、シーズン中断後の時間と風景の変化の始まりとしておそらく最もふさわしい方法であるこの作品によって消え去った。第二次世界大戦の難民を恐怖に陥れていた不気味な吸血鬼と対峙する森の中の陰鬱で泥だらけの瞬間は遠い昔のこととなった。私たちは今、あらゆる意味でゲイのパリにいる。

クラウディア (デレイニー・ヘイルズ) とルイ (ジェイコブ・アンダーソン) は、戦後復興に取り組んでいるフランスの首都に到着した。もちろん貧困もあるが、可能性も感じられ、名を上げたいアーティストが集まるような生き方も見られる。ただし、全員がプロではない。偶然にも、ルイは、自分が夢中になっている人々ともっと本能的につながりたいと思い、写真を始めることにした。クラウディアは、そのような趣味に対する焦りをほとんど隠そうとしない。明らかに、彼女はこの新しい街になじむのに苦労しており、それが彼女をますます孤立感に陥らせる。ルイにまだ恩義があるだけになおさらだ。

ここに摩擦があり、ダニエル（エリック・ボゴシアン）の目から見てもそれは明らかだ。ダニエルはクラウディアの文章を読み続けることしか本当に望んでいないのに、ルイとアルマン（アサド・ザマン）が彼のために仕掛ける恋人同士のルーティンに邪魔され続ける。彼らは互いの文を言い終えたり、パリで初めて会ったときのことを思い出しながら甘い声で話しかけたりし、全体的にこのインタビューをディナーパーティーのような集まりに変え、共有した思い出は使い古された逸話（「売り続けろ」とダニエルは不満げに言う）のように、時間をかけて磨き上げられ完成されている。

Indeed the pair have clearly chosen a united front to further break Daniel, and our cantankerous journalist proves to be a fitting foe—even when both vampires begin using their powers to plumb the depths of some of his most painful memories (mostly to do with his wife). This tête-à-tête(-à-tête) may prove to be quite tiresome in the long run but for this episode, it’s good to see all three so alert, so attentive to the ways their dynamic will shape Daniel’s writing and his own understanding of what took place all those years ago in Paris.

Which was, as this episode shows, a time of awakening for the city and for Louis alike. Such an awakening began, of course, with the meeting between that “reticent vampire” from New Orleans and Armand…at a cruising spot, no less. As the two reminisce about this most fateful meeting (“He looked like a boy masquerading like a gentleman”; “He was awkward”) they arrive at the first Armand said to Louis: “I will not harm you.” Fitting words considering Armand’s vampiric coven of Paris didn’t look kindly on rogue vampires entering their city without first making themselves known. There’s instant chemistry here but the Parisian vampires leaves the American with only a card, an invitation of sorts to the Theatre des Vampires, the theater troupe he’s been overseeing for centuries.

What follows is arguably one of the most exhilarating set pieces Interview with the Vampire has staged—literally. As Claudia and Louis go visit this theater and seat themselves for what promises to be a shabby show for a scant audience mostly made up of occupying British soldiers, we’re treated to the reason why Armand’s troupe so relishes doing what they do: As its emcee Santiago (Ben Daniels) informs all in attendance, everything they’re about to see, is real! It feels like a feeble promise given that he’s done up in a most curious version of vampire drag (pale makeup, fake fangs, big cape, lush British accent). Yet what follows, which uses cinema projections to create curious playlets that seem to always end in violence, feels cheesy—even when Santiago hoists himself with help (it seems) from a rope that allows him to “fly” over the audience, a canny bit of misdirection since, as Claudia surmises, he’s actually flying and thus fooling the humans in their seats.

It’s all rather kitschy and fun…until a young woman storms the stage. She warns those gathered that the vampires are trying to kill her. “They’re true vampires!” she yells as the audience fidgets and wonders how much of this is part of the act. As Santiago toys with this screaming victim, who’s very much aware her real fear is being played for fun, you can see the audience turning, finding this violent, seductive encounter quite discomforting—especially once Santiago feasts on her with abandon and then has the rest of the troupe follow suit. It’s a murder that hides nothing about itself. And yet it’s all theater.

Claudia and Louis are enthralled. These are not like the kind of vampires they’ve met before. And so when they go to meet them all, they struggle with how much of themselves to divulge—especially once they see a portrait of Lestat (a former player in the troupe!) staring at them backstage.

“Are you kidding me?” is all Daniel can muster. This might as well be a telenovela, he bemoans, chiding his narrators for so skillfully blindsiding him. How preposterous. Also, that means Armand knew Lestat before he met Louis. They’d even fucked! Turns out this loving pair in front of him had shared a boyfriend; how ludicrous.

All that teasing only gets the vampires riled up and all too eager to cruelly torment Daniel with more painful memories he tries to weather, especially when he’s just as cruel when Louis shares how racked with guilt he was about reading a letter from Lestat that had anticipated his own demise and that now serves as a taunting reminder of how Louis had betrayed his love. In that scene, at the office of the man who handles Lestat’s estate (who hasn’t heard from him since, well, you know when), we see yet again that golden curled vampire but only in fantasy form. I’m eager to get to the point where he returns.

And he will return, especially since it’s clear to the troupe (to Armand and Santiago, at least) that Claudia and Louis are hiding something. They’re not honest when asked point blank who turned them and it’s only a matter of time until their shared history with a former player of the Theatre des Vampires unearths tensions between the Parisian coven and its two new American members.

For that sense of community is clearly what Claudia had been missing. She loves driving down the streets of Paris with a vampiric pack and later terrorizing a party on the outskirts of the city, hunting and feeding with abandon: “Those Frenchies love being vampires!” she beams.

Louis is much more wary, even if his attraction to Armand is clear. Armand is warned that he needs to improve his telepathy, if only to see further into Claudia’s thoughts. She’s so canny at shrouding them from others, but he senses how the two Americans bristled at the sight and mention of Lestat. There was trepidation there, and it’s only a matter of time until that all blows up for everyone involved.

And yet it’s also the start of this now seven decade romance—even if it nauseates Daniel, who is slowly losing patience with those two in Dubai. And still they all forge ahead.

Stray observations

• “Reticent vampire” (which is how Louis describes himself) is such an evocative expression, no? As is Santiago’s line about vampires being “conscious death.”
• How fascinating that there’s such a thing as a star chart for vampire births.
• I wish we’d gotten a better look at Claudia’s tailor-made dress, especially since I’m guessing that dressmaker may make another appearance.

• 番組が、20世紀半ばのパリでルイが経験した人種差別についてであれ、フランス語圏の都市で英語のショーを制作するというシアター・デ・ヴァンパイアの決定についてであれ、ロジスティックスの未解決の部分を軽薄なセリフでまとめる必要があることについて、私たちはどう感じるだろうか。時には、番組を前進させる必要があることをウィンクしているように感じられる。（私たちは、ルイのような人がパリで経験したかもしれない人種差別にこだわることはできないし、番組は最初から最後まで字幕を必要とすることに興味がないようで、ほんの少しだけ必要だと思っている。）しかし、時には、少し露骨すぎることもある。
• この劇団ともっと長く一緒にいられたらいいなと思います。主な理由は、映画の比喩やテクノロジーと古き良き表現主義演劇を融合させた、時代を感じさせる彼らの作品をもっと観たいからです。もっとお願いします！