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rapha-reads · 2 months

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IWTV rewatch

Season 1 episode 6 [Like Angels Put In Hell By God] - part 2/2

- [Louis] "It was an awkward time, but I loved Claudia with all my heart, and I loved Lestat with a wounded one." - better a broken heart than no heart at all, as my Doctor would say.

- Hey, looook, estranged Father and estranged Daughter finally agreeing on something! All for the sake of Daddy, yeah, but still.

- Okay, but if Antoinette is dead, that means no Antoine during Prince Lestat… Unless Lestat is lying again. Which would make things Awkward if they do adapt Prince Lestat and follow that plotline.

- Love Louis playing mediator between his husband and his daughter. Honestly seeing myself trying to mediate between my violently divorced parents and my siblings who have each chosen their side. Fun times all around.

- Love that they sleep in the same coffin, though. Healing!!

- Aaaaw, a Nicki mention! Love Claudia's proxy jealousy, all for the game and the hatred.

[Lestat] "Nicki passed on after he and I parted ways. Took me a century to try again." - you know what, I am now firmly in support of the timeline change. Love the fact that it took a century for Lestat to love again, instead of a decade like in the book. That's my kind of star-crossed doomed romance jam.

- Ah, yep, there it is, not very dead Antoinette. Good job, Lestat. That's definitely not going to come back and bite you in the neck. "There's no place for me other than New Orleans." - 'Stat, chéri, explain to me how you think this is all going to work out in your mind.

- [Louis] "What difference would it make?" - resignation is not a good look on you, Lou baby.

- [Louis] "The numbness remained, hardened somehow into a dissociative shell, a vessel of acceptance, tortured rationalisation." - and here comes the depression with the steel chair…

- Claudia my queen, you deserve so much better.

- [Louis] "Hey sis! You don't need me. You think you do, but you don't. You're smarter now. You see trouble coming a mile away." - excuse me while I sob my heart out. Yes I know how it goes, but please give me that one moment of hope and love before turning it back to hatred and despair.

- [Louis] "But it was 1939, and the only Negro allowed in first class was the porter, and the Negro passenger rode the rear. The Negro vampire made do with what was left, which was fine with her." - oh, hello social commentary. We haven't had much of that in the past couple of episodes. Which is a shame, the 30s are such a rich and ripe decade… But I guess vampire emotional drama takes precedence over sociology.

- [Louis] "'This is the part of my story, back in San Francisco, where you said, and I paraphrase, 'Give it to me. Make me a vampire now'.' [Daniel] 'In the eyes of a 20-year-old, you were wasting the gift.' [Louis] 'You're in your 20s, Rashid. What do you think?'"

More like 520s, but potatoes, tomatoes, I guess. Their little roleplay continues to entertain me when things become too heavy.

Also I just love the serenity of this scene. The sun shining through one window, the others veiled, and the muezzin's call in the background, that's the afternoon prayer, I think, given the slant of the sun rays , the last one before night. It's a such a perfect moment. And Daniel's feeling his meds kicking up, he's starting to go under, but still bitchy and sassy.

- [Daniel] "'And divorce. And die. Save it for the rent boy.' [Rashid/Armand] 'May I be excused, Mr du Lac?'" - I wonder what made Armand react like that; to be called a rent boy, or to be reminded of Daniel's fragility and the fact that he keeps rejecting the gift, maybe in an echo of their affair in the 70s and 80s? I will die on this hill, Devil's Minion did take place between the San Fran and the Dubai interviews, and Armand ran away because he got scared of losing Daniel and both didn't want to go through the giving of the gift. But anyway, look at his face there, he's gutted. In that very subtle Armand way.

- [Louis] "If I was to join Dante's wood of the Self-Murdered, it would be another night." - it's killing me that I have to say this, but Lou sweetie, maybe put down the books for a moment and seek some help. (Me at myself: oh, like you're doing, maybe? Shush, we're talking about Louis, not me)

- [Lestat] "Germany's invaded Poland"- and history inviting herself back in the narrative through the big door.

[Louis] "'Since when do you care about humanity?' [Lestat] 'Well, I don't. But to think our sister, impulsive tot that she is, was on her way to holiday in Europe. I'm so glad she decided the better of it.'"

Sometimes this show reminds you with a big slap to the face that one of its main genre is indeed horror, including psychological horror. Ooof, that shrill music as the camera pans to the rest of the living room and Claudia sitting there panicked and then Louis's terrified face… Chilling. Oh, and Lestat making his way in the train, some more horror for us. Fantastic. I love it so much. And the music here…

- You know what is one of the worst part? Lestat is not wrong. Claudia leaving would lead to Louis walking into the sun, and Lestat absolutely cannot have that.

- And here begins the murder planning… And hello, social commentary. The fact that Claudia's argument is that she and Louis are Lestat's "slaves", given their race and history… Oh, this is going deep. Very, very deep. Claudia's playing three dimensional chess while Lestat is still parading around.

- The way she corners him in that chess game. While she's having an absolutely mind blowing mental conversation with Louis… Brilliant. Chilling. Claudia my queen you deserve everything good in the universe and your parents don't deserve you at all. And Lestat losing his mind as she refuses to finish the game, because now he's finally understanding that he's about to lose it all…

- [Louis] "We were going to kill Lestat. We were going to kill Lestat." - love how Louis repeats that, as if it's the first time he's saying it out loud for what it is.

- Oooh, hello and welcome to the 70s! Just the music choice has me vibrating out of my skin.

Louis's hairdo in '73 is glorious. And also his game at picking up boys.

[Louis] "I have an accent?", says the King of languages and accents.

[Louis] "I have what you're looking for. High quality. Befitting a man of my tastes." - the fact that he could equally be talking about drugs, sex or a story… Lou babe, you've become dangerous.

[Daniel] "'Are you a narc?' [Louis] 'I'm a vampire.' [Daniel] 'I want to interview you.'"

And thus came into being the grand vampire revolution. At least in the books. Pretty sure if Louis had known what he was setting in motion with his picking up a reporter boy in a gay bar in San Fran, he'd have run all the way over to South America instead of going to that room in Divisadero.

- Man, Danny took one look at that gorgeous black guy saying he's a vampire and said "I wanna tap that in every way possible".

Oh hello there Rashid. Lmao. Love the fact that Armand still wears his brown contacts in Daniel's dream memory, because memory is a monster and Daniel doesn't even know what he's remembering.

- Sam Reid's voice is exquisite, I cannot wait to see what Daniel Hart is going to do with Rockstar Lestat…

#interview with the vampire #iwtv #iwtv amc #amc iwtv #iwtv s1 #iwtv rewatch #episode reaction #like angels put in hell by god #louis de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #claudia de pointe du lac #daniel molloy #armand de romanus #loustat #loumand #armandaniel #rapha talks #rapha watches shows

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kaelio · 1 year

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please don’t fn kill me but Marius de Romanus and his overall relationship with Armand 🔥

Bonus round: David Talbot x Marius as a ship🔥

Thank you and please enjoy your day

my aaaabsolutely hottest take is that the fandom is insanely selective about what problematic stuff they think "counts". everyone's got a set number of things that they accept from the canon and things they don't. they have things they de-rice-ify and things they don't. e.g. I have NEVER seen the insanely pornographic description of lestat eating the children in the iwtv novel ever brought up because it's gross so we all pretend it's not real. I think it's fine people do this. I don't even think people SHOULD try to have a consistent read of the vampire chronicles books. I think that if we did, it would be an indictment of them and not a compliment. For example, truth be told, I hate most pixar movies. hate them. any film that is getting EXACTLY the same audience reaction from virtually every single audience member at exactly the same points with surgical precision might be an excellent commercial product but it's meaningless art.

however, it should never be an expectation that there are any components that people "have" to regard in a specific way, and especially for this specific property that is asinine. YOUR way of chewing over them and what YOU think about them is what matters. if it gets YOU horny enough to bring yourself to completion. there should be no fucking tribunal where we all get together and decide what anyone else has to think. I like Devil's Minion because it's fucking sick. I think gabrielle eating polar bears (canon as per Armand) is fucking funny in a way that I wouldn't think some random asshole shooting polar bears is funny. i think it's funny the fandom never thinks about how louis burning the fuck out of antoine was pretty fucked up from antoine's point of view. i think it's fine louis/claudia is canon in the books because she IS an adult, and no number of derivative creepy hentai visual novels will change that, and in fact it's cruel to consider book-Claudia to be a child because for her it's basically a medical condition.

I do however think that a lot of people in this fandom 1) haven't really read many older books and 2) maybe haven't read many books at all. hell, maybe 3) haven't even read these books. some of the interpretations strike me as extremely strange, particularly because i'd argue some of the canon events are worse in a context people sometimes don't seem to be aware of. or every once in a while someone will say something about one character and then be convinced e.g. khayman is smol cream puff and I'm like... hmm. hmm. sybelle for all intents and purposes apparently basically owns living benjamin and i'm not sure i've ever seen anyone worry about it beyond the intense discomfort with the benjamin character overall

anne rice loved historical fiction (which also, I feel inclined to add, was a lot harder to write in the 1990s than it is today because we have information resources that are just INSANE compared to then--you should see what a doctorate looked like in 1995 vs 2022). there are conceits intrinsic to historical fiction. you don't have to like them but people who read historical fiction have a tacit understanding of them. I actually read far less historical fiction than I read nonfiction about history--and not just american or eurasian history. (in the court of the jiajing emperor circa 1547, the 300+ new concubines were between 11 and 14). 'the past is a foreign country' in-fuckin'-deed, not just in terms of the periods the books describe but the books themselves. i just posted an article about a family that took their kids on a sailing trip around the world's oceans in the 1970s and it is UNFATHOMABLE to someone today. and that's living history. when my grandmother took my dad and his siblings to tunisia in the late 1960s, my dad disappeared for 3 DAYS. he was 14. and his mom barely cared, assumed he'd show up again at some point, which obviously he did. my other grandmother's cousin was beheaded in the yard in the 1930s in a rural area and back then crimes like that just were not solved. those things are living memory. you just have to decide if you think a 2020s lens on a 90s book about the 1790s means the content is disqualifying and if the answer is "yes" you are wholly entitled to that, but it is not a requirement for any other segment of the readership

i didn't care about marius at all when i read tvl/qotd/tva in... whatever fucking year a million billion years ago i read them the first time (in catholic school lmao), but at this point i'm stubbornly contrary about it because I think most of the reaction is knee-jerk and reflexive, predicated on tumblr's paper-thin politics, and especially crazy in the sense of what the show now "has" to do. the show didn't even make louis a white slaveowner, thank god! they don't "have" to do shit with anyone. for accountability? FOR ACCOUNTABILITY?? are you high?? accountable to whom, for what, when bandying about with these blights on humankind? anyway the showrunners can change anything they want. they might even have bianca not sleep with an "underage" armand, ooohhhh something i've seen mentioned all of fuckall number of times (thats different because blah blah blah blah blah). and there doesn't even seem to be a downside to turning benjamin or sybelle, so people going on about that part like... yeah, there really should have been, but "should have been" is also kind of antithetical to how this specific canon operates. these books are so fucking FRUSTRATING! but what happened, happened. engage with your canon, but be able to separate out canon-canon. this isn't something that's unique to me and these books, it's most of what killed my interest in my last fandom. take whatever read you want, but learn to differentiate what the canon did and what you would have preferred it did.

armand's relationship with marius is very very complicated and very very interesting but for virtually none of the reasons the fandom pays the remotest attention to. rice was really good at balancing out why people became vampires and what that means and then how they avoid the intense attrition associated with the lifestyle and their various absolutely crippling personality flaws and mental illnesses and that is all over how those two interact. and guess what! as soon as you filter them into "good vampires" and "bad vampires" you have broken the entire world these characters exist in. you have thematically broken it. you have irrevocably and irretrievably broken what makes these books interesting.

david is boring. actually my ship of choice for marius is probably thorne. i think there's a ton of meaty thematic shit in there.

e: as an aside, in life you will have to learn to navigate and negotiate within power structures. they are not going anywhere. the other obsession with perfectly equal relationships etc-- you can idealize that, and that's great. the books aren't about a world where that will be the situation between virtually anyone, and it's rarely if ever the situation in reality either. this is more a loustat comment but it bleeds into everything.

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darkangel1791 · 8 months

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youtube

Have you seen the places in the Vampire Chronicles and other AR books? Did you know you could do it from the comfort of your own blanket burrito? Then check out this video!

I just want to mention a few things that the tour guide doesn't.

Saint Elizabeth's is the place where Lestat laid at the end of Memnoch the Devil.

This tour didn't hit the church that is mentioned most often in regard to Louis and Lestat, the St. Louis Cathedral, 615 Pere Antoine. It is in Jackson Square in the French Quarter. It's the oldest cathedral in North America, built in 1720 so that is the church that most Catholics in New Orleans would have attended for many years, and it's age is why Louis and Lestat were there often, because it was the only one around, and once they are in the 20th century, it has memories. St. Louis Cathedral is sort of open to the public as there are tours there. These are to show you the beautiful artwork, the sculpture, and the history of the building. It is also open for Mass (church services, for thise not familiar with Catholic vernacular), but if you go for Mass, you should sit in a pew and pay attention to the Mass. You are with the congregation who attend every week, this is their church, not a setting from a novel or the set of a television show. If you join a tour however, you can wander a bit, so long as you do not disrupt the rest of the tour. Do not attempt to go up to the altar. That is a sacred space to Catholics, only the priest and others participating in the presentation of the Mass (deacons, readers, acolytes, altar helpers) are allowed there. It would be deeply disturbing to the tour guide and other Catholics on the tour if you would attempt to do this. The Cathedral has it's own website with mass times and some photos of the interior artwork.

Lafayette Cemetery is not owned by the diocese of New Orleans. Professional filming is allowed there. The scenes from the 1994 movie were filmed there. There are tours there which might point out the exact places. But the cemetery mentioned most in the book is St. Louis no. 1. It is the oldest cemetery still in existence in New Orleans. There are cemetery tours which will take you there and show you around. It is open to the public, but I would strongly advise you to go with a tour. The cemetery is large, old, not set out in straight lines, an the tombs are so tall that you cannot look across the cemetery to see the entrance. It is a maze that makes no sense. You will get lost. Probably you will eventually find your way out, but it could be hours, and there will be few, if any, other people in the cemetery who can help you out. Also, at least in the 90s and I assume still today, both Saint Louis No. 1 and No. 2 are popular places for drug deals and other crime, specifically because of the the arrangement of the tombs which makes it easy to go unseen by anyone, especially police. They will purposely stay away from the tours, so that is the safest way for you to see the cemeteries. The cemeteries are not open at night. It is probably fairly easy to find a way in, but it is ten times more dangerous at night. I get the aesthetic, but don't do it.

The First Street house is the most famous as Anne Rice's house. The Garden District Book Shop used to sell t-shirts with the house on them. It is where not only the family, but the real life Mojo lived! It is also the family home of the Mayfair clan, every witch has lived there.

This is much longer than I thought it would be! Sorry for being so preachy about the Cathedral and the cemeteries!

#Youtube #anne rice #new orleans #vampire chronicles #the vampire chronicles #tvc #mayfair witches

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nalyra-dreaming · 7 months

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Hi Nalyra, love your blog and all your great insights on the show and the books! Years ago I read all the books up to The Vampire Armand, and I know I'll need to do a reread before any of the later books will make sense. I was wondering which books you consider "essential" for connecting to the show (and for making sense of later books)- I've already reread IWTV, and have TVL and QOTD waiting on my shelf. I vaguely recall not caring for TOTBT or MTD, so I might skip them and go straight to TVA which I remember liking too. Which others would do you think are must reads? I'm sure you've addressed this already, so a link to a previous post would be great, thanks :)

Hey!

Glad you like!

Okay, so this is my recommendation, since we are not THAT far away from the next season anymore^^ (and I don't think I've listed it like that yet^^):

Read "The Devil's Minion" chapter in QotD. The rest of the book will likely be on at a slightly later stage. But that chapter is important, and can more or less stand alone, because there are only a few things which relate to the story of the book.

Read "The Vampire Armand" next. There was an IG story back then, which had "Andrei" on it, Armand's real name. So we will likely get flashbacks (even if they're short). And also the things that... pertain to Louis and Claudia are rather important, as the BTS photos have indicated. (Also Armand's story is truly quite interesting). And of course, there is a high chance we'll get to see Marius in s2, too, soooo...

THEN read Merrick. Claudia's diary and a HUGE character reveal as well as the likely cliffhanger of s2 is in there. (Unfortunately) It is narrated by David, and Anne really managed to make him... well. David. 😬 But there is a rather important Loustat moment as well, and from Anne's notes we know she originally planned that scene with Armand(!) so that might be changed "back" in the show!

The later trilogy (Prince Lestat on) you can read later. MTD isn't really important other than something like that might have happened (already), we'll see. I mean, Rolin has stated he takes from PL, buttttttt I think the hooks for that (there are some, imho) will be revealed at a later stage. (Also, Antoine(tte) is revealed to be alive in that, but that is also a standalone chapter, if you want to read it.)

So in preparation for s2 I would go for the above.

The rest of the books are not "necessary" at this point, though of course QotD will be important at some point. And then, maybe in combination with the threat of PL and PLatRoA, but you will have enough time to catch up in-between^^.

And I think the threat of Blood Communion might be threaded through, however the Loustat arc concludes there, so I think that is where they will end up, eventually, if we get our seasons. Since their dance is from the end scene of that book, I think they foreshadowed that with it.

Have fun reading!!

(And: Don't shoot me for making you read Merrick, I know a lot hate that book^^ But I think you will know why I said it's important when you get there^^)

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awardseason · 2 years

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2023 NAACP Image Awards — Film Winners

Entertainer of the Year Angela Bassett — WINNER Mary J. Blige Quinta Brunson Viola Davis Zendaya

Outstanding Motion Picture “A Jazzman’s Blues” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — WINNER “Emancipation” “The Woman King“ “Till”

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Joshua Boone, “A Jazzman’s Blues” Jonathan Majors, “Devotion” Will Smith, “Emancipation” — WINNER Sterling K. Brown, “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul“ Daniel Kaluuya, “Nope”

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Danielle Deadwyler, “Till” Keke Palmer, “Alice” Letitia Wright, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Regina Hall, “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul“ Viola Davis, “The Woman King” — WINNER

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Aldis Hodge, “Black Adam” Cliff “Method Man” Smith, “On the Come Up” Jalyn Hall, “Till” John Boyega, “The Woman King“ Tenoch Huerta Mejía, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — WINNER

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — WINNER Danai Gurira, ”Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Janelle Monáe, ”Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Lashana Lynch, “The Woman King“ Lupita Nyong’o, ”Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture “A Jazzman’s Blues” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — WINNER “Emancipation” “The Woman King” “Till”

Outstanding Breakthrough Performance in a Motion Picture Jalyn Hall, “Till” — WINNER Joshua Boone, “A Jazzman’s Blues” Ledisi, “Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story” Y’lan Noel, “A Lot of Nothing“ Yola, “Elvis”

Outstanding Character Voice Performance in a Motion Picture Angela Bassett, “Wendell & Wild” Keke Palmer, “Lightyear” — WINNER Kevin Hart, “DC League of Super-Pets” Lyric Ross, “Wendell & Wild” Taraji P. Henson, “Minions: The Rise of Gru”

Outstanding Animated Motion Picture “DC League of Super-Pets” “Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio” “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” “Turning Red” “Wendell & Wild” — WINNER

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture “Breaking” “Causeway” “Mr. Malcolm’s List” “Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story“ “The Inspection” — WINNER

Outstanding International Motion Picture “Athena” “Bantú Mama” — WINNER “Broker” “Learn to Swim“ “The Silent Twins”

Outstanding Documentary (Film) “Civil” — WINNER “Descendant” “Is That Black Enough For You?!?” “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” “Sidney”

Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture Antoine Fuqua, “Emancipation” Chinonye Chukwu, “Till” Gina Prince-Bythewood, “The Woman King” — WINNER Kasi Lemmons, “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody” Ryan Coogler, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

Outstanding Directing in a Documentary (Film or Television) Nadia Hallgren, “Civil” Reginald Hudlin, “Sidney” — WINNER Sacha Jenkins, “Everything's Gonna Be All White” Sacha Jenkins, “Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues” W. Kamau Bell, “We Need to Talk About Cosby”

Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture Charles Murray, “The Devil You Know” Dana Stevens, Maria Bello, “The Woman King” Jordan Peele, “Nope” Krystin Ver Linden, “Alice” Ryan Coogler, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — WINNER

Outstanding Costume Design (Film or Television) Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, “Emancipation” Gersha Phillips, Carly Nicodemo, Heather Constable, Christina Cattle, Sheryl Willock, Becky MacKinnon, “Star Trek: Discovery” Gersha Phillips, Carly Nicodemo, Lieze Van Tonder, Lynn Paulsen, Tova Harrison, “The Woman King” Ruth E. Carter, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — WINNER Trayce Gigi Field, “A League of Their Own”

Outstanding Hairstyling (Film or Television) Camille Friend, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — WINNER Curtis Foreman, Ryan Randall, “RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars” Louisa V. Anthony, Deaundra Metzger, Maurice Beaman, “Till” Mary Daniels, Kalin Spooner, Darrin Lyons, Eric Gonzalez, “All American” Tracey Moss, Jerome Allen, Tamika Dixon, Lawrence ‘Jigga’ Simmons, Jason Simmons, “Fantasy Football”

Outstanding Make-Up (Film or Television) Debi Young, Sandra Linn, Ngozi Olandu Young, Gina Bateman, “We Own This City” — WINNER Angie Wells, “Cheaper by the Dozen” Michele Lewis, “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” Ren Rohling, Teresa Vest, Megan Areford, “Emergency” Zabrina Matiru, “Surface”

Outstanding Short Form (Live-Action) “Dear Mama…” — WINNER “Fannie” “Fathead” “Incomplete” “Pens & Pencils”

Outstanding Short Form (Animated) “I Knew Superman” “More Than I Want To Remember” — WINNER “Supercilious” “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” “We Are Here”

#naacp image awards #naacp 2023 #winners

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napoleonic-sexyman-tournament · 3 months

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Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle

a. “has no one submitted Lasalle yet????? The Hussar Devil himself, leader of the Infernal Brigade, the guy who captured a 5000 men strong fortress with just fucking 500 men in the Capitulation of Stettin, made Spain fucking tremble? Cavalrymen in general were known to b a flamboyant hard drinking womanising lot who gambled, duelled and were profligate scoundrels in general, and Lasalle was a Hussar of the Hussars, saying “Any hussar who isn't dead at the age of 30 is a blackguard.” He missed his target by 4 years, charging at the enemy in his usual leading from the front brave manner and getting shot in the head. When Napoleon gave him 200,000 francs for his wedding, Lasalle cheerfully admitted he spent half of it paying off debts and the rest gambling. Napoleon gave him another 200,000 francs, saying to a prefect asking why he wasn’t disciplined, "It only takes a stroke of a pen to create a prefect, but it takes twenty years to make a Lasalle". When Lasalle was reassigned from Spain to Germany in 1809, a friend asked him if he would travel via Paris. His response: “Yes, it's the shortest way. I shall arrive at 5am; I shall order a pair of boots; I shall make my wife pregnant, and I shall depart." He straight up Fucked a lot, look at that moustache and pipe. He also appears in Edgar Allan Poe’s torture fic The Pit And The Pendulum as the guy who saves the protagonist at the end from the over the top torture device, but baby, Lasalle was real as fuck.”

Benjamin Bathurst:

a. “have you SEEN him? glorious regency-dandy perfection -- that hair, that nose, those lusciously thick sideburns! he was a spy as well, and we all know that spies are magnificently fuckable… and also he disappeared mysteriously, leaving behind only a fur coat and an exciting legend! what's sexier than that!!”

#napoleonic sexyman tournament

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psalm22-6 · 4 months

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Comoedia, 5 February 1934 (note the picture of Harry Baur by the masthead!) So I learned that the 1934 Les Mis film premiered two nights before a far-right anti-government riot! And you can feel that there was a crisis about to happen in this account of the movie's premiere:

A rough start to the night: there’s the taxi driver’s strike and there’s the parliamentary crisis. The latest information passed from mouth to mouth and most journalists arrived late, bearing the most recent news. “So Emile Fabre is jumping ship?” [Fabre was the director of the Comédie-Française and was apparently being pressured to leave.] “It’s a scandal!” “It’s disgraceful!” “What folly!” “And who is replacing him?” “George Thomé.” [Thomé was a musician as well as the former director the Sûreté.] “Seriously?! They’re going to be cuffing the Comedie-Francaise.” Emile Fabre makes his entrance, followed by his charming daughter. He is just as soon surrounded and interrogated. “I don’t understand! I don’t understand!” “No one understands.” “There is too much to understand.” Our editor-in-chief, who has not always been fond of Emile Fabre, is spotted by his side; he shakes his hand cordially and I note that Pierre Lazareff [editor-in-chief of Paris-Soir] notes this effusive sympathy. A political star enters!...M. [François] Piétri [briefly the Minister of Finance]…thoughtfully and hurriedly, he passes by on swift feet which recently exercised a wise retreat that was, if I dare say, a step ahead of wisdom. He joins Mme. Piétri….It’s impossible to get him to open up!... Caught up in the commotion of the crowd, I hear this brief dialog between a political columnist and a deputy: “And how are your ‘misérables’ doing?” “They are waiting for their Monseigneur Myriel!” The huge Marignan theater is too cramped for this crowd of guests. Luckily Jean-José Frappa and his second in command, Mme. Audibert, thought of everything, took care of everything… And everyone is able to get to the coat check and find his place easily. Because the taxi strike and political events delayed hundreds of people, who then arrived all at once and with haste, this was not an easy task. Who was there? Tout-Paris...I randomly noted with my pencil: Messueirs Paul Abram, Achard, De Adler, Berneuil, Archimbaud, André Aron, Arnaud, Louis Aubert, Aubin, Kujay, Kertée, Azaïs, Bacré, Barthe, Baschet, Baudelocque, Harry-Baur, Bavelier, Robert de Beauplan, Antonin Bédier, Pierre Benoit, Mme Spinelly, Charles Delac and Marcel Vandal, Léon Benoit-Deutsch, André Lang, René Lehmann, Bellanger, Mag Bernard, Tristan Bernard, Jean-Jacques Bernard, Louis Bernard, Dr. Etiënne Bernard (all the Bernards!)...Bernheim, Bernier, Guilaume Besnard, Bétove, Bizet, Blumsteien, Mme Rocher, Boesflug, Pierre de la Boissière, Bollaert, Bouan, Boucher, Robert Bos, Pierre Bost, Paul Brach, Henry Roussell, Charles Burguet, Pierre Brisson, Simone Cerdan, Henry Clerc, Albert Clemenceau, Pière Colombier, Germaine Dulac,Henri Diamant-Berger, Julien Duvivier,Jean Epstein, Fernand Gregh, Mary Glory, René Heribel, Tania Fédor, Alice Field, Jacqueline Francell, Mary Marquet, Florelle, Marguerite Moreno, Françoise Rosay, Becq de Fouquière, Jean Servais, Vidalin, Maria Vaisamaki, Orane Demazis, Rachel Deviry, Rosine Deréan, Jacques Deval, Christiane Delyne, Renée Devillers, Jean Chataigner, Germaine Dermoz, Léon Voltera, Robert Trébor, our director, Jean Laffray, Lucie Derain, Paul Gordeaux, Jean Narguet, Parlay, Suzet Maïs, Antoine Rasimi, Renée de Saint-Cyr, Jean Toulout, Mady Berry, Yolande Laffont, Jean Max, Parysis, Charles Gallo, Léo Poldès, Jean Fayard, Edmonde Guy, Mario Roustan, Paul Strauss, Cavillon, Emile Vuillermoz, Josselyne Gaël, Charles Vanel, S. E. Si Kaddour ben Gabhrit, the duke and duchess of Mortemart, Madame Henry Paté, Marcel Prévost, Louise Weiss, Alfred Savoir, Henri Duvernois, Paul Gémon, magistrate Maurice Garçon, magistrate Campinchi, Sylvette Fillâcier, Jean Heuzé, Pierre, Heuzé, Mona Goya, Simon-Cerf, W.E. Hœndeler, Georges Midlarsky, Michel, Nadine Picard….and others I must be forgetting…pardon me!....Silence!....

In the glow of the half-light from the screen….there are applause! Not since les Croix de bois has a movie been so highly anticipated and now it is time for the verdict….Raymond Bernard can be sure that the audience is rooting for him. Our eyes are full with light and pretty colors. This Paris night is practically magical…and departing from that magic, we are plunged into the great river of les Misérables, into the furious waters of this social storm. Luckily André Lang and Raymond Bernard have made the trip for us. What contrast! From the spectacle of an elegant and distinguished gathering, we move to the misfortunes of Jean Valjean.

The audience picks up on everything that could be an allusion to the present times. But of all these allusions, one stands out. It’s the lament of two gossips, at the moment when the barricades are rising. “What sad times!” “We’ve barely made it through the cholera…and here is the Republic!” Thunderous applause and mad laughter. When, on the barricades, the Republic calls on us to act, the spectators think of other promised actions which haven’t happened and they forget to applaud. But the whole audience is prodigiously virtuous; whenever a good deed is shown on the screen, when some sentence about the heart graces the white canvas, it is punctuated by applause. After the first film, stop!... Time to eat! There’s a mad dash to the punchbowl. In the haste of this day of crisis and running late, many in the audience did not have time for dinner….the buffet, in the blink of an eye, is emptied and the dry drinks make vindictive and impassioned discussions flow. High and low, here and there, everyone was speaking of the Parliment's chances and the intermission bell sounds in an atmosphere charged with electricity. The two other parts of the film, cut by another intermission, each end with a double ovation for Harry Baur, both in the lobby and in the theater. The little Gaby Triquet is passed from person to person towards a chocolate eclair, which she leaves a trace of on the cheeks of Harry Baur. And then as usual everyone rushes to the coat check. Then we go to the fifth floor of the Marignan building. There, in an unoccupied apartment, dinner waits for us. There are more than a thousand of us around little eight-person tables. Ten thousand meters of film, that will make you hungry! Three orchestras pour out waltzes, tangos, and other tunes, while the masters of the hotel fill up our cups. And that continued to six thirty in the morning, in an atmosphere of charming cordiality as each person attested to the pleasure of seeing French cinema accomplish such a feat. Bernard Natan and Raymond Bernard were too surrounded for me to speak to them. Besides, what could I say to them that they haven’t already heard ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times that evening, which was the apotheosis of cinema and of Les Misérables. -Jean-Pierre Liausu

#les miserables #lm 1934 #me trying to learn about the 1934 political situation in France via wikipedia

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rapha-reads · 2 months

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IWTV rewatch

(book to show, show to book, the meta continues)

Season 1 episode 3 [Is My Very Nature That Of The Devil]

- Louis: *tries to read*

Lestat: *bla bla bla*

Louis: "if you don't shut up and leave me with my books I'm going to start a social commentary and ethics conversation"

Lestat: "... Never mind. Let's go hunt."

Louis in that white suit is daaamn fine.

Oooh, so the conversation about only eating the "evil" ones starts there. Louis munching on that cat kills me every time.

- Oh, hello Antoinette. Love that we go from 19th century violinist Antoine to 20th century music hall singer Antoinette. Very nice change.

[Louis] "'This ain't your kind of music.'

[Lestat] 'You can pretend you're a vegetarian. I can pretend the fool.'" - part of me thinks that Louis meant by that "this is Black music, a Black folk band, and you're still a white boy, even vampire that you are".

Lestat schooling everyone about music, sassing everyone and playing the piano divinily, absolutely delicious. And then Louis' absolutely fond little smile, even when he's arguing with Lestat, he just loves him so.

- Ah! [Daniel] "Yeah, you know, I gotta say, it's not so much the minute details, Louis, rather the total rewrite that's giving me pause here." - that's the part. That's the crux of it. That's the character development of Louis who's done rejecting the depth of his feelings for Lestat and the role he's played in his own tragedy, regardless of Lestat's abuse, and ready to accept it and talk about it.

Love Louis' face relistening to his 1973's words versus 2022. The face of a man going "ah shit, I really was messed up back then".

- [Daniel] "'Fuck the 'Wolverine Blues'. Ken Burns can choke on the footnotes. It's the abused-abuser psychological relationship I'm talking about.'

[Louis] 'I do not consider myself abused.'

[Daniel] 'I mean, usually when you're a little too close to it, the abused still loves the abuser, but you flipped it completely on its head.'

[Louis] 'I'm not a victim.'

[Daniel] '50 years later, you talk like he was your soulmate, like you were locked in some fucked up gothic romance. Why?'"

First: Daniel's a petty bitch and he's getting to the bottom of this business whether Louis works with him or not. And Louis is equally petty and bitchy, answering Daniel by reading part of his own memoir and mocking him.

Secondly: well, yeah, it is a gothic romance, that's the genre. But it is a Contemporary Gothic romance. Contemporary Gothic expands on Classic Gothic. I wrote an essay about Contemporary Gothic using the movie Only Lovers Left Alive last year, I need to translate it from Spanish to English so I can share it. But I feel like I could reuse part of this essay to talk about IWTV book (inscribed in Classic Gothic) versus IWTV show (tending towards Contemporary Gothic). One more essay idea to develop later. Let's table this.

Thirdly: my little Loustat shipper heart is very happy.

And fourth: hey, Danny boy. Remember that conversation in a dozen of sessions because that will come in handy to explain a looooooot of things... Devil's Minion fans gleefully cackling in the background. And Armand isn't even in this scene. Talk about irony. And foreshadowing.

[Louis] "'This is the odyssey of recollection.' The tapes are an admitted performance. This is the premise of our interview. Half a century later, allow me my odyssey. [Daniel throws the tapes in the trash] Now who's performing?"

Louis being heartfelt but still hiding beneath his veneer - you know when he starts to be honest, or as genuine as he can at this point, when he starts to drop the accent. I swear I'm going to stop raving about Jacob's voice work at some point, but it's such an important part of the character, of who Louis is and how the audience can understand Louis, that it deserves an entire essay of its own.

And then Louis sasses Daniel and sets the tapes on fire, because that's not a performance at all, that. Pot meet kettle.

- [Louis] "Rigged to burn, Daniel" - foreshadowing...

- [Louis] "I barely had the energy to hold a book. My libido was not what it'd been. I understood the indulgence. I let it happen." - why are you such a liar, Louis. Stop fucking lying, Louis.

On a serious note, Louis' eating disorder emerging from his identity crisis, the clash of his religious upbringing with his new reality colliding with his lifelong depression... Who made that guy so relatable. But notice how there's a slight part of Louis' new diet here that's in direct reaction to Lestat's refusal to hear him and talk to him. They each punish each other for their perceived failings by acting in the way that'll hurt the other the most, even if that way hurts them too. Louis by letting himself starve and losing his energy when that's all Lestat wants him to do, Lestat by having several affairs and flaunting them, even when he explicitly says "I do everything for Louis". By the way, that little throwaway line? Lestat being genuine and fully honest about his feelings and motivations but playing it as a joke. If Louis had been hearing he'd have caught it and maaaybe we could have avoided some of the drama. Maybe.

- Oh, the whole Antoinette seduction scene is fascinating. Notice how Lestat barely looks at her? He only has eyes for Louis. And Louis cannot stand his gaze, he has to retreat. Says he understands, but then leaves in a huff. Disasters.

[Louis] "'So you didn't kill her.'

[Lestat] 'No. She has talents.'

[Louis] 'Aren't I enough?'" - excuse me while I go scream.

[Lestat] "We're communicating so much better now." - baby, no. That ain't communication. You two are still talking two different languages.

[Lestat] "Of course. Of course. Of course. As long as you come home to me." - that's way too many "of course", 'Stat. Maybe add a couple dozen more to reeeeally make your point that you're not bothered AT ALL by the idea of Louis seeing other people. Hypocrite...

- Welcome to WW1. Business, racism, capitalism, and the fantastic Miss Bricks. Can't wait for Tom Anderson to get eaten, that guy rubs me off the wrong way. Gotta love that Louis' standing up for himself. Aaaaand hello Jonah. Oop, Lestat's already staring and going insane with jealousy. Meanwhile Louis doesn't even remember he's got nieces. Looots of little crucial hits in this scene, between the poker game, WW1 come a-knocking, Loustat's fuckery and Louis' getting further and further away from his human family.

- [Jonah] "'Ain't aged a day since I seen you last.'

[Louis] 'That's the moonlight lyin' is all.'" - hi, Nicholas Sparks called, he says that line belongs in The Notebook and he's claiming copyright for it.

[Jonah] "'And most of why I signed up is I kept hearing something about something they call 'European sensibilities'. They care less what you look like or who you're lookin' at.'

[Louis] 'Yeah, I got someone.'

[Jonah] 'I figured as much. No ring on your finger?'

[Louis] 'Not a woman.'

[Jonah] 'Well, what's he like?'

[Louis] 'He's... a lot. It's not perfect. But we kind of have this agreement.'"

Yeah, believe me, racism and homophobia are very alive in Europe too. Though... The roaring twenties are right around the corner and that's a decade I would have loved to experience in Paris.

Hey, look! Louis has come around about his sexuality, is that the first time he comes out willingly and peacefully? Yey, progress. Also I love that he has explicit permission from Lestat to have his own affairs, but he feels uncomfortable about at it at first. But still goes for it 'cause you know. Gotta show Lestat he ain't bothered. Should have fed first tho, stupid. Also, Lestat overhearing Louis calling him "a lot" and "not perfect" > direct parallel to Claudia hearing Louis calling her a "burden" to Armand in s2. Louis is so good at being casually cruel to and about those he loves.

[Louis] "'Good fit, this uniform.'

[Jonah] 'Well, it's the moonlight.'" - sorry, Nicholas Sparks on line 3 again, he said that moonlight line is actually too sappy for even The Notebook. Said we can keep it, he doesn't want to pay our dentist note.

- Daniel Hart's music is fantastic.

- Ah, Lestat's jealousy crisis. Aw, the domesticity. Ooh, wait, love how the memory changes. You can see Louis struggling to remember which memory is accurate.

- Arf, Louis being rejected from his own family house and then breaking down the door. Mamaw du Lac, Mother of the Decade, everyone. Poor baby. The curse of the vampire. Downward spiral getting worse. And then coming home and seeing Lestat entertain the regiment? And then the news about the Azalea. Nervous breakdown about to happen. Oh, Lestat flexing his powers. Love that. Notice the blood trail coming from his ear? It appears again when he saves Louis during the trial. He's not without his limits. Regarding his powers or his feelings.

[Lestat] "I heard your hearts dancing" - so first of all, awards for Sam, when? Secondly, brb, need to sob a little. And third, Nicholas Sparks on the line again, wants to know if the writer of these lines is available to come work with him.

[Lestat] "'This is not a life!'

[Louis] 'That's' cause you took my life! I got nothing! I lost everything! I lost my brother. I lost my family. 'Bout to lose the last fucking thing I care about.'" - where are the awards for Jacob and Sam for heaven's saaaaaaaake. Also, love how the music briefly stops between 'everything' and 'brother'.

- [Louis] "When your mother sees the Devil in your eyes, it's a hard assessment to abandon. Am I from the Devil? Is my very nature that of the Devil? I had hedged against the question, but now it completely overwhelmed me." - Lestat and Armand had that conversation a century earlier...

[Daniel] "Take a Black man in America, make him a vampire, fuck with that vampire, and see what comes of it." - thanks for the social commentary, Danny, don't even need to do it myself. Now eat those assholes, Lou.

- [Louis] "You said I'm arrogant? Maybe I am arrogant! [...] I'm a vampire." - okay, can I soliloque about Louis please? Have I said he's my favourite of the entire books lately? As someone who has been called pretentious more than once just because I know my own value and refuse to play stupid, that part, yeah, that part gets to me. Louis finally knows who he is and refuses to pretend he's less just to please others. And as a lesson that I've finally embraced this year especially too, I like that. I like that a lot.

Oops. Louis just started a civil war in New Orleans. Fun. Like Lestat says, it's not on Louis tho. He merely "provided them the excuse".

[Louis] "And that's why you and me ain't never gon' work. That's why you're always gonna be alone." - oooh man, that was harsh. And only half deserved. And cruel in that typical Louis way. Also, wrong. But you're gonna have to wait another century for that. Oof, Lestat's face as Louis leaves, the crumbling, the desperation oozing out of his entire soul, heart and mind...

- "I ran from the Quarter that night, ran to where the violence spread most wild. I stumbled through the streets like an irrational child who had tested his strength on the small bird and now asked 'can I make it whole again?' - Can I help you? Please let me help you. - Their faces ran past me like snow in a terrible wind, unaware that it was I who had brought this retribution. It was I who should pay for this sin. And then... [Help me!] one of those inconceivable moments where who you were before and who you would be forever after is marked in time. [Help!] A rooming house, now a fire trap. I could not save the Azalea. I could not save Storyville. I could not save the aunt on the wrong side of the wall, but I could save her. My light. My Claudia. My redemption."

... Brb, need to scream in a pillow. Oooof. What a tirade. Louis, Saint Louis, Saint Louis, bearing the weight of the cross on his shoulders... Selflessness being selfishness, trying to help to try to alleviate his own pain and guilt. Doing good things out of a need to feel useful or at peace with your own conscience is not a bad thing, you're still helping whatever your motives, but when it starts making you unable to see the people you're trying to help as people, and starts making you see them as tools to relieve your tortured soul and conscience, are your good actions still good? Or the pavement on the road to a very dark place? Guess we'll let Claudia tell us her opinion.

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byneddiedingo · 1 year

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Françoise Fabian in My Night at Maud's (Éric Rohmer, 1969)

Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault, Antoine Vitez, Léonid Kogan, Guy Léger, Anne Dubot. Screenplay: Éric Rohmer. Cinematography: Néstor Almendros. Production design: Nicole Rachline. Film editing: Cécile Decugis.

A moral tale: Once upon a time, a brave and chaste knight saw a fair young lady in church, and wished that she were his. The devil, hearing this, arranged for the knight to be tempted by a beautiful sorceress. But when the knight resisted the carnal temptations of the sorceress, he was rewarded with the love and the hand of the fair young lady. Éric Rohmer's moral tale: Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant), an engineer who has recently moved to Clermont-Ferrand, is an intellectual Catholic, determined at the age of 34 to settle down and get married after several failed love affairs. At mass one day he sees a beautiful young woman (Marie-Christine Barrault), and longs to get to know her. Leaving the church, he sees the woman get on a moped, and he follows her in his car until they are separated by traffic. Jean-Louis runs into an old friend, Vidal (Antoine Vitez), a philosophy professor and a Marxist, who takes him to see his friend, Maud (Françoise Fabian), a divorcee. Vidal gets drunk and leaves early, and when it begins to snow heavily, Jean-Louis stays to spend the night with Maud. But they do little more than talk -- about his Catholicism, about the philosophy of Pascal, about his life and hers. She and her husband were unfaithful to each other, and her lover was killed when his car skidded on the ice -- one reason she forbids Jean-Louis to drive in the snow. They literally sleep together: She in the nude, he fully clothed and wrapped in a coverlet she lends him, though both are in the same bed. In the morning he makes a pass at her that she brushes off, and as he looks out the window he sees the young woman he saw at mass, and runs out to introduce himself to her. Her name is Françoise, and she is a student at the university where Vidal teaches. They make a date for later in the day, and afterward he drives her home to her student apartment. Stuck in the snow again, he spends the night, but not in her room: She gives him a key to the apartment of another student who is away. Five years later, they are married and taking their young son to the beach, when they meet Maud on the path. Jean-Louis realizes from Françoise's reaction that she knows Maud -- in fact, Françoise, who has confessed that she had an affair with a married man, may have been the lover of Maud's husband. This is the third of Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales," and perhaps the most successful: It was nominated for Oscars for Rohmer's screenplay and as the best foreign-language film. But a lot of critics and viewers found it insufferably talky in that peculiarly French over-intellectualized way -- a curious objection to a film that features four attractive actors and a strong emphasis on sex. And the talk is far wittier than anything you're likely to hear in a movie today.

#My Night at Maud's #Éric Rohmer #Françoise Fabian

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elcinelateleymickyandonie · 3 months

Video

youtube

Trailer de la pelicula L'apprenti salaud

Tras un accidente de coche en el que muere su madre, Antoine Chapelote decide cambiar de vida y convertirse en un estafador. Conoce a una joven Caroline que lo ayuda con su estafa.

Año: 1977

Duración: 1h 38min

Dirección: Michel Deville

Guión: Frank Neville-Michel Deville

Reparto Principal: Robert Lamoureux ---------- Antoine Chapelot

Christine Dejoux ------------ Caroline Nattier

Claude Piéplu ------------- Etienne Forelon, le notaire de Briançon

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze ---------- L'adjoint au maire Forelon

Jean-Pierre Kalfon ----------- Robert Forelon, le directeur du journal

Claude Marcault ------------ La femme de l'adjoint

Annick Blancheteau ------------- La patronne de l'hôtel

Jean-François Dérec ------------- Joseph

Bernard Lavalette ---------- Roger Desmare, l'avocat d'Antoine

Roger Desmare Max Vialle ----------- Le brigadier chef

Louis Falavigna ---------- Le patron de la quincaillerie

Georges Wilson ----------- Maître Chappardon…

Jean Abeillé --------------- Le second examinateur

Jacques Boudet ----------- Le serrurier

Yveline Brière -------------- L'employée de la caisse d'épargne

Patrick Brisson -------------- Le clerc amoureux

André Cassan ---------------- Le troisième examinateur

Fuente del video: https://youtu.be/i65KMSDvaHU?si=TaRxWnp8kT7Is7WF Sinopsis: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075690/

#youtube

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lepreuxchevalier · 3 years

Photo

My second illustration of a knight I retouched to feature the colours and coats of arms that I designed for House Devillers, a great house of feudal aristocracy based in The Kingdom of Aquitaine of my low-fantasy setting. This design was made for a low-fantasy setting of my original conception with technology equivalent to late medieval and renaissance periods. Where formations of heavily armoured and mounted knights in either suits of full plate armour or heavy coats of chainmail fight alongside armies of pikemen and matchlock musketeers, where medieval-style stone castles ar gradually outsourced in favour of both lavish country estates and devoted military fortifications, or “bastions,” due to the advancements made in artillery technology, and where fledgling nation-states in the form of kingdoms and empires look beyond the frontiers of the known world in search of even greater wealth and territory. In context to the world of my low-fantasy setting, House Devillers is one of the great vassals of The Williamson Kings of Aquitaine and the ruling family of The Duchy of Auvergne. Amongst the constituent duchies and counties of The Kingdom of Aquitaine, it is the The Duchy of Auvergne that is most reputed for the truly exceptional quality, discipline, and skill of the pikemen and musketeers levied from it��s citizenry. It is without question that many of the finest regiments of pike and shotte infantry to have ever served in the ranks of The Royal Army of Aquitaine were levies from the citizens and subjects of The Devillers Dukes of Auverge, and that the pike and shotte regiments serving in the household army of The Duchy of Auvergne are one of the few feudal, aristocratic levies who more often than not easily match, if not outright outperform the pike and shotte regiments in service to The Royal Army of House Williamson of Aquitaine. The Duchy of Auvergne’s provincial tradition of military excellence is in fact the product of centuries of careful and tedious cultivation under the personal supervision of historic Dukes of Auvergne born to The House of Devillers. This provincial tradition of exceptional military training, discipline, and skill at arms has existed for hundreds of years before pike and shotte tactics became the norm of the battlefield, as well as hundreds of years before the resurgence of infantry armies and tactics even began challenging the traditional domination of heavily armoured and mounted aristocrats on the battlefields of “The Civilized World” as defined by the clergymen of The Conservative Church of The New Gods. Much like the citizen soldiers levied from The Duchy of Auvergne for military service in both The Royal Army of House Williamson of Aquitaine as well as The Household Army of The Duchy of Auvergne, The Dukes of Auvergne born to The House of Devillers pride themselves for their family tradition of military leadership and martial prowess. Throughout the long and illustrious history of The Kingdom of Aquitaine, many past Dukes of Auvergne born to House Devillers have exhibited a truly exceptional and potent aura of charisma and congeniality as natural-born leaders of men to their troops on the battlefield, as well as a seemingly inhuman aptitude for skill at arms in both mounted and dismounted combat in addition to their traditional and historic savvy for military strategy and technology. House Devillers’ family tradition of military excellence and professionalism has naturally put them at odds with House Perrault of The Duchy of Caenesse as far as feudal, hereditary, aristocratic traditions amongst the great houses of Aquitainian nobility are concerned. Despite this historic, if not outright traditional rivalry between The Dukes of Auvergne and Caenesse, Louis-Antoine Devillers as the current head of House Devillers and reigning Duke of Auvergne has maintained a more or less friendly rivalry with Louis Perrault as the current head of House Perrault and reigning Duke of Caenesse. Louis-Antoine Devillers’ personal reputation as a master swordsman and cavalier seemingly without peer or equal has put him at odds with both Antoine Coûteaux, Duke of Luxueil and Jean-Baptiste Lorieux, Duke of Logresse as the most formidable warriors to currently hail from The Kingdom of Aquitaine’s great houses of feudal aristocracy, a competitive rivalry that has been frequently disputed between them in both tournament and battle. In terms of historical sources of inspiration, The Kingdom of Aquitaine is loosely inspired by The Kingdom of France during the medieval and “ancien regime” periods of French and European history, while also taking fictional sources of inspiration from The Kingdom of Bretonnia in Warhammer fantasy and The Kingdom of The Reach in Game of Thrones.

#coats of arms #heraldry #shields #medieval #renaissance #chivalry #knights #plate armour #painted armour #gilding #fantasy #fantasy world #graphic design #art #Louis-Antoine Devillers

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bitter-limelight · 2 years

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So I initially added this to another post but then saw multiple others talking on the subject so I decided to just make my own take on it.

Ageing Daniel up was a mistake because Daniel Molloy isn't meant to grow old.

Youth is *such* a factor in the story of the Chronicles, with so much of the cast being young. Teen (Armand, Benedict, Antoine, Mona, Eudoxia to get more obscure) or their early -mid twenties (Lestat, Louis, Quinn). Of course there are those in their forties and over (Marius and Gabrielle come to mind) but I think it would be hard to make an argument that youth is not over valued in the Chronicles. Even putting David into a young, sexy body rather than having him remain in his 70 something form speaks to this.

So for Daniel to be made so specifically in his thirties is poignant enough to be noteworthy, but what makes it even more so is that Daniel had a *really shitty time* through his youth. He's a baby boomer who grew up with air raid drills and the threat of never growing up. He's queer in an era where it was still considered a mental illness, and then once it wasn't it was still illegal, and even in San Francisco he had such a huge risk of being beaten, arrested or murdered for being gay. He meets Louis, and his life ended that night. In QOTD we are told that the spark of life went out for Daniel that night. Knowing about immortality ruined him, as it would ruin so many people. And *then* comes Armand. Then comes survival, running around the world to escape this thing that might kill him. Then comes the sexual abuse of Armand forcing him to sleep with people he doesn't want, then comes the alcoholism, the cold streets, exhaustion, the complete lack of control. Then it's the 80s and ya know what queer men had to deal with in the 80s? AIDS, which I'm sure didn't help Daniels sense of impending death.

And yet even despite this, the price Daniel paid for this treatment was changing the world, his future world. Louis could have told anyone his story that night but he had no guarantee that anyone would believe him, or that anyone would do anything with his story. But Daniel "fuck it" Molloy did. He had the balls to sit in a room with a killer, and then seek them out, and tell their story. Daniel set the entire series into motion, he changed the trajectory of their lives, even those he had not yet met. And for his troubles he lost his youth.

I'm 32 years old this year- this is not old, but not only is Daniel a very old 32, but spending 12 years as the Devil's Minion, and then 30 years sick and in the care of another, isolated from his coven, that's the majority of Daniel's life to this point gone. He has only, in the modern day, began to live, for the first time since 1973.

Daniel Molloy didn't get to go live a live after the interview. He would never have survived to 33, let alone into his seventies. You can slap his name on this character, but it has fundamentally changed everything about him and reduced him down to just The Boy.

#Daniel Molloy #the vampire chronicles #tvc #queen of the damned #interview with the vampire

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