Tale of a Vampire starts with immortal Vampire Alex (Julian Sands) reminiscing about the way things used to be, about his one true love Virginia (Suzanna Hamilton) who he lost many years ago. Alex then picks a cat up & drinks it's blood... Alex is currently writing a thesis on religious marters, those burned at the stake for their beliefs & that sort of thing. Alex regularly frequents a library full of the reference & old manuscripts he needs but the library only has one employee at the moment Denise (Marion Diamond) so she plans to advertise for an assistant when Anne (Suzanna Hamilton again) walks in & offers her services despite the job not being formally advertised yet, seeing it as a stroke of luck Denise gives Anne the job. Alex instantly recognises the resemblance Anne has to Virginia & starts to get close to her, taking her to dinner, walking her home & having strange cryptic conversations with her. Anne knows something isn't right about Alex & her fears are seemingly confirmed when a man named Edgar (Kenneth Cranham) suddenly shows up & explains to Anne that Alex is a Vampire & that he must be destroyed...
This English production was written & directed by Shimako Sato & I saw some nice ideas & elements in here that were ultimately lost amongst the sedate pacing. The script really is about as threadbare as one could imagine, the whole first forty minutes of Tale of a Vampire is nothing more than Anne getting the job at the library & meeting Alex, that's it. Alex is a bit of a dull Vampire, all he does everyday is sit in a library reading books which in the end has no real relevance to the story & pine over Virginia. On the positive side Tale of the Vampire is a quite emotive film & I ended up feeling for the character's, I started to feel somewhat sorry for everyone involved & a little sad for Alex at the downbeat climax. The story of Virginia unfolds through flashbacks that Alex has so that subplot punctuates the slowness of the main story at times. Tale of a Vampire is a different sort of Vampire film, it's very story & character driven, there's no big action or horror scenes even though it is gory on occasion & it's not very traditional in the sense that Alex never grows fangs, he's not afraid of the daylight & he doesn't sleep in a coffin. There are only two or three main character's in Tale of a Vampire & the dialogue is kept to an absolute minimum which may be a problem for some as it definitely doesn't help the pace of the film.
Japanese director Sato has created a visually stylish film, because of the minimal dialogue & story Tale of a Vampire relies heavily on it's imagery. The cinematography & lighting are both great & Tale of a Vampire is a nice looking film with some cool shots, lighting & angles. Having said that where did that kid who falls from the sky with a sword stuck in him come from? Anyone whose seen it will know the scene I'm talking about, I couldn't work out what was supposed to have happened in that scene. Set in London the dark back alleys make for a grimy setting & give the film a nice familiar & modern but sinister & creepy atmosphere throughout although there aren't many libraries like that in London, if any. There is some nice gore, most of it involves fountains of blood pouring from wounds, someone has their throat slit, people are stabbed with swords & old piping, cats are mutilated & someone has their head bashed against a wall which results in gallons of blood spurting everywhere.
Technically Tale of a Vampire is top notch considering the budget it must have had, the photography, production design, special effects & music are all impressive & it's generally well made throughout. The acting was OK, I liked Sands as Alex, the way he looks & his subdued lonely performance worked well. Hamilton as Anne didn't do much for me but she was alright.
Tale of a Vampire isn't a film for everyone, it's a challenging piece of film-making. Sure it's just about as slow as a film can be but the way it's filmed & put together I found it watchable & I actually cared for those on screen for a change.
This English production was written & directed by Shimako Sato & I saw some nice ideas & elements in here that were ultimately lost amongst the sedate pacing. The script really is about as threadbare as one could imagine, the whole first forty minutes of Tale of a Vampire is nothing more than Anne getting the job at the library & meeting Alex, that's it. Alex is a bit of a dull Vampire, all he does everyday is sit in a library reading books which in the end has no real relevance to the story & pine over Virginia. On the positive side Tale of the Vampire is a quite emotive film & I ended up feeling for the character's, I started to feel somewhat sorry for everyone involved & a little sad for Alex at the downbeat climax. The story of Virginia unfolds through flashbacks that Alex has so that subplot punctuates the slowness of the main story at times. Tale of a Vampire is a different sort of Vampire film, it's very story & character driven, there's no big action or horror scenes even though it is gory on occasion & it's not very traditional in the sense that Alex never grows fangs, he's not afraid of the daylight & he doesn't sleep in a coffin. There are only two or three main character's in Tale of a Vampire & the dialogue is kept to an absolute minimum which may be a problem for some as it definitely doesn't help the pace of the film.
Japanese director Sato has created a visually stylish film, because of the minimal dialogue & story Tale of a Vampire relies heavily on it's imagery. The cinematography & lighting are both great & Tale of a Vampire is a nice looking film with some cool shots, lighting & angles. Having said that where did that kid who falls from the sky with a sword stuck in him come from? Anyone whose seen it will know the scene I'm talking about, I couldn't work out what was supposed to have happened in that scene. Set in London the dark back alleys make for a grimy setting & give the film a nice familiar & modern but sinister & creepy atmosphere throughout although there aren't many libraries like that in London, if any. There is some nice gore, most of it involves fountains of blood pouring from wounds, someone has their throat slit, people are stabbed with swords & old piping, cats are mutilated & someone has their head bashed against a wall which results in gallons of blood spurting everywhere.
Technically Tale of a Vampire is top notch considering the budget it must have had, the photography, production design, special effects & music are all impressive & it's generally well made throughout. The acting was OK, I liked Sands as Alex, the way he looks & his subdued lonely performance worked well. Hamilton as Anne didn't do much for me but she was alright.
Tale of a Vampire isn't a film for everyone, it's a challenging piece of film-making. Sure it's just about as slow as a film can be but the way it's filmed & put together I found it watchable & I actually cared for those on screen for a change.