Lucia

The ruin of the lamb

I absolutely love this scene in the film. The tension is palpable, there’s a sense of anticipation, Armand and the audience are left holding their breath, whilst Louis, on the other hand, pulls away after coming within a hair’s breath of the other’s lips. And this is the visual summary of the relationship between Louis and Armand in the book. Armand will never have Louis as he would have liked. He is with him, yet at the same time he isn’t really there.

The film has changed and brought forward the timeline: Louis leaves Armand shortly after the theatre’s destruction and goes his own way, whereas in the book the two stay together for at least 50 or 60 years, but the conclusion is the same. Perhaps Pitt’s Louis is more abrupt in leaving Banderas’s Armand, his disappointment is mingled with the anger that still boils over what he has just done. The pain of Claudia’s loss is still fresh. In the book, Louis is cruel in his impassivity, yet he nonetheless leaves Armand to face the modern world alone. Both Armands utter the words "I’m dying", and both Louis remain unmoved. The film manages to set this beautiful farewell in its time (we are still in the 19th century) because the new world is drawing ever closer. The era is already changing, and Banderas’s Armand is frightened by it, just as Armand is in the first half of the new century. Progress is accelerating, and he does not think he can cope.

Conclusion: As always, I’m a huge fan of this film, every time I watch it, I discover something new. I hope I can get my hands on the new DVD with the deleted scenes🥹

"You can eat faster."