TALE OF A VAMPIRE

Alex is a child of the night who lives in London. He is a regular visitor of a library in which he tirelessly consults the oldest books, and he spends his days lying on a bed in an abandoned building. Alex is a lonesome and melancholic vampire: killing humans provides him no pleasure and it is only when he is starving that he does it: he wanders in the ghostly mist of London, looking for prey. When he finds one, the slaughter is horrific: as he does not have pointy canines, he squeezes his victim like an orange and the blood pours in his mouth and on his face, giving him the appearance of a wild beast. Yet, Alex is not insensitive: he aspires to the love of Virginia, the new employee of the library he frequently visits. Virginia is the reincarnation of his deceased mistress he has been seeking for centuries.

Curiously, it is a Japanese woman, Shimako SATO, who wrote and directed this vampire story taking place in London. She found inspiration in the stories of Edgar Allan POE, particularly in the short story ANNABEL LEE. The misty and desperate atmosphere of Poe’s tales is clearly present in this film. Realized with a very small budget, TALE OF A VAMPIRE opts for austerity by avoiding the usual vampiric folklore (coffin, wooden stake, crucifix…). The absence of special effects is mitigated by a repressed poetry and a dark and romantic atmosphere. Shimako SATO shoots with complete finesse, a languid rhythm, and subtle angles of shooting. In order to express this feeling of fatality and repeated tragedy, the director needed an exceptional actor: she found Julian SANDS (GOTHIC), outstanding in the role of Alex.