I just finished up two movies that seriously calls into question my general tendancy to be willing to rent stuff even when I have no clue what the movie's about.
Tale Of A Vampire -
on IMDB Julian Sands as a rather melencholy, perpetually detached and vaguely effiminate vampire named Alex. He spends a lot of time hanging out at the library doing research (which is never explained). This has a low budget feel but decent production. Reminded me of "Vampire Journals" aand other Full Moon fare in the look and feel. Except not nearly as exciting. This is a very slow movie, with little dialog, even less action, and a lof of walking around through dark European city streets and other visually moody locales.
The general plot is that an unseen stranger contrives to get a particular woman, Anne, hired as an assitant at the library where Alex hangs out. Alex? hm...would a guy named Julian every play a character named "Doug" or "Biff" or...? Anyway....Anne looks exactly like Alex's ex-love from centuries ago, whom Alex turned into a vampire herself, only to somehow lose her when they were persued by a mob. So begins a rather slow and assumed relationship between Alex and Anne, punctuated when the stranger who set up their meeting shows up to talk to Anne. He knows Anne looks like Alex's ex. He knows Alex is a vampire (three guesses as to how he knows...) and seeks to warn Anne against him...but he's not exactly the good guy in the story....
Well, I've seen the premise before, Vampire reunited with dead or lost love from the past. However, it's handled kinda badly here. You never really get the feeling that Alex recongizes her much, or that he's much moved by it if he does. Setting up Alex to meet Anne seems counterproductive to the strangers plans. Given the movement of their relationship, Anne's love for Alex and desire to be a vampire can only be explained by invisible vampire hypnotism, because you can tell it from one's on the screen. This could've easily been dropped to an hour T.V. episode of some sort, minus all the padding photography. Or better yet, replace the padding with better explanations of the characters actions, and motivations that give them reason.
Dark, slow, and moody.
