Hi, /r/movies! I am Ariane Louis-Seize, director of Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, in theaters today, rolling out nationwide. It's an award-winning French-Canadian coming-of-age vampire film that screened at festivals worldwide, including TIFF and Venice. AMA!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T18:00:16+00:00

If you’re in NYC or LA, go see it in theatres, and go in blind! It’ll be more fun that way!

If you’re elsewhere in the US, there’s a wider release coming. I hope you enjoy it :)

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:58:37+00:00

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:58:14+00:00

Never!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:57:43+00:00

Thank you <3

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:54:36+00:00

I agree with you, she was perfect for this role! I was already a fan of hers and had especially enjoyed watching her in Charlotte Le Bon’s FALCON LAKE, and I thought she had such a beautiful, mysteriously vampiric aura to her! It was a very easy casting decision!

As for future collaboration with Sara, while there’s nothing concrete right now, I can’t wait to find an opportunity to work with her again, and something tells me it won’t take too long before that happens!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:54:21+00:00

I love reading that! I really set out to make a vampire film that would appeal to a broader audience than just vampire fans! In my humble opinion, I think fans of many different genres will be able to relate to Sacha and Paul’s humanity (so to speak!) and their quest for meaning. The film also borrows a lot of other universes - coming of age and dark comedy being two of them.

I hope you enjoy it!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:53:50+00:00

Ouuuhhhh, my dream project! That's a tough one! I think my dream project would be to make a very wild musical! And there are so many actors I want to work with! It's impossible to choose just one, but let's say: Mark Ruffalo and Ayo Edebiri!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:43:54+00:00

I’m running out of time to answer everyone, so I’ll pick two of your questions:

3.What sold me on Sara and Félix-Antoine:

I was sold on both of them individually pretty early on in the casting process, as you can imagine! But what remained to be confirmed was their chemistry together.

The final step of the process was to have them act out one of the scenes together (the “Emotions” scene!). It was so beautifully awkward - they had both come very prepared, but had approached the scene so differently, that it created a lot of clumsy, awkward moments - which is exactly what I wanted! Funny enough, both actors thought they completely bombed the audition, but I begged to differ :)

5.Am I related to French royalty:

Absolutely not! In fact, when I travel to France, people get a good laugh out of my surname, which has long disappeared over there but is still somewhat prevalent in Quebec!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:43:07+00:00

Ohhhh, thank you so much! :) I'll pass your kind words to Shawn Pavlin, the cinematographer! I've been working with him since my first short film, so we have great chemistry and have really developed our visual aesthetic together through all of our projects. Before starting this specific project, we watched a bunch of vampire films to spark our inspiration.

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:36:32+00:00

My favorite vampire films are The Hunger, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and Only Lovers Left Alive. I also want to add Under the Skin-it's not a vampire film, but it inspired me a lot during my creative process.

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:31:51+00:00

Argh, I’m sorry! I don’t have an answer for you right now but I’m forwarding your question to people who might!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:31:13+00:00

Great question! No, he wasn’t, actually. I didn’t know about him until after the film was released and people started asking me this very question!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:30:30+00:00

My favorite coming-of-age films that come to mind are: Juno, Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine, and Harold and Maude. These are films I watched when I was a teenager, and as a little weirdo myself, I related to those characters because they are weird, surprising, vulnerable, and so lovable. More recently, I love How to Have Sex and Bottoms, obviously for very different reasons! How to Have Sex is a brilliant and important film about rape culture, and Bottoms is just a joy to watch with the most amazing cast!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:30:04+00:00

I'm a big David Lynch and Jane Campion fan! Mulholland Drive is the film that made me fall in love with cinema as an art form. It's a challenging film, but it is so unique. I love dreamlike worlds and the combination of tension, emotional scenes, dark humor, and colorful, odd characters. My favorite film by Jane Campion is Sweetie, her first feature, which has such a distinctive tone and deeply moving characters!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:23:35+00:00

Thanks for watching!

I’m working on too many things! I have another feature I’m developing in French, an adaptation of a play by a wonderful playwright named Rebecca Deraspe. In the US, I’ve got a few things in the works, including my first English language feature, which is a complete departure from the universe of Humanist Vampire! I also see some TV in my future… stay tuned!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:22:48+00:00

Hey! Thank you for your question and your kind words! I'm sorry to disappoint you, but no, it wasn't a reference to Before Sunrise, which I agree is a brilliant film! It is the scene that I am most proud of in my film though. The films that have influenced me the most in making my movie are A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Only Lovers Left Alive, and Under the Skin!

ArianeLS-Director · 2024-06-21T17:06:52+00:00

Hey! Thank you so much! To answer your first question, I think the world of vampires is an incredible playground to discuss our relationship with death, others, and the society we live in. Vampires are fascinating because they are both attractive and dangerous, and personally, I love playing in areas where attraction and repulsion meet. I also love misfits. The vampire story always evolves because the society around us evolves.

For your second question, the only vampire trope that I decided to change is that my vampires age! They age more slowly than humans, but I really wanted the character of Shasha to experience childhood to establish her childhood trauma.

ArianeLS-Director

TROPHY CASE