I'm a professional writer. I live in London with my family and grumpy old cat. I love travel, del...
I'm a professional writer. I live in London with my family and grumpy old cat. I love travel, delicatessens and once, I did a bungee jump to get over my fear of heights.
Member since:26.04.2008
Reviews:9
Bram Stoker would have been amazed if he knew that the stories his mother told him while he was sick in bed, would grow into one of the biggest myths and moneyspinners of the 20th century.
Coppola's film is a gothic, sumptuous and rather overblown version of the novel. As for 'faithful' - I don't remember a bit where Lucy runs through the garden wearing a red curtain only to be shagged senseless by a bison. Or the bit at the beginning where Vlad Dracul has to contend with a suicidal fiancee. So - faithful to the book my arse!
Never mind. Gary Oldman is fabulous as Dracula - sexy, anguished, and with an accent you can't place but somehow it sounds ancient, steeped in grandeur and blood. He's quite stunning in the role and you do feel for him. (Not like the book at all really where the Count doesn't actually appear that much and when he does, he's a red-eyed stinky breathed monster).
Dracula comes back to England because he sees a picture of Mina (Winona Ryder) belonging to her fiancee Keanu Reeves, who sports the WORST english accent since Dick Van Dyke. It makes your filling drop out it's so bad. Back in England, Dracula gets his teeth into Lucy, played by Sadie Frost in a deeply dodgy red wig and a lisp. Don't remember that in the book either.
Along comes Van Helsing played by Anthony Hopkins, who appears to be barking mad. He also has an all purpose foreign accent. (Honestly where was the accent coach????!!!)
Lucy dies, sprouting teeth. Mina realises that she is the reincarnation of Vlad's dead fiancee (not in the book either- really the Trade Descriptions Act should get involved by this point but whatever) and Dracula and Mina and Van Helsing whisk across a very expensive set back to Translyvania cum Pinewood where Dracula is forked by Mina and finally finds peace.
Along comes Annie Lennox reminding us that Love Never Dies. And no - I don't remember that in the book either.
Highly entertaining but a bit odd and could have done with a bit more restraint. There was a really sexy, understated version of the book done on the BBC and starred Louis Jourdan as the Count. Less heaving bosoms but somehow much more erotic than this.
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Production Year: 1968 - Horror - Director: George A. Romero - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Keith Wayne, Marilyn Eastman, Judith Ridley, Russ Steiner, Kyra Schon, Judith O'Dea, Duane Jones, Karl Hardman
Advantages: Fantastic story, wonderful gothic images, a familiar myth come to life. Disadvantages: It isn't good for those who do not like the sight of blood.
Advantages: strong symbolism mirroring Freudian psychoanalysis | screenplay | acting | camera | cutting Disadvantages: Bill and Ted's not so excellent side-stepping adventure in falling down a castle wall land
knight_of_the_soundtable 07.10.2005 (07.10.2005)
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Review of Bram Stoker's Dracula (DVD)
May 7th, 2008
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