Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

one of the best film versions of the Dracula story

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

 

This film tries to capture the flavor of the original novel.  If you can, see it in a version with the director’s commentary because his description of his methods is VERY interesting.

 

The entire movie was shot on a sound stage. It begins in the 15^th century when we see portions of the story of Vlad the Impaler (Gary Oldman), who is supposed to be the forerunner of Dracula.   His wife Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) who commits suicide is the visual equivalent of the Mina character.  {Ryder is the person who gave Coppola the original version of the script of this motion picture.} Vlad’s battle is filmed in a manner similar to traditional Balinese shadow plays done with puppets. It is narrated by the van Helsing character (Anthony Hopkins).  Vlad of course is distraught when he returns home and finds that his love has killed herself. He renounces God and claims that he will rise from the dead to avenge Elisabeta’s death with the powers of darkness.

 

We move to the 19^th century with where the novel opens: diary entries of Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves). He is enlisted to replace Renfield (Tom Waits), who is now in an insane asylum. Harker is sent by his company to Castle Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains to firm up the Count’s need to occupy a piece of real estate including Carfax Abbey in London as his new home. Naturally, since we know he is Dracula, we realize that he needs to sleep in the soil of his homeland, within a coffin.

 

Harker keeps writing letters back to his fiancé Mina to let her know about the foreign land in which he must stay. In the mean time, Dracula travels to England and leaves Harker with his several brides. When he arrives there, he seduces Lucy (Sadie Frost). Her fiancé Arthur, noting her deteriorating health as well as the bite marks on her neck, summons Prof. Van Helsing, who is able to determine that she has been changed into a vampire.

 

Dracula, who appears to be a handsome gent in London, charms Mina (since she looke like his former wife), but Van Helsing and Dr. Seward are able to save her. The Count is finally dispatched with a stake (as well as decapitation).

 

The historical devices included in the film such as early cinematic techniques and props are quite remarkable.  The medical equipment are also historically authentic, as well as the early typewriter. The various cinematic effects used in the movie are accomplished “in camera.”

 

The costumes by Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka are quite remarkable and beautiful.  This version of Dracula is certainly one of the best.