Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002)'s comments

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ChrisReynolds

"Money! Stolen from England!"

I like the way this film emphasises the "Fear of the Other" subtext that undlerlies the Dracula story, making clear that Dracula represents fears of foreigners coming to steal our women and money. It is also the only Dracula adaptation that includes the moment from the novel where spoiler

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The ballet aspect is less impressive, as the choice of having a lot of fast cuts and close-ups takes away from the technical feat of the dancing.

10 years 3 months ago

Siskoid

Guy Maddin is past master at reproducing the style of expressionist silent cinema, and his adaptation of Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary shows it's uniquely suited to filming a ballet AND of course, Gothic horror. I imagined wall-to-wall dancing, but no, there are moments of (interstitial) exposition, old doctors fussing around Lucy, etc., but yes, a lot of dance. And shocking use of spot color - Maddin pushing the limits of his pastiche as he usually does - and even more shocking on-stage violence. This is as good an adaptation of the Dracula story, and Wei-Qiang Zhang is incredibly magnetic as the Count. I will say that in this case, I was more interested in Lucy's story than I was Mina's. It's not that the "experiment" lost my interest, but rather that Mina's dance-heavy back-and-forths between Drac and Harker became tedious. Tara Birtwhistle as Lucy was just more intriguing and had more to play.

1 year ago

rexroom

If you like ballet, you might like this.

11 years 4 months ago

Limbesdautomne

Ambitious mix (Dracula + ballet + silent film) but an original layout that reveals itself to be more appropriate for the stage than the screen.

Read more in French on La Saveur des goûts amers.

4 years 4 months ago