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Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary

2002, Movie, NR, 75 mins

Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary: Review

DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY
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Commissioning the wildly iconoclastic and criminally neglected Guy Maddin to film the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula might have seemed a strange move on the part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. But it's easy to see why Maddin, who crafts highly stylized filmic artifacts that look and sound as if they've been moldering in the forgotten folds of film history for the past 75 years, would be attracted to the material. Maddin's TALES OF THE GIMLI HOSPITAL and ARCHANGEL both drew inspiration from nascent sound films, while CAREFUL paid homage to early color processing and the Teutonic mountain films of the early 1930s. This project gave him the opportunity to attempt something he's only flirted with in the past — a feature-length silent film, complete with all the optical effects of the era — plus a cast of performers trained to express dramatic action and emotion without dialogue. Originally choreographed by Mark Godden and set to excerpts from Mahler's Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2, the film sticks fairly close to Stoker's original tale. The setting is the East Coast of England, 1897. Pretty Lucy Westernra (Tara Birtwhistle) is having enough trouble choosing from among three suitors when her true lord and master, a mysterious count from the east (Zhang Wei-Qiang), slips into her boudoir and nips her on the neck. Lucy's subsequent strange — and frankly lascivious — behavior results in a visit from the famous Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (David Moroni) who soon deduces that Lucy's blood has been "polluted" by a vampire. A transfusion is quickly arranged, Lucy's bed is covered in garlic and the doors and windows are locked tight, but it's no use; that very night the beast returns, and this time leads an enraptured Lucy away to the netherworld of the undead. Even without dialogue, this oft-told tale is easy enough to follow (Maddin does, however, oblige with a number of hilarious title cards, some drawn directly from the original novel), but anyone expecting a dance film will be furious. Maddin is far too interested in the medium to pay the bourres much mind, and at times he seems downright impatient with having to refrain from editing long enough for a dancer to complete an arabesque. Dracula fans, however, will appreciate the witty ways in which Maddin has drawn Stoker's troubling racism and xenophobia to the fore, while making the most of the sexual ambivalence that helps make the story endlessly fascinating. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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