From: jjonsson@alexandria.lib.utah.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: Dracula
Date: 20 Aug 92 23:47:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: alexandr.jjonsson.89
Organization: Marriott Library, University of Utah

In article <2713@nlsun1.oracle.nl> gbradley@uks197.Berkeley.EDU (Gary Bradley) writes:

>In article <18AUG92.14043604@vax.clarku.edu> mcohen@vax.clarku.edu
>writes: writes...

> 
>> In the new expanded theatrical trailer (which was shown to us as well as a 
>> behind-the-scenes reel) Van Helsing is reading the description of the 
>> vampire from a book with the label "VAMPYRE" on the cover, I remember Van 
>> Helsing giving this speech to the assembled vampire hunters in Stoker's 
>> novel. This is a good sign for us fans of the novel.

>   Really? I can't think of many Dracula films in which this scene does
>NOT feature. It's almost THE obligatory scene for a Dracula movie.

But I just read the novel a few weeks ago, and I remember this speech well, 
In the trailer it is almost word for word from the novel.

>> (During the behind-the-
>> scenes reel there's a sequence in which Coppola is directing Dracula as 
>> werewolf, as he's about to rape Lucy Westenra, Coppola is shouting "I want 
>> it more erotic! Much more erotic!"

>   Now this is much more evidence that it will be faithful. Few films
>remember that vampires can transform into wolves as well as bats (I hope
>you were just exagerating when you said "werewolf", which of course
>would be veering away from the novel). I was really pleased when one of
>the vampires became a wolf in "Fright Night" for the same reason -
>excellent little film that!

No, I wasn't exaggerating. Dracula appears in the film in the form of a 
wolfman. It is obviously the scene in which Mina follows the sleepwalking 
Lucy out of their manor on the night when Mina first sees Dracula.
	As for the erotic content of the movie, there will be a lot of it. 
The trailer very clearly shows the wolfman-Lucy rape scene, and also Lucy 
mastrubating, as well as Dracula stimulating Mina in the form of mist. Very 
sensuous, and very interesting.

>| Gary Bradley        |   "You receive a love letter from me and |

A lot of people on the net seem to have a bunch of misconceptions about the 
novel. I guess that's because not many people have read it, and have formed 
their knowledge of Dracula on the Universal and Hammer versions. 
	My advice: GO READ THE F**KING NOVEL! I don't mean to sound harsh, 
but it is really good, and you'll be surprised just how different it is from 
everything that the popular media has put out over the years.
	One of the things Coppola said at the San Diego con is that our 
current knowledge of Dracula was formed in the 1920s and 30s when someone 
wrote a stage play of Dracula, (which was only loosely based on Stoker's 
novel,) which was very popular. The man who played Dracula in New York was 
Bela Lugosi. So when Universal went to make a film of it, it was based on 
the Stage play. Right from the start the media image of Dracula has been far 
removed from Stoker's novel.
	Having read the novel within the last few months, and seeing 
Coppola's presentation in San Diego leave me with little doubt that this is 
really the definitive film version of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" and I 
for one can't wait to see it. (Oh, I said that already. . .)


Jeff Jonsson
Marriott Library System Support, University of Utah.
==============================================================================
--"It's the sound of the secret--  jjonsson@alexandria.lib.utah.edu
-- machinery at the center of  --  jjonsson@utahlib.bitnet
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