Testing a palette

Rating: 8/10 (17 August 2012)

I have been out of blue reminded of Coppola's calligraphic, fancy and more atmospheric than scary 'Dracula', while reading an Italian discussion, brief and vivid, of the Hammer movies and their actors; however, Coppola didn't seem to look for inspiration in the Hammer films, when shooting his own 'Dracula'. There is a lot of beauty, and a lot of beautiful things, and much to be said about this star—studded shocker of exquisite calligraphy and high—minded; idiots may mock, if they wish. There was a time when Coppola—well, there were, _intermitantly, several such moments—when Coppola seemed to emulate Bertolucci; Scorsese tried his hand at this as well, but Coppola is the more telling instance.
'Dracula's cast leaves nothing to be desired—a team of stars, some of them in rocketing ascension by then.
What this movie certainly has, and in abundance, is gusto, appeal—immensely tasty kitsch. Like with most of his other movies, Coppola seems to have had nothing in particular on his mind—and in this respect, a comparison between the New Hollywood directors—De Palma, Lucas, Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, perhaps even Cimino, Millius and Stone might be thrown in here --some of these I have badmouthed and cursed here countless times, writing about their outings in a dismissive and contemptuous way, even with certain nastiness, as if Kusturica cursing 'Die Hard', which you must have found out that he did—I like all of them, nonetheless, and gladly watch their flicks—a comparison between the main New Hollywood directors, dependable craftsmen, would prove enlightening; anyway, resuming, Coppola often seems to be on to nothing in particular, and this surely is the case with his take on the vampires. 'Dracula' is more of a palette, a study of approaches, devices, etc.. I have seen it many times, and enjoyed it—twice in a movie theater (the first times I was quite disappointed, I now seem to remember), countless times on a video cassette. Very glamorous, very playful—avoid those campy, corny, cheesy—much of it works; at the opposite end, a movie that also works this way is PSYCHO, austere, restrained, stark, unglamorous—it can be watched countless times—even on a daily basis—for the sheer joy, and one that doesn't work and even cloys is ANGEL HEART ....
I thought Hopkins was very good in this. I hate Oldman's sunglasses—but Oldman clad in iron, with his medieval armor, that lavish Transylvanian teaser, with the return from the war . There is also a feel of Victorian corruption and spleen, insidious spleen, given in the over—the—top language of the big—budgeted kitsch ....
Do you at least remember, chaps, that ghoulish orgy, that made Reeves, then still in his youthful days, as it seems, a person so envied and despised, that dreadful fancy of submission and of highly corrosive so—called pleasure? One would suppose it nonetheless takes a very deviant fellow to enjoy that creepy orgy—to say the least—yet it even got a Friesian admirer—yes, a Friesian philosopher quotes it—as he quotes yet another image from the very same Coppola roller-coaster . More about him, below. One might suppose—one would be entitled to presume—that such sicknesses pass unnoticed but by the very perverted ....
Yeah, it looks as if for less than sane souls, for less than healthy minds, such rotten fantasies might prove of some interest ....
A convinced admirer of Coppola's goth exercise is the Friesian philosopher Kelley Ross, who quotes at least two images from the movie—the three broads taking over their victim—and Dracula morphing into rats, dissolving, dismembering into rats, turning into a running hoard of rodents. I have found these two quotes in Ross' pages, after all he's a consumer of popular culture—Cameron, W. Allen, Lucas, etc.; the more important fact to be underlined here about Ross' fair use of the popular culture tropes is that he doesn't distort them, or twist them to mean arbitrarily assigned things. In his pages, these places in the popular culture mean what they originally meant, he keeps their intended meanings, and finds interest and joy in these their original meanings; you should read K. Ross, in case you didn't already.
The unrecognizable Oldman under thick layers of makeup is a cartoon, but young Ţepeş's love is genuinely touching—that awesome line about the oceans of time—traveling oceans of time to find his lost wife—that's chilling, and mind—blowing . Drãculea whispers in a sonorous low tone that he had traveled oceans of time to find her, who had been lost . Other than that, Ţepeş—the Voivod of Muntenia, I mean, the historical character, the wild, perhaps demented cub of the Drãculeşti—has never been a favorite of mine, though we share the first name; I was 14 when I have seen, in that blessed summer of '92, my 1st Dracula movie, one starring Lee—but none surpasses or even matches that breathtaking, ravishing, heartrending and engrossing masterpiece, the NOSFERATU. Watch that one—in case you didn't up to now.
These are the best two intros in the whole genre cinema, starring two of the most dashing leads—Oldman, leonine in his armor, at the beginning of Coppola's 'Dracula', and Crowe, before the battle, at the beginning of 'The Gladiator'. Do you know other intros as dashing?