Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary

Plot synopsis:
In 1897, a visitor from the East, Count Dracula, arrives in London and is inadvertently invited into the home of Lucy Westenra. She is bitten by Dracula, and taken by his curse. Lucy's behavior becomes more erratic leading her to bite her fiancé. Lucy is immediately put under the care of Dr. Van Helsing. Van Helsing does blood tests on Lucy and declares "Vampyre!" as the source of the problem, and puts Lucy to bed adorned with garlic.
That night, Renfield, a mental patient who lives in the asylum next to Lucy's home, escapes from confinement and Lucy's house is broken into by demons. Lucy's mother awakens in the commotion. Panicked by the demons, Lucy's mother opens the door and inadvertently re-invites Dracula into the house. Both Lucy and her mother are killed in this incident and a funeral procession takes place. The next day, Renfield is recaptured and placed back into the mental hospital. Bizarre incidents begin to occur around the city with newspapers headlines proclaiming a "Bloofer Lady" who has been murdering infants. Renfield is interrogated and confesses that Dracula has brought Lucy back from the dead committing these deeds and the solution to the problem lies in the graveyard.
Van Helsing and Lucy's suitors go there and spy Dracula and the undead Lucy in a full romantic embrace. After Dracula leaves, Van Helsing declares, "We must destroy the false Lucy so the real one may live forever". When Van Helsing opens the Lucy's coffin, Lucy rises out and attacks the men. Lucy is eventually subdued by a piercing stab from Jonathan's long wooden stakes and a decapitation with a shovel by Van Helsing who then declares they must find and defeat the vampyre. Van Helsing and his men go to interrogate Renfield finding out that Dracula's next plan is to attack Lucy's best friend Mina.
Mina, who is in a convent, aids her injured fiancé, Jonathon Harker. Harker had journeyed to Castle Dracula, where he had intended to finalize a land sale. Upon arriving, Harker was ravaged by three Brides of Dracula, who overpowered him. Harker eventually finalized the land deal for Dracula, and was imprisoned in the Castle. Harker escaped to the convent. In the convent, Mina finds Jonathon's diary and learns of his pleasures with the Brides of Dracula. With what she has discovered about Harker, Mina becomes progressively more sexually aggressive, which makes Harker nervous. He flees with the diary. Mina attempts to follow Harker but comes face to face with Dracula, who kidnaps her and takes her to Castle Dracula.
In Castle Dracula, Dracula woos Mina, tempting her with offers of riches and eventually biting her on the neck, solidifying his curse. Harker, along with Van Helsing and his men, break into Dracula's castle and dispatch the Brides of Dracula with long wooden stakes. The men eventually stumble upon Mina and find the mark of Dracula's bite upon her. Attempting to root out Dracula, the men smash coffins and place Christian crosses in them. Dracula attacks the men.
After the battle, Dracula and Mina are the only two left conscious. Mina scurries to a window with a cross and pulls it open to stun Dracula with the sunlight. The men regain consciousness, surround Dracula, and stab him with their stakes. The castle is demolished by Van Helsing's men and everyone departs. Dracula is left hanging motionless, impaled on a giant stake.

Tags: cult, gothic

Review:
Quite unique and very stylish interpretation of the legendary Bram Stoker-tale, shot by one of the most gifted (yet regretfully underrated) fantasy-directors of all time; Guy Maddin.
The originality here is Mark Godden's ballet adaptation of Stoker's novel and the fact Maddin films it as a very stylish, neo-silent play with a very limited amount of sets and a Chinese actor in the role of Dracula.
Of course, several sequences have been removed in this film (like Harker's journey through Transylvania) and others have been modified (it is in fact Lucy who's the main character, not Mina) but what Maddin adds truly makes up for this.
With his third best film to date (after "Tales from the Gimli Hospital" and "The Saddest Music in the World"), Guy Maddin brings wonderful homage to classic and silent cinema.
This is far more evocative as filmed ballet than a live performance can ever be, because we are allowed to have our eyes dance as participants.
Told in Maddin's trademark, fever dream style, the film harkens to the cinematic days of yore (mostly in black and white, no spoken dialogue, only titles), and yet is at the same time fresh, intelligent, and energetic.
Fans of the 1998 Royal Winnipeg Ballet, from which this film was adapted, might be surprised to see what Maddin has done.
Possibly the best way to enjoy this film however, is as a fan, or at least connoisseur, of the Original Bram Stoker novel on which both the film and the ballet are based.
The dancers (whom Maddin did not cast, as they were all in the original stage production) wonderfully evoke their characters without dialogue, through dance alone; something were not used to seeing in film.
All in all this film gives us something new as Maddin lovers, Ballet lovers, Dracula lovers, or all three.
What an absolute thrill, from start to finish, just experiencing the `artistic conception' of this reverent homage to silent film, featuring Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet, a stunning performance by Zhang Wei-Qiang as Dracula, and the brilliant production design of Deanne Rohde.
The performance of Zhang Wei-Qiang dominates throughout, as he is easily the most fascinating stage personality, filled with a mesmerizing ability to seduce and ultimately possess his willing screen sirens, and while I can't speak for anyone else, I always root for him against his puritanesque nemesis, Dr Van Helsing, the leader of the repressed gang of vampire slayers.
Ballet director Mark Godden choreographed the ballet adapted by Maddin for this film, so there is constant motion on screen.
Surprisingly traditional, but worth a watch for horror and silent film fans.
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is a silent version of author Bram Stoker's Dracula that also incorporates many ballet-oriented scenes.My two principle reactions to the film were surprise and delight.
I was surprised that the film is so traditional--the silent footage often looks like one is simply watching a film from the 1910s or 1920s.
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is decidedly old wave, and never more experimental, different or unusual than a couple small production design touches that might have been gleaned by anyone who is a big fan of Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985) and Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish (1983).Even citing those two influences might be misleading.
The Brazil influence is primarily present in a single device--Mrs. Westerna's (Stephanie Ballard) ventilator, and the Rumble Fish influence primarily in the recurrence of red (and occasionally green and gold) within the context of mostly black and white photography (with occasional, very traditional silent film tinting for various scenes).
But Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is so traditional that Maddin frequently even went for German expressionist influenced set design.
However, the silent film aspect didn't exactly work well for me, either, and the ballet was a bit blase when it was present, which was less often than I expected.
Most of the time I was wondering what the motivation was for the silent film aspect, aside from an exercise in nostalgia and/or cribbing a style of a bygone era, like trying to create a painting that looks almost exactly like Titian, say.
Night Shyamalan's The Village (2004), which postdates this film by 2 years.My delight reaction arose when I realized that much of Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary can be read as an anti-immigration parable.
This makes Dracula's finale in the film fittingly ironic in light of the anti-immigration subtext.Maddin's film is also interesting for presenting the story in two halves, the first solely centered on Lucy Westerna (Tara Birtwhistle), and the second on Jonathan Harker (Johnny Wright) and Mina (Cindy Marie Small).
A pervert rendition of Dr. Van Helsing (Dave Moroni) was also unusual and amusing, but Renfield (Brent Neale) was mostly wasted.Of course a potential audience for Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary has to be amenable to silent films, and not averse to ballet or traditional classical music.
Polished performances, talented cast, brilliant design, a pinch of German Expressionism with scintillating special effects; exciting blend of mise-en-scene; revival and modernization of the silent film with world-class sound effects; haunting strains of Mahler's eloquent 1st and 2nd Symphonies; double entendres, semiotics, and the to-die-for Zhang Wei-Quiang as Dracula; transfuses the iron poor tired blood of the vampire genre..
Despite the extreme, extreme familiarity of the source material and the stuffy associations of the ballet form, Guy Maddin's 'Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary' emerges not only as one of the best 'Dracula' movies ever, but also as one of the best films about the Victorian Era (ranking with 'The Elephant Man' and 'Topsy-Turvy').
Combining a 19th-century novel with a 19th-century pop art form, and setting it to 19th-century music (Mahler's from the wrong country, but so what), is a good beginning, but what makes it work, of course, is shooting it all in a mock-19th-century style.
OK, so the silent horror films we think of date from a little later; still, Maddin does what he can to give the film a primitive, experimental, moving-daguerreotype effect, and the result feels like an actual window to the past, even if it's all just an artificial aesthetic construct.
The more explicitly balletic moments occasionally slow things down a bit for non-fans, but Maddin wisely keeps the running time at 75 minutes, and this helps the film retain a surprising accessibility.
Van Helsing and the men hunt for Lucy and then finally Dracula himself.Filmmaker Guy Maddin continues his experimentation.
I have been looking forward to this Canadian film ever since I saw Maddin's "The Saddest Music in the World" this summer.
It is supposed to be a movie version of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula." That sounds like something one should avoid at all costs.
Maddin draws from countless styles and forms from cinema past (it is pretty much silent, and almost all black and white), and pieces them together to make an utterly gorgeous and often witty film.
The actual plot adheres to Bram Stoker's novel more so than most movie versions I've seen, with a few clever twists thrown in.
What does it mean exactly to say that Guy Maddin's Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is stylish?
It is a crazily inspired vision, stylized with urgency and a force to be reckoned with as far as taking silent film and pushing it into a new kind of expression: the ballet.
Whether or not this will please people looking for a solid Dracula movie is another matter, since it isn't much, at all, a coherent telling of the Stoker story.And maybe rightfully so; people need to know right up front that Pages from a Virgin's Diary is one of the most unconventional vampire movies ever, and not because it changes around anything with the myth or even with many of Stoker's characters (although there is a Cowboy or other in the film that I don't remember in Stoker's story or Coppola's film).
The symbols come flying out almost as much as the dizzying camera-work, sometimes going as fast as the dancers, and for someone looking for just inspired direction on a familiar theme this is definitely where to look; in fact as far as the kind of Nosferatu story goes, this is as daring as Herzog's film.It just isn't entirely involving on an emotional level, and Maddin sets it all up and knocks it down like a very small-range technical exercise.
Lauded Canadian avant-gardist Guy Maddin takes an old dog and teaches it new, stunning tricks, with 2002′s Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary.I love Maddin.
But this 2002 theatre-film transcends those old celluloid days and sees maddened Maddin present Bram Stoker's classic Gothic novel Dracula, via a performance by The Winnipeg Ballet.It's certainly not for everyone, but I found this film to be an absolute feast.
Maddin brings out the inherent xenophobic plot points of the novel (Dracula is played by an Asian dancer, whilst Van Helsing is a white supremacist), and mixes them with striking expressionistic facial expressions that harken back to F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu.
Although most of the film is told in slow-motion to match Mahler's 1st symphony, the brilliant balletic choreography makes the entire film move with great poise and spectacle.Not my favourite Maddin – and it may not be my favourite adaptation of Dracula either – but it's certainly the most audacious I've ever seen.
It's a ballet version of the Dracula story and if that wasn't already enough originality and strangeness, it's also shot in a silent movie style.Actually, I already was familiar with some of Guy Maddin's other work, so I sort of knew what to expect from this movie already.
The camera-work is very innovative and also helps to keep the movie going at all times.It was also quite interesting to see the familiar story being told for most part from the viewpoint of the Lucy Westernra character.
Wei-Qiang Zhang, as it turned out, was a very charismatic choice, for the role of the well known and much portrayed blood sucking count.And as far as ballet goes; this movie does mostly a good job at keeping things understandable and not all about its dancing and exaggerated expressions from its actors.
But then again, who isn't familiar with the Dracula story now days?I should also probably admit that if the movie would had been any longer, I would had had a hard time finishing it.
Watching a completely silent movie, with dancing characters, gets a bit of an endurance test after a while I guess but it still remains an ultimately rewarding movie, by the end.
I didn't know he primarily works in the silent genre and to top that, this film is entirely a ballet.
Filmed in mostly black and white with silent era techniques, Maddin creates and eerie mood with this take on Brom Stoker's classic novel.
He uses the techniques of silent film and the Canadian Royal Ballet to produce a dream-like story of Dracula that is stunning and faithful.
Using Wei-Qiang Zhang as Dracula also adds a bit of xenophobia to the film.
When the Winnepeg Ballet Company wanted to film a version of 'Dracula:Pages From A Virgin's Diary', what better director could they have chosen but Guy Maddin for the job.
As the ballet featured absolutely no dialog, Madin was easily the best choice for the job, as dialog seems to be unnecessary for his films (his inspirations are old German silent expressionist films such as 'The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari & Nosferatu, as well as Soviet directors such as Dziga Vertov, who was responsible for the long running 'Kino Pravda'series, as well as Sergei Eisenstein, who directed such films as 'Alexander Nevsky').
The film's visual look,which at times feels like one is watching this film while experiencing a 110 degree fever dream (while f****d up on magic mushrooms).
Anyone who loves Bram Stoker's novel--not just the movies--needs to watch this because it is the most faithful adaptation of the book.
The film even features Dracula's hairy palm, which has never been done before on film.If you're more of a fan of the book than the movies, you really should see this.
It's amazing how Guy Maddin takes the mood of the silent film era (including film speed, story-telling, and the feel of disintegrated celluloid) and tells the story of Dracula as a ballet.
It's amazing how Guy Maddin takes the mood of the silent film era (including film speed, story-telling, and the feel of disintegrated celluloid) and tells the story of Dracula as a ballet.
Initially, I thought that seeing a silent ballet of a story we all know would lure me to sleep immediately, but I was happily surprised that I wanted to absorb every second of this film.The costumes, movement and facial expressions are so memorable, and while the film is in black and white, key portions are emphasized in color.
Initially, I thought that seeing a silent ballet of a story we all know would lure me to sleep immediately, but I was happily surprised that I wanted to absorb every second of this film.The costumes, movement and facial expressions are so memorable, and while the film is in black and white, key portions are emphasized in color.
They set out to kill her for good, but can they prevent Dracula claiming his next victim - Westenra's cousin Mina?As part of my approach to films, I try to not just watch the big new releases or the well known smaller films, but I'll give things a try even if I know little about them but they sound OK.
I'm not a big ballet fan, but I enjoyed this film as it mixed the ballet into a story that was told very easily though dance and closed captions.
The fact that it was a very cinematic ballet really helped me get into it - the film's style is a homage of sorts to silent film, in it's filming, caption cards and whole look.
Even the exaggerated looks on he casts' faces reminded me of the silent movies.The actual ballet in the film is mixed.
For me, I enjoyed the ballet as part of the story telling process but also got a kick out of seeing a silent movie version of Dracula done with modern touches..
Dracula, the almost quaint legendary evil - but irrestible - villain - is granted yet another resurrection in this filmed adaptation of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's production.
Directed for the stage by Mark Godden and for celluliod by Guy Maddin, it is seemingly an homage to the previous Dracula films, yet it brings many fresh and exciting dimensions to an immortal character.Obviously enough, it is a ballet.
(Fittingly, the Dracula I saw on stage (Jesus Corrales) was Latin.)The rest of the credits should go to the design of this film - silent, with a rousing score, colourless except for blood and money, and shrouded in darkness and smoke.
I enjoy ballet, and I like vampire films (especially the old ones), so why did this just not work for me?
A (Post)Modern Silent-Film Ballet Gets Stoker's Story Right.
After reading Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," I've been seeking out a bunch of movie adaptations of it.
I wouldn't have guessed that my favorite would turn out to be a ballet movie made in the style from the silent film era, but it has.
As a silent-film ballet, it succeeds by the marriage of two mute art forms and by integrating the editing with the music and the camera within the dance rather than outside it as a spectator.Stoker's novel is about many things--it's a relatively long, even too long, book, after all.
Oddly, although I've long known about Guy Maddin's postmodern tendency to adopt this era's style, this is the first movie of his that I've seen.
As with the actors of the silent film era, who used a system of gestures adapted from theatre to express their characters, ballet has its own expressive codes.
This film may not be the best adaptation of Dracula, but it is definitely the most special version.Bravo!
It combines the charm of a silent film with the beauty of ballet.
A vampire film done like this, WOW!Seeing Dracula portrayed by an actor who looks Asian is also very interesting.What ruins the film is the finale.
Mahler and Maddin, Dracula and Dance, Weird and Wonderful.
The ballet is well choreographed and the story is faithful to Stoker's novel.
I appreciate this version because it didn't streamline the characters like so many other Dracula adaptations.
They're all here in this production Dracula,Van Helsing,Dr.Seward,Arthur Holmwood,Quincy Morris,Jonathan Harker,Mina Murray,Lucy Westenra,Renfield,Mrs.Westenra and the vampire Brides.
I could kick myself in the head for not seeing it on the big screen now.I have never seen the Dracula ballet, but this makes me want to run out and get tickets for it, if it is as great as it is made out to be in this movie.The film captures all the plot points of the novel and serves it up in only 75 minutes.
Money had to be a silent way of conveying the menace of Dracula, who in a genius move by Maddin, is Chinese.
For those who didn't know the story from the novel of Stoker's novel (which was given good yet shoddy historical treatment by Coppola some years back, so more people should know most of its scenes, minus the Vlad Tepes bits not in the book) these words explained the characters, their intentions, places in the book, etc, so even the layman can't get lost, giving humor in the process.The techniques in the ballet and the film are brilliant.
The ballet itself was a good forum for Maddin, a man who loves dealing with imagery from the Victorian age to the Depression Era, using grainy film and making the films look bygone, but adding modern ideas and translations.