A 15th-century prince loses the woman he loves, renounces God and becomes Dracula, spending centuries searching for her reincarnation while leaving a bloody trail behind him.
Luc Besson's Dracula: A Love Tale is another take on Bram Stoker's immortal vampire, but this time Besson leans heavily into the doomed romance. Caleb Landry Jones is excellent as Dracula, with Zoë Bleu Sidel as Elisabeta/Mina, Christoph Waltz as the relentless priest and memorable Matilda De Angelis as the wonderfully feral Maria (a Lucy type character from the novel).
The opening is particularly effective, as Dracula loses his love in a breathless chase across the snow before the story jumps through the centuries. Besson changes the way Dracula searches for Mina, introducing his perfume experiments and having him use attacks and his followers to aid his quest. The gargoyles are another odd but entertaining addition, along with the passage of time dances that gives the story a much broader sweep.
It's sensual, it's bloody and it's much more of a love story and tale of sacrifice than some versions, while still delivering plenty of gothic horror and action. Jones's Dracula is also considerably more sympathetic, which changes the dynamic of the character without completely removing the deadly monster. Waltz's vampire hunter priest is humorous, frank, nonchalant and likeable. He makes a wonderful and methodical Van Helsing-type. The Clerk, Raphael Luce, Doctor Dumont played by Guillaume de Tonquédec, and Ewens Abid's quirky Harker are memorable and round out the cast. In addition, Henry Spencer, played by British actor David Shields is notable.
Colin Wandersman's cinematography is beautiful, with Hugues Tissandier's elaborate sets and Corinne Bruand's costumes giving the film a suitably lavish period atmosphere. Danny Elfman's music fits the gothic melodrama perfectly.
Of course, Dracula adaptations are hardly in short supply. From Universal's Dracula and its Spanish-language companion, Hammer's 1958 classic, Blood for Dracula, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Vampire in Venice and countless others, we've been here many times before. Besson's version feels more contemporary, somewhere between Interview with the Vampire, Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula and Robert Eggers' recent Nosferatu, while successfully putting his own strange spin on the material.
It doesn't reinvent Dracula, but Besson makes enough changes to keep this familiar story moving in unexpected directions. Gothic, romantic, bloody and occasionally wild - another Dracula, yes, but one I enjoyed sinking my teeth into. Not definitive, but arguably one of the go-to versions.
No comments:
Post a Comment