Bram Stoker's Dracula

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Movie
German title Bram Stoker's Dracula
Original title Dracula
Bramstokersdracula-logo.svg
Country of production United States
original language English , Romanian , Greek , Bulgarian
Publishing year 1992
length 128 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Francis Ford Coppola
script James V. Hart
production Michael Apted
Fred Fuchs
Charles Mulvehill
music Wojciech Kilar
camera Michael Ballhaus
cut Anne Goursaud
occupation
synchronization

Bram Stoker's Dracula is both a horror film and a love drama from 1992 based on the novel Dracula by Abraham "Bram" Stoker , directed by Francis Ford Coppola . The main roles were played by Gary Oldman as Count and Anthony Hopkins as his opponent Professor van Helsing.
Coppola's film adaptation is - despite some dramaturgical deviations - the most faithful implementation of Stoker's vampire novel .

action

After the fall of Constantinople , the Ottomans invaded Europe inexorably. The Transylvanian Prince Dracul, whose figure Vlad Țepeș was modeled on, goes to war against the Sultan's army. He survived the heavy fighting and travels back to his wife Elisabeta. However, she took her own life after receiving the false message from the Turks that Dracul had died in the war. He is told that the suicide has been excommunicated. Filled with anger and sadness, Dracul desecrates a cross and turns away from Christianity. Thereupon he is condemned to eternal life, in which blood his food should be. This is how Dracul becomes a vampire .

Centuries later, English lawyer Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to finalize negotiations for the sale of several London properties to a certain Count Dracula. When he arrives at the castle, he is welcomed by the aged count. The contracts are signed quickly. The vampire is struck by a picture of Harker's fiancé Mina Murray, who looks deceptively similar to his late wife Elisabeta. The centuries-old love rekindles, and so Dracula travels to England to find her beloved. He leaves the lawyer in his castle, where he is at the mercy of three vampiric playmates. Arrived in London, Dracula ensnares Mina in the form of the young, charismatic Prince Vlad von Székel. In her best friend Lucy Westenra, however, he mercilessly satisfies his hunger and turns her into a vampire too. Even the assistance of the famous professor Abraham van Helsing cannot save them. Eventually, under his guidance, she is killed by her fiancé Lord Arthur Holmwood.

Meanwhile, Harker manages to escape from Dracula's castle. His fiancée Mina travels to Transylvania, the two get married there and return to London together. Professor van Helsing decides to join forces with Harker, Lord Holmwood, van Helsing's former student Dr. Jack Seward and the American Quincey P. Morris to confront the vampire. You start by destroying his sleeping quarters. At the same time, Dracula and Mina meet. Although the vampire confesses his true nature to her, she wants to flee with him. But there is an argument with the vampire hunters and Dracula has to escape to Transylvania alone and weakened.

After a grueling chase across land and sea, Van Helsing's group places the vampire in front of his castle and can seriously wound him. First of all, Mina, who traveled with the group, protects her beloved prince from the attackers. Together they retreat to the old chapel where Dracula once swore off God. There he is, at his own request, finally killed by Mina out of love and compassion and so he still finds his redemption. In a final shot, she sees a picture of the reunited lovers Dracul and Elisabeta.

background

In contrast to the novel, which consists of letters and other sources written by the protagonists, the development of the Count plays a central role in Coppola's film version. The love story told in the film between Dracula and Mina Harker (who loathes him rather than loves him in the book) is explained by adding the figure of Elisabeta and thus makes Dracula a tragic figure. The film is not a pure film adaptation of the material, but interprets it in a certain sense. This fact attracted many critics who saw the original novel as distorted.

Some shots of the film as well as the music, especially during the opening scenes, are strongly based on Nosferatu , the film adaptation of the Dracula story by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau .

In a supporting role, Monica Bellucci plays one of Dracula's brides, this is her first appearance as an actress in an American film.

Wojciech Kilar composed the music for the film. The vocal interludes are from Diamanda Galás . The credits song Love Song for a Vampire was written and sung by Annie Lennox .

In 1995 Mel Brooks made a parody of this Dracula film with Dracula - Dead but Happy . There are also allusions to Dracula (1931, with Bela Lugosi in the title role). Leslie Nielsen took on the role of Dracula, Brooks himself played the vampire hunter van Helsing.

Cast and dubbing

role actor German speaker
Prof. Abraham van Helsing Anthony Hopkins Rolf Schult
Jonathan Harker Keanu Reeves Udo Schenk
Dracula Gary Oldman Christian Brückner
Dr. Jack Seward Richard E. Grant Lutz Mackensy
Lord Arthur Holmwood Cary Elwes Norbert Langer
Mina Murray Winona Ryder Anita Lochner
Lucy Westenra Sadie Frost Marina Krogull
Quincey P. Morris Bill Campbell Wolfgang Condrus
RM Renfield Tom Waits Joachim Kemmer
Newsboy Daniel Newman Björn Schalla
Dracula's bride Monica Bellucci NN
Dracula's bride Michaela Bercu NN
Dracula's bride Florina Kendrick NN

Awards

The film was nominated for four Oscars and won three of them - in the categories Best Costume Design , Best Make-Up and Best Sound Editing . In the production design category , he did not get beyond the nomination.

At the Saturn Awards , with which films from the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror are recognized annually, the film won in five categories: Francis Ford Coppola for best director, James V. Hart for best screenplay, and Eiko Ishioka for best Costume and Gary Oldman as best actor. The crowning glory was the award in the “Best Horror Film” category. Winona Ryder was also nominated for Best Leading Actress and Anthony Hopkins for Best Supporting Actor, Roman Coppola was nominated for Special Effects and Wojciech Kilar was nominated for Best Score. There was another nomination in the “Best Make-Up” category.

The work was awarded the Fotogramas de Plata for best foreign language film . The composer also won the ASCAP Award, an award for film music. Finally, the film received four nominations for the BAFTA Award (make-up, costume, special effects and production design).

Reviews

“Elaborate remake of a literary and film classic that exploits the topoi of the horror, adventure and splatter genre like an opera , but ultimately does not find its own signature,” said the lexicon of international films . The camerawork and Gary Oldman's interpretation of the title role are "impressive". For Cinema , the film was a "costume shocker with an opulent look".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the only thing missing was "narrative energy and coherence". Coppola apparently placed more emphasis on the spectacle and the equipment than on the plot. The set designers would have "surpassed themselves".

The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the production the rating “valuable”.

Others

  • When Winona Ryder saw the script for Dracula , which was originally slated to be a TV movie directed by Michael Apted , she immediately sent it on to Francis Ford Coppola , whom she hadn't spoken to since she was physically exhausted from The Godfather Part III got off . Coppola agreed and kept Apted as lead producer to make the film.
  • For some time Coppola had toyed with the idea of ​​simply naming his film ' D' in order to differentiate it from other Dracula productions.
  • In the scene where van Helsing catches Mina with Dracula, Coppola wanted more emotions from Winona Ryder, so at that moment he screamed that she (Mina) was a "whore" and a "slut".
  • Anthony Hopkins played a dual role in Dracula . In the prologue of the film he can be seen as a priest (Cesare) who tells Dracula that Elisabeth's soul is doomed after her suicide.
  • Sadie Frost decided to dye her hair red because her natural hair color was too similar to Winona Ryder's.
  • The portrait of Dracula, which can be seen in the film when Jonathan arrives at the castle, is a version of the famous painting Self-Portrait in a Fur Skirt by Albrecht Dürer, adapted to the appearance of Gary Oldman .
  • The story of the death of Dracula's wife, told at the beginning of the film, is based on a Romanian legend that gave the river Râul Doamnei its name.
  • Liam Neeson was very interested in the role of Professor van Helsing. But after Anthony Hopkins, then enormously popular because of his recent success in The Silence of the Lambs , had expressed his interest, he was cast in place of Neeson.
  • Although they were sometimes very uncomfortable for him to wear, Gary Oldman brought many creative ideas to the design of the various special masks.
  • Red jelly was used as the blood for Dracula .
  • For the role of Renfield was Coppola's preferred candidate Steve Buscemi , who turned it down.
  • Francis Ford Coppola subsequently criticized himself for his decision to have Keanu Reeves cast as Harker. He had hoped to appeal to younger female audiences with this performer.
  • The pinball machine manufacturer Williams manufactured a suitable pinball machine in 1993 that is based on the film and shows film excerpts on the display.
  • The song I Have Crossed Oceans Of Wine To Find You by HIM , written by Ville Valo , is based in a modified form on a quote from the film.

literature

  • Fred Saberhagen and James V. Hart: Bram Stoker's Dracula. The novel based on the film by Francis Ford Coppola. Based on the script by James V. Hart based on Stoker's novel. Goldmann, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-42217-5 .
  • Bram Stoker: Dracula. (OT: Dracula ). German by Karl Bruno Leder. Insel, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-458-34803-4 .
  • Karsten Prüssmann: The Dracula Films. From Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau to Francis Ford Coppola. Heyne-Filmbibliothek, Volume 190. Heyne, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-453-06702-9 .
  • Francis F. Coppola and James V. Hart: Bram Stoker's Dracula. The movie and the legend. Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1993, ISBN 978-3-404-13487-8 .
  • Francis F. Coppola and Eiko Ishioka and Susan Coppola Dworkin: Coppola and Eiko on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Collins Publishers, San Francisco 1992, ISBN 978-0-00-255167-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Bram Stoker's Dracula . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Bram Stoker's Dracula. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Bram Stoker's Dracula. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Bram Stoker's Dracula on cinema.de
  5. ↑ Review on rogerebert.com
  6. ↑ Bram Stoker's Dracula on fbw-filmb Bewertung.com
  7. ↑ Internet Pinball Database entry