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5 internautes sur 6 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
4.0étoiles sur 5
Fact, Fiction and My Inspiration., Aoû 26 2007
1462, Transylvania, Vlad the Impaler leaves his wife to fight the Turks. Out of malice, The Turks send her a letter telling her that her husband is dead. She is so distraught over his death and terrified at being captured that she throws herself from the castle turrets. When Vlad returns, he is told that his wife may not enter the Kingdom of Heaven as she has killed herself, which is a mortal sin. Vlad immediately renounces God and then he himself is condemned.
400 years later, Jonathon Harker leaves London and his fiancée Mina to travel to Transylvania. He has been assigned to help Count Dracula acquire property in England. Jonathon may never return...
This film, despite its flaws, will always hold a place in my heart as it inspired me to write my novel, Vrolok. I have always loved horror movies so when I heard that Francis Ford Coppola was making a new Dracula film, I could not wait to see it. I remember eagerly anticipating the announcement of who was to play Dracula, and when I found out that it was Gary Oldman, I was not happy! The only thing I had seen him in was JFK, and I was not very impressed (I was too young to have appreciated Sid and Nancy). However, I still decided it was worth going to the cinema to see the movie as Keanu Reeves, Cary Elwes and Bill Campbell were also in it. From the moment Gary Oldman appears on screen, he captivates his audience. His performance is camp, overdone, and at times preposterous, yet it is still somehow seductive, mesmerizing, and sublime. (Bram Stoker would have been proud!). He even utters the line "The children of the night. What sweet music they make" with a thick Romanian accent and gets away with it. I saw this film when I was fifteen and was immediately converted into a life long Gary Oldman fan.
As previously stated, and despite Oldman's performance, the film does have its flaws. Keanu Reeves is about as wooden as a stake and the rest of the cast seem to, just like Gary Oldman, overdo the accents and this is a strategy that doesn't quite work for the rest of the cast. In addition, Sadie Frost and Wynona Ryder running around in the rain in see-through outfits is clichéd and slightly annoying (I am sure most boys who see this film love that bit). Apart from Oldman's performance, there is one other thing that has to be commended - the soundtrack - both Wojciech Kilar's score and Annie Lennox's theme are dark, chilling, and poignant.
All in all a great movie - it inspired me to write a book that may or may not make me a million but will always be something that I am proud to have completed.
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2.0étoiles sur 5
Her prince is coming, Jui 14 2008
When Francis Ford Coppola is good, he's very very good. When he's bad... he turns out something like "Bram Stoker's Dracula." Whose title is also very inappropriate, since only a tattered, abused outline of Stoker's original novel is left.
Instead, Coppola inexplicably decides to turn the story of Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler into a tragic star-crossed love story. But not only does this revamped "Dracula" not make much sense, but it rapidly degenerates into a feverishly baroque eruption of schlock, horribly wooden acting and endless drippy sympathy for an avowed brutal murderer.
Prince Vlad the Impaler went off to war, and came back to find that his wife had high-dived into the river. Enraged, he renounced God (I'm not sure why) stabbed a cross (which started inexplicably bleeding), and became a vampire.
Centuries later, Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) arrives in Transylvania to sell a house to Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) -- only to find that Dracula's castle is a depraved, bloody horror house. As he's tormented by Dracula's brides, Dracula travels to England and encounters Harker's fiancee Mina (Winona Ryder), who apparently is the reincarnation of his late wife. So he wines and dines her, while seducing her lusty pal Lucy (Sadie Frost).
And as Lucy grows sickly, lustier and weirder, Doctor Seward (Richard E. Grant) calls his old mentor Dr. Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) to help cure Lucy. Of course, she's being turned into a vampire by Dracula, who is none too pleased that Mina is now rushing to marry Jonathan. Van Helsing's little group sets out to destroy Dracula once and for all -- but Mina is going to make things difficult.
Despite including Bram Stoker's name in the title, it's pretty obvious that Coppola only sticks to the bare bones of Stoker's classic vampire novel. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself -- some changes to books are good things. Unfortunately "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is changed in mostly negative ways -- an illogical love story, absurd costumes and hair, schlocky special effects, and some really rotten acting.
And sadly, turning the story into a soggy tragic romance causes a number of plot holes -- Renfield is superfluous, Harker mysteriously survives a fall that killed Elizabeta, and Mina goes on sexy dates while her best pal is dying (there's a friend for you!). And the attempts at romantic dialogue fall painfully flat, especially when they come from from the legendary Vlad the Impaler ("I have crossed oceans of time to find you!").
Even worse, the beginning of the movie is soaked in schlock -- red satin, animal helmets, muscle armor, creeping shadows, and Dracula's hilarious "breasts" hairdo. Coppola thankfully tones down the schlock factor pretty quickly, although the hyperactive cameras never quite calm down. Many of the following scenes are genuinely lovely: bridal vampires, polished crypts, haunted forests and a gloriously ruinous Carfax Abbey bathed in flames.
But while the story of "Dracula" has a fair dose of subliminal sex, Coppola decides it isn't blatant enough -- lesbian kisses, screamed orgasms, bare breasts, green mist sex, Mina snogging Van Helsing, and Lucy getting raped by a werewolfized Dracula on a bench.
Gary Oldman makes a solid enough Dracula, although even his formidable talents can't make me sympathize with a brutal mass murderer just because he's an incurable romantic and has pretty hair. Hopkins makes an outstandingly quirky Van Helsing, and Cary Elwes makes a solidly stiff-upper-lipped Arthur Holmwood. Bill Campbell and Richard E. Grant also make solid contributions.
Unfortunately, more spotlight time is given to the appallingly bad Ryder and Reeves. Ryder's acting is mostly confined to looking dewy-eyed all the time, and her outrage upon finding that "her prince" killed her best buddy is all too fleeting. Reeves devotes most of his acting skill to wrestling with a splotchy British accent. He's reduced to clumping around randomly, looking befuddled.
This would be better called "Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula," soaked in superfluous sex, wooden acting, plot holes, and a feverish haunted-house ambience. Oldman and Hopkins are sublime, but not much else is.
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4.0étoiles sur 5
colourful and stylish adaptation, Sep 17 2007
i really enjoyed this movie.it is beautifully photographed,with great
camera work.i'm not sure how accurate it is to Bram Stoker's novel,but
it is very different from the 1931 film.i thought the acting was
good,all around,but in particular, Anthony Hopkins was brilliant in his
portrayal of Abraham Van Helsing,bringing some comic relief to the
movie.and Of course Gary Oldman was outstanding as the count in his
various ages.this is a very eerie movie,though not terrifying.there are
a couple of very disturbing scenes.the movie is more style than
substance,with great use of colours and is has a very dark pallor over
it,which is expected.i was really entertained by it. 4/5
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