Bram Stoker's Dracula 30th Anniversary 4K Release

The White Wolf

I'm planning on going to see this next Thursday in my local cinema (I'm actually surprised they're running it as they haven't for similar releases). It's one of those films that I was too young to see in 1992 but would have been top of my wish list to see a re-release for.

I really love this film even its flaws (yeah we know who and what they are), can't believe I'm getting the chance to experience as it was intended. It really makes me appreciate still having the option of going to the cinema.

Fysh

If you're interested, there is a fanedit of this out there called the "Silent Cut" which converts it to a B&W title in the style of early 20th century silents, complete with intertitles and a rescore using a Philip Glass score.

It's very impressive how good the film looks in this style; the new score is also great. However, the story has been hacked to an absolute minimum and because the editor was aiming for parity with the Glass score, the intertitles typically run too briefly. So you'll want to have at least a reasonably fresh recollection of the story before watching, as it is otherwise hard to follow.

delboy85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058266324/bram-stokers-dracula-30th-anniversary-4k-release

I love this film (flaws and all). I remember going to see it in The Stella, Rathmines at a late night (11.15pm/11.30pm) showing on the day it was released and being hugely impressed with it.

Padraig Mor

Love this film and am of a vintage to have seen it when released first. Would love to see this rerelease but it's not showing for us poor Cork folks!

The White Wolf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119710279#Comment_119710279

I'd be interested in that but seems a bit tough to find.

The White Wolf

Disappointed in the lack of love for this film. One of the few that was faithful to the book mostly.

pixelburp

Love the film, even if Keanu Reeves' presence damn near sinks the thing in places.

The commitment to optical in-camera effects throughout was commendable and gave the film a deep timelessness.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119720905#Comment_119720905

99% hate Keanu Reaves in this. But I think he was cast to play the role of an extremely wooden guy, and fits it perfectly. What I believe is a masterstroke of casting, turned into the stick to beat the film with. To me its like casting Arnie to play Conan, fits the role like a glove and literally the best guy on the planet to play that specific role.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119720945#Comment_119720945

It's an interesting take, but it might have worked better had Reeves not also brought more attention to his performance with his awful accent. To use your comparison, nobody ever asked Armie to affect an accent, knowing it asked more than the actor could deliver.

I think Reeves was cast cos he was the prettyboy A List talent to headline the project, and Coppola had no say, or was the point of compromise. If he has said anything to the contrary then cool.

It's definitely another one of those movies you look at and go, well ain't no chance that kind of production happens ever again.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119722638#Comment_119722638

Arnie doing an Irish accent would be something 😂

It could be the pretty boy casting, Stone was guilty of that with Farrell in Alexander, (by choice to get more eyes on it) But I feel like Coppola is a pretty difficult guy at best and at that time you’d have to assume he had creative control or he would throw a fit and walk away. Id like to think he wanted wooden and got wooden.

The Reeves issue aside its one of my top 5 films. I wish we could get back to spending huge budgets on artistic creative movies. Sadly its probably never gonna happen.

The White Wolf

Coppola said himself that he needed a hot young actor and that's more or less why he was cast. Johnny Depp was the first choice.

pixelburp

Coppola's immediately prior movie to Dracula was Godfather III. Given all this happened after the fiasco that was One From the Heart, the director had to do a lot of "one for them"s IIRC; I presume Reeves was the compromise Coppola had to make to get funding for Dracula in the first place. Assuming it also wasn't a gun-for-hire job! (though it was too lush and visionary to be the work of someone on auto).

The other reason I couldn't see this film happening is its deep sensuality wouldn't track these days; mainstream Hollywood has become very neutered. Vampires in film have become sexy in a very chaste, adolescent sort of way, with the source obvious enough there. Coppola took the original text that was - very much IMO - a screed about the dangers of foreigners and STDs and made it something alluring, dangerously exotic as opposed to pestilent.

The White Wolf

Well that was one ticked off the bucket list. Seen on a screen not as big as I hoped, and slightly fearful that countless rewatches at home would neuter the experience, but by christ the second that sound hits over the intro I was pulled in anew.

More people at it than I expected too.

buried

Fantastic work, and just like El Rifle has already stated, Reeves played the part of Harker beautifully, because in the book Harker is the quintessential mainstream dummy idiot, a mere vessel in the plan for the count to get exactly what he wants.

The sequential editing in this film is what makes it a masterpiece, the world feels totally believable even though the set-pieces and set designs are portrayed as somewhat outlandish. The editing is key to this.

Anybody who enjoys this film would do well to check out Ken Russell's "The Devils" (1971) which IMO Coppola heavily drew upon to edit and create a frenetic but historically accurate depiction of a bygone time and place.

TomSweeney

Thanks for this, didn't know it was rereleased and just see it's in a local cinema of mine that has a massive screen and really good DOLBY ATMOS installed.

I went to see it in 1992 when I was 14, a friend of mine and myself snuck in to see it after paying for tickets for Strictly Ballroom in UCI Coolock!