Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2001)
Dracula Returns:
The most bizarre and arresting version yet
made of Bram Stoker’s much-filmed novel
Yellow credits appear against a black background. The first names the producers. The second reads, “based on Mark Godden’s “Dracula,” adapted and choreographed for Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet”—so this is to be the record of a ballet.
The credits continue with the cast, the technicians. Then, there is a black-and-white image of a hand wiping a window—the director’s credit appears in yellow, the opening chords of Mahler’s 1st Symphony are heard. Through the window, blurry at first, a crucifix—over which the title appears in blood red, Dracula, the sub-title in yellow, Pages from a Virgin’s Diary.
Then, in black-and-white, characters are introduced in vignettes, as black blood streams down the images. It streams down handwritten pages—a vignette of Mina Murray; it streams onto flowers—Harker, her fiancée; it streams from the ceiling and a chandelier—Lucy Westenra; it streams onto leaves—Lucy’s mother; it streams onto a doctor’s bag—Dr. Van Helsing.
An inter-title quotes Bram Stoker—“There are bad dreams for those that sleep unwisely.” Lucy dreams. Black blood swims across a map of Europe from the East. Sleepwalking, Lucy glides to the window. She wonders, “Why can’t they let a woman marry three men? Or as many as want her?” She pricks her left index finger on a rose—red drops of blood in a black-and-white image. She smears the blood on a door jam. Behind her Dracula appears, twisting a long diaphanous scarf in his hands. Slowly, he approaches Lucy. He places the scarf against the back of her neck. And then. As mist wafts across the screen. He bites into her neck.
This is not your normal record of a ballet.
But, it is a musical—the performers are members of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the potent soundtrack is taken from Mahler’s 1st and 2nd Symphonies.
And, it is a silent movie—complete with titles and inter-titles. Shot on black-and-white Super 8 and 16 mm film, it is breathtakingly beautiful.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commissioned director Guy Maddin to shoot a version of Godden’s ballet. The budget was $1.6 million (Canadian), the largest the cult director—Tales from Gimli Hospital (1988), Archangel (1990), Careful (1992), and Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)—has worked with, but miniscule by Hollywood standards.
Maddin adds elements from Stoker’s novel—like the character of Renfield—while shortening the ballet from 110 to 73-minutes. He also adds dazzling tinted images, humor (Lucy’s mother lies in a bed with a glass-lid, with piping to a ventilator operated by two maids), and the bone-crunching sound of a head being decapitated with a blood-red spade.
Maddin said (when interviewed by the “Calgary News and Entertainment Weekly,” February 28, 2002), “My goal was to shoot it like a movie, with close-ups, medium shots and wide shots […] stressing the face more.” He convinced the dancers to allow him and associate director and editor, deco dawson, onstage to operate cameras, while moving among them. Deeply immersed in their characters, Zhang Wei-Qiang (Dracula), Tara Birtwhistle (Lucy) and Cindy Marie Small (Mina) give mesmerizing performances.
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary is the most bizarre and most arresting version yet made of Bram Stoker’s much-filmed novel.
—John Bloomfield (12 May, 2003)
The most bizarre and arresting version yet
made of Bram Stoker’s much-filmed novel
Yellow credits appear against a black background. The first names the producers. The second reads, “based on Mark Godden’s “Dracula,” adapted and choreographed for Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet”—so this is to be the record of a ballet.
The credits continue with the cast, the technicians. Then, there is a black-and-white image of a hand wiping a window—the director’s credit appears in yellow, the opening chords of Mahler’s 1st Symphony are heard. Through the window, blurry at first, a crucifix—over which the title appears in blood red, Dracula, the sub-title in yellow, Pages from a Virgin’s Diary.
Then, in black-and-white, characters are introduced in vignettes, as black blood streams down the images. It streams down handwritten pages—a vignette of Mina Murray; it streams onto flowers—Harker, her fiancée; it streams from the ceiling and a chandelier—Lucy Westenra; it streams onto leaves—Lucy’s mother; it streams onto a doctor’s bag—Dr. Van Helsing.
An inter-title quotes Bram Stoker—“There are bad dreams for those that sleep unwisely.” Lucy dreams. Black blood swims across a map of Europe from the East. Sleepwalking, Lucy glides to the window. She wonders, “Why can’t they let a woman marry three men? Or as many as want her?” She pricks her left index finger on a rose—red drops of blood in a black-and-white image. She smears the blood on a door jam. Behind her Dracula appears, twisting a long diaphanous scarf in his hands. Slowly, he approaches Lucy. He places the scarf against the back of her neck. And then. As mist wafts across the screen. He bites into her neck.
This is not your normal record of a ballet.
But, it is a musical—the performers are members of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the potent soundtrack is taken from Mahler’s 1st and 2nd Symphonies.
And, it is a silent movie—complete with titles and inter-titles. Shot on black-and-white Super 8 and 16 mm film, it is breathtakingly beautiful.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commissioned director Guy Maddin to shoot a version of Godden’s ballet. The budget was $1.6 million (Canadian), the largest the cult director—Tales from Gimli Hospital (1988), Archangel (1990), Careful (1992), and Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)—has worked with, but miniscule by Hollywood standards.
Maddin adds elements from Stoker’s novel—like the character of Renfield—while shortening the ballet from 110 to 73-minutes. He also adds dazzling tinted images, humor (Lucy’s mother lies in a bed with a glass-lid, with piping to a ventilator operated by two maids), and the bone-crunching sound of a head being decapitated with a blood-red spade.
Maddin said (when interviewed by the “Calgary News and Entertainment Weekly,” February 28, 2002), “My goal was to shoot it like a movie, with close-ups, medium shots and wide shots […] stressing the face more.” He convinced the dancers to allow him and associate director and editor, deco dawson, onstage to operate cameras, while moving among them. Deeply immersed in their characters, Zhang Wei-Qiang (Dracula), Tara Birtwhistle (Lucy) and Cindy Marie Small (Mina) give mesmerizing performances.
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary is the most bizarre and most arresting version yet made of Bram Stoker’s much-filmed novel.
—John Bloomfield (12 May, 2003)
posted by John Bloomfield at 10:01 PM
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