A review of the last vampire movie I watched...
Disclaimer: Cheese and/or Canadian content may be high.
Read at your own risk...
Okay, so I'm actually reviewing a vampire film that was not cheese. But it's Canadian, so that's got to count for something, right? I went to a special screening of this movie downtown with my friend Duana just before Halloween this year. It was part of a series of limited release films put on this fall as part of the fundraising efforts for what will be Halifax's new rep cinema, The Paradise. I'm hoping this thing takes off, because even though I didn't always go there, I miss Wormwoods like crazy!
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is actually a production based on the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's version of Dracula, and includes a great deal of dance. The visual style at first glance appears to be classic, as the film is a definite nod to the black and white silent film era. However, certain touches make it obvious that the filmaker is trying to stretch that genre. The viewer will notice a remarkable use of colour, in which the black and white images may be washed with a reddish, bluish, greenish, or yellowish tint. The tints were apparently intended to highlight the emotion in the scene (red or pink for love, etc.), but the effect was so subtle that one didn't even notice it until well into the film; as a result, I do not think it really had much of an impact at all. Though the use of added red for blood in some scenes was more striking, it was a more clichéd effect than the colour washes. Overall, the shadowy and surreal visuals had a richly gothic feel.
There was also clearly a pastiche of tributes in this film to other film versions of Dracula. Everywhere, I saw images which were clearly inspired by previous films, especially the Coppola version made ten years earlier. At times, it almost parodied them. I'm not sure whether I liked the postmodern flare of this film or not, though. I certainly thought the witty additions were priceless, but I am not so sure about the blatant replacement of the usual Victorian theme of Dracula as "dark sexual predator" with the postmodern theme of Dracula as "other." It is something that has been done to death. Is it still clever to do things like highlight a character's otherness by constantly referring to him as a "foreigner" and deliberately place a lead who has Asian heritage against a cast of obvious European descent?
Nevertheless, I did understand most of the symbolism in the film. However, both Duana and I had no clue what the green dollar bills (Canadian money by the way!) meant at the end of the film. We batted around a few ideas about capitalism, but still walked away confused. If you are reading this review and can shed any light on the green dollar bills, please email me.
I watched The Breed - a B-grade 2001 vampire film - on video. It stars Adrian Paul (Duncan McLeod, TV's Highlander) as a vampire police detective who was turned during the Holocaust. The setting for the film is supposed to be the future, but it's very much like Orwell's 1984. It's never really explained, but the viewer tends to assume that this is an alternate reality where Hitler won WWII and vampires have recently "come out" as a community of mutant humans and humans turned into vampires by being "infected."
The other characters are quirky, and tend to be loosely based on historical figures and figures famous in vampire fiction and film. A couple of characters are a nod to Dracula (Seward, Lucy Westenra) and another to Nosferatu (Orlock). One character (Donatien Alphonse Francois Boudreaux) runs an after-hours fetish club, and (according to his birth date) appears to be the Marquis de Sade.
Ah, there's another thing. Each time we encounter a new vampire character, we are treated to the profiles on computer which the vampire police hold on each vampire in the world. These profiles read like a brief of a character sheet from Vampire: The Masquerade, even including a nature and demeanor, plus a character concept. It was at this point that I noticed that many of the vampire characters in the movie were stereotypical representations of the vampire clans in that RPG. For example, there is one rebellious vampire named Vlad (another Dracula reference!) who is clearly a Brujah. Lucy (James O'Barr fans might recognize Ling Bai from the first installment of The Crow films)
makes a perfect Toreador, changing her clothes and makeup on a continual basis. We also encounter a Malkavian-type, an actor who talks to himself and constantly pretends that he is playing a role. Even Gray, in his perfect suit and mustache, looks rather Ventrue.
All in all, I must say that this film was rather cheesy and heavy-handed in its references to past works - but I liked it, anyway. I thought that the setting could easily become the subject of a TV series (in fact, the production quality was equal to that of TV, rather than film). Now that Forever Knight is no longer on the air, there is room for a Canadian-produced vampire series. Maybe???
Shadow of the Vampire is a fictional version of the
production of F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (while it's a cheesy German ripoff of Dracula, Nosferatu is also one of the best silent films ever made). In Shadow of the Vampire, the fictional version of Murnau attempts to go for
"vampiric realism" by hiring a real vampire (Max Schreck) for the part of Count Orlock in his film. When Schreck starts becoming the typical "primadonna" star, the resulting mishaps are near farcical. I was surprised to find some light, comedic elements in the film (I expected it to be much more serious). It was also shorter than I expected (I think it was only
around 90 minutes).
It's filmed in a combination of black and white (parts where Nosferatu is being filmed) and colour (the fictional background story). I would not say that this film had a sophisticated plot, but there were some notable elements. This tendency towards a simpler plot, coupled with an exaggerated
acting and filming style, seemed inspired by F.W. Murnau (a nod to silent films). The most notable aspect of the film was the brilliant portrayal of Max Schreck/Count Orlock by Willem Dafoe. His work is absolutely outstanding. And with that great makeup, you wouldn't even know it was Dafoe unless you'd seen it in the credits!
Schreck is not really presented as a monster (the monster is John
Malkovitch - and being a John Malkovitch hater, this came as no surprise for me), but more like what I would call a "tragic buffoon." My favourite scene is the one in which Schreck yanks a bottle of schnapps away from the producer (Udo Kier...doesn't he make it into just about every vampire movie? he's sooo necessary...almost cliche...I love it!), and the drunken
Schreck is asked what he thought of the novel Dracula. Schreck says that is was a very depressing book, and the most depressing scene (for him) was where you see that the Count is reduced from being someone great, a commander of armies, to someone without even any servants: he must prepare dinner and serve it to Harker himself (how debasing!). He hasn't even
*eaten* in hundreds of years - does he even remember how to do this? In that scene, you really see what a pathetic individual Schreck is. He's definitely not a glamourous vampire; he's old, alone, and exploited by a demented genius filmmaker.
The only thing I thought was *too* hoaky was the train. Sure, naming the train that takes them off to Orlock's castle "Charon" is oddly appropriate...but it's also a little cheeseball. (if case you don't know: in Greek mythology, Charon is the dude who ferries people over to the underworld/land of the Dead across the river Styx).
Draghoula may be hard to find, but if you see it anywhere--definitely rent it!
It's a fabulous comedy about a Jewish scientist who, while trying
to isolate the "guilt" (GUILT! ha! I *love* it!) gene, is accidentally
turned into a vampire. The twist is that he is turned into a very bad
cross-dressing (hence the title, Draghoula) vampire!
The entire film is an insane romp as our vamp in drag tries
to evade his sire, his girlfriend, and his mother and her
Star-of-David-wielding (you thought CROSSES would work?) nutcase vampire
hunter. Everything culmonates in a HILARIOUS chase scene as the
whole shebang (above) spend an entire night chasing him down.
I LOVED it and give it a 10/10 (even though it does look
amateurish--but that's part of its charm!); nevertheless, my friend,
Drag ,
says it's an "acquired taste." Then again, this is from the same
person who absolutely REFUSES to watch a GREAT Tom Stoppard film
called
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead! (you'll wet
your pants...trust me--it's THAT funny!)
Editor's Note, Dec '02:
Sorry about this guys. Wow, I guess I was going through a lame period
in terms of writing a few years ago when I wrote this review. I plan to
rewrite it, this time with something that's actually coherent. Reading
this now, it looks like I was drunk when I wrote it! (I lived in university
residence at the time, so it's not all that unlikely)
COMING SOON!!!
The next film I will be reviewing here is
Blood and Donuts,a great CANADIAN film. Ok ok...I know I have been promising this FOREVER! But it's finally coming. I broke down and bought a copy of Blood and Donuts on VHS, so the review will be up soon. Until then, I can at least say ONE thing:
I know for a fact that some of the stuff on the soundtrack is pretty
cool...like "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" Concrete
Blonde.
If you want reviews for the standards (eg, the many Dracula
films, Interview with the Vampire, The Lost Boys ,
Love at First Bite , etc.), then you have come to the
wrong place. I might have a few essays
(when I get around to posting them here) floating around on things
like Interview, but that's about it. Although I've already
seen them, I wouldn't mind adding some reviews here eventually of
films like Pale Blood, Andy Warhol's Dracula,
Cronos, Blood and Roses, The Addiction,
Nadja, and other interesting fare.
Let's end with a link, shall we? I ran into this interesting site when I was looking for a graphic for Draghoula...
