| Author | Message | ||
     Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
I have just read Dario Argento's shooting his own version of "Dracula". There was a time when I would have been excited at the prospect but now it only gives me my fill of misgivings. Yet, vampire aside, I can't help hope witnessing some symptom of Argento's resurrection! | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
The thing that amazes me is that, for all the great (and not so great) adaptations, the novel still has never been filmed faithfully! I doubt Argento, for all his genius, will be the one to put this right... Murnau's 'Nosferatu' is still the one by which all others should be judged imo. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
Methinks the most literal (not literary) rendition of Stoker's novel comes from Spain, Jesus Franco's "Dracula", casting C.Lee as the Count even in the physical aspect, but it's so sloppily directed to be the worst version of all. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
There's also a BBC production from the late '70s that follows the novel's plot faithfully . . . BUT it casts suave heart throb Louis Jordan as Dracula. It's OK, but no great shakes. It was shot on video, which *always* looks cheap and amateurish to me, no matter what else is done. Agree with Stevie: as film, Murnau's "Nosferatu" remains the best. I also wonder: Is a literal *faithful* adaptation of any book always a good idea? I think so less these days. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Thomas, that BBC adaptation of Dracula is probably the thing that turned me fully onto horror when I was a boy: it made me read Stoker's book and led me into other areas of the genre. It was brilliant. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.50.224 |
I think Herzog's version is one of the most atmospheric horror films ever made. The opening few minutes alone are more macabre than many other films in their entirety. | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
This can only end in disaster. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.50.224 |
I agree, unless we can somehow find a way to transport Argento back to the mid '70s to early '80s so he can find where he left his mojo. Better still, resurrect Mario Bava! | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 217.39.95.40 |
-Murnau's 'Nosferatu' is still the one by which all others should be judged imo.- Stevie, 'Nosferatu' was shown on a big screen last week in the Ulster Hall accompanied by the Mulholland Grand Organ. We slept in here my friend! http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/news/Tickets-selling-fast-for-Nosferatu-a t-Ulster-Hall-N800348582 | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
It's a tough gig being a donkey in hell... especially as eternity is a fair old while... but there are compensations. Dario Argento's making a new film! Sounds of subdued but distinctly excited neighing from the sulphur pits. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
I've just learnt from the net Argento's new movie will actually be "Dracula 3D"! There is no comment from Argento yet. 3D would probably mean bad news... | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
Rutger Hauer will play as Van Helsing in Dario Argento's "Dracula 3D". Gabriele Lavia from "Deep Red" will probably be in the cast but there is no confirmation yet. I wonder, who will play the Count? I guess Argento's playing on mystery here. He promised his version will rely on the Vampire's sentiments and emotional "life". Did not F.F.Coppola try to do the same? I am wary of movies re-telling Monsters as suffering from a redeeming complex, humanizing the horror side. I much prefer Dracula to stay the Leech! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.155.249 |
True, Giancarlo – but at least Argento trying to humanise one of his characters would be a first. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
He promised his version will rely on the Vampire's sentiments and emotional "life". Not that old chestnut again!! What made the Count such a memorable villain in the novel was his complete lack of emotional empathy. The character is a truly demonic bogeyman of the old school, and all the better for it. He seduces the innocent with nothing but the eternal damnation of their very souls in mind. At the start of the book he is described as a wizened skeletal spectre with the charnel stench of death on his breath (hence the accuracy of 'Nosferatu') and his later more presentable (but still described as bizarrely "foreign") appearance has nothing to do with him discovering love (ffs) but is due to his gorging himself on the fresh blood of the uncorrupted! The matinee idol appearance (enshrined by Lugosi & Lee) came from the radically different stageplay - not the novel. I fear Argento's 'Dracula' will go the same way as his misguided reimagining of 'The Phantom Of The Opera'. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Just saw your post, Sean! Bugger and damnation... how the hell did we miss that!!  | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Stevie Your email is sending out weird messages again.. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I know and it is most infuriating! |