Francis Ford Coppola goes stylistically nutso in "Bram Stoker's Dracula." His 15th-century Dracul (Gary Oldman) starts out as a crimson-armored, savage
defender of the Cross against the Scimitar. When his beloved wife, believing him
dead in the
... more Turkish war, suicides, this grief-ravaged primitive renounces
Christ's redeeming blood for a vampire's wine. Welcoming Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), Dracula is all ancient,
parchment-skinned androgyny, swathed in red satin robes, topped with sci-fi
protuberances of colorless hair. Deliciously, his wall-spanning shadow often
acts out, id-like, impulses momentarily suppressed by the vampire. Later, he's a
mangy werewolf viciously raping a red-headed beauty on a garden bench; an effete
19th century dandy, gussied up in top hat over very long, wavy hair, shades,
perfectly coordinated gray suit and ascot; lusty lover arching in naked ecstasy
as his reincarnated Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) sucks from his opened
vein; and finally, a towering bat-demon dissolving into a waterfall of rats.
(Everett Collection)Close
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