Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
Encyclopedia
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is a 2002 horror film
directed by Guy Maddin
. It is a silent
interpretation of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet
's take of Bram Stoker
's Dracula
. It was originally filmed as a telefilm for CBC Television
in Canada
, but critical and popular acclaim brought it to a United States
theatrical release.
, arrives in London
and is inadvertently invited into the home of Lucy
. She is bitten by Dracula, and taken by his curse. Lucy's behavior becomes more erratic leading her to bite her fiancée. Lucy is immediately put under the care of Dr. Van Helsing
. Van Helsing does blood tests on Lucy and declares "Vampyre!" as the source of the problem, and puts Lucy to bed adorned with garlic
. That night, Renfield, a mental patient who lives in the asylum next to Lucy's home, escapes from confinement and Lucy's house is broken into by demons. Lucy's mother awakens in the commotion. Panicked by the demons, Lucy's Mother opens the door and inadvertently re-invites Dracula into the house. Both Lucy and her mother are killed in this incident and a funeral procession takes place. The next day, Renfield is recaptured and placed back into the mental hospital. Bizarre incidents begin to occur around the city with newspapers headlines proclaiming a "Bloofer Lady" who has been murdering infants. Renfield is interrogated and confesses that Dracula has brought Lucy back from the dead committing these deeds and the solution to the problem lies in the graveyard. Van Helsing and Lucy's suitors go there and spy Dracula and the undead Lucy in a full romantic embrace. After Dracula leaves, Van Helsing declares "We must destroy the false Lucy so the real one may live forever". When Van Helsing opens the Lucy's coffin, Lucy rises out and attacks the men. Lucy is eventually subdued by a piercing stab from Jonathan's long wooden stakes and a decapitation with a shovel by Van Helsing who then declares they must find and defeat the Vampyre.
Van Helsing and his men go to interrogate Renfield finding out that Dracula's next plan is to attack Lucy's best friend Mina. Meanwhile, Mina who is in a convent
aids her injured fiancée Harker. Renfield reveals to Van Helsing of Harker's journey to Castle Dracula where Harker intended finalize a land sale. Upon arriving, Harker is ravaged by three Brides of Dracula
who overpower him. Harker eventually finalizes the land deal for Dracula, and gets placed in imprisonment in his Castle. Harker escapes, finding himself under the care of the convent's inhabitants. Renfield explains that Van Helsing should seek past the Convent and towards Castle Dracula. In the convent, Mina arrives to greet Harker. Mina finds his diary, as Harker cautiously allows Mina to learn of his pleasures with the Brides of Dracula be known to her. With what she has discovered about Harker, Mina becomes progressively more sexually aggressive which Harker nervous as he flees with the diary. Mina attempts to follow Harker but comes face to face with Dracula, who kidnaps her and takes her to Castle Dracula.
In Castle Dracula, Dracula woos Mina, tempting her with offers of riches and eventually biting her on the neck, solidifying his curse on her. Harker, Van Helsing, and his men break into Dracula's castle dispatch the Brides of Dracula with long wooden stakes. The men eventually stumble upon Mina and find the mark of Dracula's bite upon her. Attempting to root out Dracula, the men smash coffins and place Christian cross
es in them. Dracula attacks the men. After the battle, Dracula and Mina are the only two left conscious. Mina scurries to a window with a cross and pulls it open to have sunlight which stuns Dracula. At this point the men regain consciousness, surround Dracula, and stab him with their stakes. The castle is demolished by Van Helsing's men and everyone departs. Dracula is left hanging motionless, impaled on a giant stake.
tradition complete with title cards and some mimicked special effects of the time such as tinted screen color, shadow play
, and vaseline
on the camera lens to create a blurry effect. The film is not entirely monochrome
, often computer generated special effects are used to allow bright, acidic colours to be seen in normally black and white scenes, such as golden coins, green bank notes and red blood in an otherwise monochrome shot.
Unique to this film stylistically is that Dracula has an abundance of ballet
with nearly its entire cast being part of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Large portions of this film are expressed through the medium.
The film also gently mocks or plays with some conventions of the "Dracula" story. For example, Jonathan Harker's account of his imprisonment in Dracula's castle, which takes up the whole first section of Bram Stoker's novel, is relegated to a single brief scene midway through the film. Presented at an accelerated speed, as if shot with an old under-cranked camera, the scene is punctuated with suggestive and humorous title cards. Most notable is "Infants for supper?" a mild, if incredulous inquiry which stands in for the horror Jonathan usually expresses when Dracula presents his brides with a baby to eat.
and an 85% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes
.. Roger Ebert
gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, writing: "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is not concerned with the story mechanics of moving from A to B. At times it feels almost like one of those old silent films where scenes have gone missing and there are jumps in the chronology. This is not a problem but an enhancement, creating for us the sensation of glimpsing snatches of a dream. So many films are more or less alike that it's jolting to see a film that deals with a familiar story, but looks like no other."
:
International Emmy Awards:
Directors Guild of Canada
:
Blizzard Awards
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin, OM is a Canadian screenwriter, director, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba...
. It is a silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
interpretation of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Royal Winnipeg Ballet
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America....
's take of Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
's Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
. It was originally filmed as a telefilm for CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, but critical and popular acclaim brought it to a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatrical release.
Plot
In 1897, a visitor from the East, DraculaCount Dracula
Count Dracula is a fictional character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula and archetypal vampire. Some aspects of his character have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian general and Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler...
, arrives in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and is inadvertently invited into the home of Lucy
Lucy Westenra
Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. She is the 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family. Her father is not mentioned in the novel and her elderly mother is simply stated as being Mrs. Westenra. Lucy is introduced as Mina Murray's best friend. In the 1931...
. She is bitten by Dracula, and taken by his curse. Lucy's behavior becomes more erratic leading her to bite her fiancée. Lucy is immediately put under the care of Dr. Van Helsing
Abraham Van Helsing
Professor Abraham van Helsing is a protagonist from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula.Van Helsing is a Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt., etc." The character is best known as a...
. Van Helsing does blood tests on Lucy and declares "Vampyre!" as the source of the problem, and puts Lucy to bed adorned with garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
. That night, Renfield, a mental patient who lives in the asylum next to Lucy's home, escapes from confinement and Lucy's house is broken into by demons. Lucy's mother awakens in the commotion. Panicked by the demons, Lucy's Mother opens the door and inadvertently re-invites Dracula into the house. Both Lucy and her mother are killed in this incident and a funeral procession takes place. The next day, Renfield is recaptured and placed back into the mental hospital. Bizarre incidents begin to occur around the city with newspapers headlines proclaiming a "Bloofer Lady" who has been murdering infants. Renfield is interrogated and confesses that Dracula has brought Lucy back from the dead committing these deeds and the solution to the problem lies in the graveyard. Van Helsing and Lucy's suitors go there and spy Dracula and the undead Lucy in a full romantic embrace. After Dracula leaves, Van Helsing declares "We must destroy the false Lucy so the real one may live forever". When Van Helsing opens the Lucy's coffin, Lucy rises out and attacks the men. Lucy is eventually subdued by a piercing stab from Jonathan's long wooden stakes and a decapitation with a shovel by Van Helsing who then declares they must find and defeat the Vampyre.
Van Helsing and his men go to interrogate Renfield finding out that Dracula's next plan is to attack Lucy's best friend Mina. Meanwhile, Mina who is in a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
aids her injured fiancée Harker. Renfield reveals to Van Helsing of Harker's journey to Castle Dracula where Harker intended finalize a land sale. Upon arriving, Harker is ravaged by three Brides of Dracula
Brides of Dracula
The Brides of Dracula are characters in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. They are three seductive female vampire "sisters" who reside with Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania, where they entrance male humans with their beauty and charm, and then proceed to feed upon them...
who overpower him. Harker eventually finalizes the land deal for Dracula, and gets placed in imprisonment in his Castle. Harker escapes, finding himself under the care of the convent's inhabitants. Renfield explains that Van Helsing should seek past the Convent and towards Castle Dracula. In the convent, Mina arrives to greet Harker. Mina finds his diary, as Harker cautiously allows Mina to learn of his pleasures with the Brides of Dracula be known to her. With what she has discovered about Harker, Mina becomes progressively more sexually aggressive which Harker nervous as he flees with the diary. Mina attempts to follow Harker but comes face to face with Dracula, who kidnaps her and takes her to Castle Dracula.
In Castle Dracula, Dracula woos Mina, tempting her with offers of riches and eventually biting her on the neck, solidifying his curse on her. Harker, Van Helsing, and his men break into Dracula's castle dispatch the Brides of Dracula with long wooden stakes. The men eventually stumble upon Mina and find the mark of Dracula's bite upon her. Attempting to root out Dracula, the men smash coffins and place Christian cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
es in them. Dracula attacks the men. After the battle, Dracula and Mina are the only two left conscious. Mina scurries to a window with a cross and pulls it open to have sunlight which stuns Dracula. At this point the men regain consciousness, surround Dracula, and stab him with their stakes. The castle is demolished by Van Helsing's men and everyone departs. Dracula is left hanging motionless, impaled on a giant stake.
Style
Like most of Maddin's films which are filmed in a style that imitates early talkie films, Dracula, Pages from a Virgin's Diary is shot in silent filmSilent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
tradition complete with title cards and some mimicked special effects of the time such as tinted screen color, shadow play
Shadow play
Shadow play or shadow puppetry Shadow puppets have a long history in China, India, Turkey and Java, and as a popular form of entertainment for both children and adults in many countries around the world. A shadow puppet is a cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen...
, and vaseline
Vaseline
Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum jelly and a selection of skin creams, soaps, lotions, cleansers, deodorants and personal lubricants....
on the camera lens to create a blurry effect. The film is not entirely monochrome
Monochrome
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
, often computer generated special effects are used to allow bright, acidic colours to be seen in normally black and white scenes, such as golden coins, green bank notes and red blood in an otherwise monochrome shot.
Unique to this film stylistically is that Dracula has an abundance of ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
with nearly its entire cast being part of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Large portions of this film are expressed through the medium.
The film also gently mocks or plays with some conventions of the "Dracula" story. For example, Jonathan Harker's account of his imprisonment in Dracula's castle, which takes up the whole first section of Bram Stoker's novel, is relegated to a single brief scene midway through the film. Presented at an accelerated speed, as if shot with an old under-cranked camera, the scene is punctuated with suggestive and humorous title cards. Most notable is "Infants for supper?" a mild, if incredulous inquiry which stands in for the horror Jonathan usually expresses when Dracula presents his brides with a baby to eat.
Cast
- Zhang Wei-Qiang – Dracula
- Tara Birtwhistle – Lucy Westenra
- David Moroni – Dr. Van Helsing
- CindyMarie Small – Mina
- Johnny Wright – Jonathan Harker
- Brent Neale - Renfield
Reception
The film had a limited theatrical release, but came to popular critical acclaim with an 84% average rating on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
and an 85% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, writing: "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is not concerned with the story mechanics of moving from A to B. At times it feels almost like one of those old silent films where scenes have gone missing and there are jumps in the chronology. This is not a problem but an enhancement, creating for us the sensation of glimpsing snatches of a dream. So many films are more or less alike that it's jolting to see a film that deals with a familiar story, but looks like no other."
Awards and nominations
Festival de Cine de SitgesFestival de Cine de Sitges
The Sitges Film Festival is a Spanish film festival that is one of the most recognizable ones held in Europe, considered the world's foremost international festival specializing in fantasy and horror movies...
:
- Win: Best Film - Guy Maddin
International Emmy Awards:
- Win: Best Performing Arts Program - Canada
Directors Guild of Canada
Directors Guild of Canada
The Directors Guild of Canada is a Canadian labour union, founded in 1962, which represents more than 3,700 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. The DGC represents directors, assistant directors, location managers, production assistants and...
:
- Nominated: DGC Craft Award - Guy Maddin
Blizzard Awards
- Win: Best Art Direction - Deanne Rohde, Ricardo Alms