| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Dracula - Pages from a Virgin's Diary |  | |
Dracula - Pages from a Virgin's Diary
After garnering widespread acclaim with his mini-masterpiece THE HEART OF THE WORLD, red hot cult auteur Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) has taken on the world’s most adapted horror tale and concocted his most original and ravishingly stylized cinematic creation yet. Beautifully transposing the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s interpretation of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire yarn from stage to screen, Maddin has forged a sumptuous, erotically charged feast of dance, drama and silent film techniques. The black-and-white, blood-red-punctured DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY is a Gothic grand guignol of the notorious Count and his bodice-ripped victims, fringed with the expressionistic strains of Gustav Mahler.
Manufacturer: Zeitgeist Films
Price Range: $16.74 - $29.99
 Dracula - Pages from a Virgin's Diary
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| User Reviews |  | An eclectic Dracula
rating: 5
I only bought this DVD because I have a Dracula DVD collection and I thought it would be nice to have a ballet production of the novel.
However ony a few minutes after it begins, you start to notice that you are in for something big and meaningful.
You start to notice the little details that reminisce Murnau's style or Tod Borwning's and even Coppola's.
After a little longer the details begin to give shape to a nice homage to almost every cinematic Dracula.
The use of certain ballet techniques only enrich and makes more enjoyable what is already a good production that has just a couple of minor flaws such as the post-production special effects.
In the end I felt this was one of the best most poetic Draculas ever made that uses the spectator's visual knowledge of the Dracula's films of old as a starting point to then explore virgin aspects of the novel that had never been visited before.
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Unique, beautiful, and evocative
rating: 4
Dracula has made it to film more often than any other novel. From the original Nosferatu and Bela Lugosi's iconic Dracula to Hammer's Horror of Dracula and modern classic Bram Stoker's Dracula (just to name a few) there has been no shortage of filmmakers lining up to adapt the most legendary of literary works of horror to the silver screen. So the popular preconception is that there is nothing left to be done with it; no way to show us this story in a way we haven't already seen before. WRONG! I mistakenly passed this film over several times, the title evoking images of so-called "erotic thrillers" like Embrace of the Vampire; high on cheap thrills, low on artistic value. Again, WRONG! "Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary" is a suprisingly fresh take on the classic vampire tale that appears as though it was filmed nearly a century ago. The format: a silent film/ ballet filled with sweeping orchestral music, unfulfilled female leads, sensual and evocative dance, and a whole new kind of vampire suave. If you're a fan of classic film, do not miss it.
At first, I felt the need to treat this film as a novelty, an oddity in the age of CG effects and spurting blood. But as the familiar story unfolded in this unfamiliar medium, I found myself mesmerized by the rhythms, the outstanding performances, and the sparse, creative use of color. There is a shot where Dracula's eyes light up red that absolutely stunned me when i saw it. In fact, crimson makes several appearances in this predominantly black-and-white affair, usually in the form of blood. Tinting effects also serve to highlight the visual feast as well as the moods of the individual characters. While this and the occasioanlly distracting changes in film quality may annoy at times, it is consistent with the exremely old-school style that this film shoots for and hits right on the mark.
The performances are fantastic across the board with Wei-Qiang Zhang proving to be as daunting and debonair a Count Dracula as we've seen since Bela Lugosi himself put on the cape. CindyMarie Small plays the unfulfilled Mina Murray, gone to see her betrothed Jonathan Harker who is at a convent after escaping from Castle Dracula. Having been ravaged by Drac's brides, Harker is emotional unable to give Mina what she needs physically.....and in comes the Count to take advantage. The love triangle is played out entirely in dance with deserved kudos all around. But the show is stolen (for me) by Tara Birtwhistle playing Lucy Westenra, a character who has often been unappreciated in past film adaptations. Birtwhistle's performance dominates the first half of the film and her death scene is one of the best sequences I've ever seen in a horror film. Her manic and subtley sexual combination of dancing and acting as she descends into the undead abyss is what really drew me in and sold me on this film.
"Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary" may never receive the aplomb or following of past adaptations, but I would consider it among the most daring and unique films ever made. While the stylized ballet, ancient look, jarring changes in film grain, and occasionally silly subtitles may turn off some viewers -not to mention the fact that this is a black and white silent film- serious film fans or even vampire afficianados shouldn't hesitate to give this a try. The story may be difficult to follow for those who are unfamiliar with the novel so if you haven't read it, climb out from your cave and go pick Stoker's novel up. Then check out "Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary" for a one of a kind experience.
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POOR GUSTEL ......
rating: 1
MAHLER would turn in his grave ~ this is a highly pretentious, overrated work ~ a dreadful expample of everything including ballet ....[such a pity - really - Bram Stoker IS a fascinating subject for ballet].
not avant-garde [KITCH is far more appropriate].
for originality please visit MATS EK .......
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A familiar story that looks like no other film. **DVD features below**
rating: 5
Dracula Pages from a Virgin's diary is the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's take on Bram Stoker's Dracula brought to screen in the form of a silent film in 2003 by Canadian director Guy Maddin with an Asian Count Dracula played by Wei-Qiang Zhang, and titles that jump off the screen as from a comic book at times. It is one of the most unique movies I have ever seen. For those that know of techniques used in silent films in Roger Ebert's review (which he gave 3 1/2 stars) he states "the visuals include all the favorite devices of the silent period (wipes, iris shots, soft framing, intertitles, tinting), and the effect is--well, surprisingly effective." Mahler's symphony plays throughout this erotic unsettling tale although we sometimes here a thud or two and maybe a head being decapitated from it's body by a shovel.
The 75 minutes does not fly by, you are given time to experience the music and the actors expressing themselves through dance and that's how it should be. Giving a synopsis of a movie like this can't give it justice it is a film that needs to be experienced and is difficult to put something like that into words, It's like someone telling a story, then failing, and saying I guess you had to be there.
This was the most creative version of Dracula hands down along with one of the most creative films as far as how it was made that I've maybe ever seen. This would make my list of great horror and great movies and would be one of the best vampire movies I have seen in the ranks with F.W. Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu the Vampire, Werner Herzog's 1979 version of Nosferatu the Vampire, and Tod Browning's 1931's Dracula. I recently watched and reviewed Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot and enjoyed it very much, it had some actual scares and was entertaining and fun but this film and the three I mentioned above are in another class.
This is a must for any genre but mostly for horror fans who will get to experience something totally new in a time where it seems that everything is being recycled. Would also be great to get a girlfriend or wife into horror that normally might not like it, while expanding your own tastes in the process.
Other original vampire movies I have seen that I'd recommend would be Martin by George A. Romero and an After Dark Horrorfest movie that I won't mention the title so I don't spoil the movie.
**DVD Special Features** (from the back of the box)
-Audio Commentary by director Guy Maddin
-Behind the scenes television special featuring interviews with Maddin, producer Vonnie Von Helmolt and choreographer Mark Godden
-Video piece on the construction of the sets
-Radio interviews with Maddin and Von Helmolt
-Extensive production photo gallery
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An oddball concoction: silent film, ballet & music video
rating: 3
Here's an oddball DVD for your collection -- a silent Dracuala movie, done artfully in black and white with an Asian Dracula, that is also a music video to the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, a ballet, and a music video. Got all that?
It's a bit hard to tell from watching and listening to this what they had in mind with this piece of art. Produced in Manitoba, of all places, for the Canadian Broadcasting System in 2002, the manifest content is a movie about an Asian Dracula and a group of virgins. This story is told through silent filmmaking in largely arty black & white photography; there are some splashes of color on occasion.
All the while, the visual imagery and occasional on-screen script is cast to the Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 of Gustav Mahler, his "Titan" and "Resurrection" symphonies. The credits says the music is courtesy of Naxos, the Canada-based low priced label, meaning they are the versions conducted by Michal Halasz and Antonio Wit, respectively.
The soft-grained attacks in both symphonies seem to match the soft focus of the art film. These are not among the best recordings of the music, which is secondary to the film but will be the reason some viewers maintain interest in such unusual fare.
Many of the virgins, as well as the Dracula character, perform ballet throughout the film, giving this movie more the character of an extended music video. The dancing is nice and everyone is very lovely to watch, but I wondered what was going on when they all started dancing every now and again, especially when it followed scenes of angry Van Helsing types in floppy hats driving stakes through the hearts of vampires.
The storytelling is punctuated with repetitive scenes that appear to be clipped from earlier frames and inserted again, and the music is equally discombobulated, as pieces of the scores of the two symphonies play through chronologically, then repeat, then come back again later. The whole thing was somewhat off putting to me, to be honest.
In the final analysis, this is more like a 75-minute music video-dream sequence than ballet, Dracula movie, silent movie or exposition of Mahler symphonies. It is an interesting art film with a dreamy coutenance but I doubt I would ever want to watch this thing repeatedly.
Nor could I stay interested in it for the music, which is pretty bland compared to the better Mahler recordings that are available. I think more electrifying performances of the music, perhaps better edited, would have done more to create prolonged viewer interest.
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Dracula - Pages from a Virgin's Diary
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