Bram Stoker's Dracula
Love never dies.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Production
Budget
$40 000 000
Revenue
$215 862 692
Director
Scenario
Bram Stoker
Author
Composer
Producer
Actors
Gary Oldman
Dracula
Winona Ryder
Mina Murray / Elisabeta
Anthony Hopkins
Professor Abraham Van Helsing
Keanu Reeves
Jonathan Harker
Sadie Frost
Lucy Westenra
Cary Elwes
Lord Arthur Holmwood
Richard E. Grant
Dr. Jack Seward
Billy Campbell
Quincey P. Morris
Short description
Francis Ford Coppola directed this 1992 adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, which the studio marketed under the author's name. Gary Oldman plays Count Dracula, a fifteenth-century prince who renounces his faith after his wife's death and is transformed into a vampire. Centuries later, the solicitor Jonathan Harker, played by Keanu Reeves, travels to Transylvania to complete a property purchase for the count. Dracula discovers a photograph of Harker's fiancée, Mina Murray, played by Winona Ryder, and recognizes in her the likeness of his lost wife. He imprisons Harker and departs for London, where Professor Abraham Van Helsing, played by Anthony Hopkins, leads the effort to stop him. Sadie Frost and Cary Elwes also appear.
The film sits seventeenth among the twenty-six features Coppola has directed, arriving between The Godfather Part III and The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980. James V. Hart wrote the screenplay, and Coppola produced with Fred Fuchs and Charles Mulvehill. It was made for about 40 million dollars and took roughly 216 million worldwide, a strong return on its budget that reflected wide audience interest in the revival of a familiar Gothic property.
Audience response has been solid and durable: on IMDb it holds 7.4 from around 268,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.4 from roughly 5,900 votes. A critics' rating of 6.5 from 128 reviews is noticeably lower than those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The final song of the film, "Love Song for a Vampire," was written and performed by Annie Lennox.
- The idea to make another adaptation of "Dracula" came to actress Winona Ryder, who then proposed the project to Francis Ford Coppola. And it was her wishes that greatly influenced the selection of the film's main cast.
- Currant jelly was used as the blood.
- When the actors playing the leading roles first met for rehearsal, Coppola made them read Stoker's novel aloud in its entirety. According to Hopkins, it took two days.
- Initially, David Lean was supposed to direct the film. However, he was occupied with developing a project for a new adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel "Nostromo," which remained unfulfilled after the director's death in 1991.
- The majority of the cast was assembled based on Winona Ryder's preferences – including Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, and Richard E. Grant.
- Among those who auditioned for the role of Dracula were stars such as Andy Garcia (who, incidentally, had issues with the sexual scenes during auditions), Gabriel Byrne, Armand Assante, and even Antonio Banderas, as well as a then-unknown actor, Viggo Mortensen.
- Francis Ford Coppola’s full list of potential actors for the role of Dracula included names like Daniel Day-Lewis, Alec Baldwin, Jason Patric, Aidan Quinn, Christian Slater, Nicolas Cage, Michael Nouri, Dermot Mulroney, Costas Mandylor, Nick Cassavetes, Adrian Pasdar, Hugh Grant, Rupert Everett, Ray Liotta, Sting, Kyle MacLachlan, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, and Hart Bochner.
- Francis Ford Coppola openly criticized his own choice of Keanu Reeves for the role of Jonathan Harker. Coppola admitted that he chose Reeves because the role required a young but already established actor, and most importantly, someone who was attractive and would look good on screen with the beautiful models Monica Bellucci, Michaela Bercu, and Florina Kendrick.
- Initially, Steve Buscemi was supposed to play R.M. Renfield, but ultimately, he was replaced by the legendary actor and musician, “the last beatnik of America,” Tom Waits.
- In addition, British actor and rock singer Ian Dury was also considered for the role of Renfield.
- Juliette Lewis was the first choice for the role of Lucy Westenra.
- Sadie Frost's chestnut hair was dyed a bright ginger color to make Lucy visually more distinct from Mina in the film.
- During pre-production of the film, Francis Ford Coppola came up with the concept that in the presence of a supernatural being like a vampire, the laws of physics cease to function correctly. That is why shadows in the film sometimes act independently of who or what casts them, rats run upside down, and liquid drips upwards.
- For the filming, Gary Oldman's hairline was pushed back. This was done to make it easier to apply prosthetic makeup, as well as to give him a greater resemblance to images of Wallachian Prince Vlad the Impaler—the real prototype of Dracula.
- The American version of the film lacks a scene in which one of Dracula's brides licks and then bites Jonathan Harker's nipple.
- A total of 38 different cuts were made before the film's release.
- Francis Ford Coppola and Gary Oldman later admitted that, when creating the image of Count Dracula for the film, they were inspired by the image of Ivan the Terrible created by Nikolai Cherkasov in the classic films of the great Sergei Eisenstein, "Ivan the Terrible" (1944) and "Ivan the Terrible. Part Two: The Boyar Conspiracy" (1945, released 1958).
- The carriage scene before Jonathan Harker's arrival at Dracula's castle (including the slow-motion appearance of Dracula's carriage) was taken entirely from Mario Bava's famous black-and-white horror film "Black Sunday" (Italy, 1960), based on Nikolai Gogol's story "Viy".
- The blue flame that crosses the carriage with Harker on the way to Dracula's castle is mentioned in the original novel by Bram Stoker. The novel explains that every year on one special night, the blue flame indicates the locations where treasures are buried.
- The portrait of Count Dracula hanging on the wall in the castle's dining room is none other than the famous "Self-Portrait in Fur Coat" by the renowned German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), fitted with the face of Gary Oldman.
- During the scene of Mr. Renfield's punishment, it can be noticed that he is dangling on ropes.
- The scene of Dracula's beheading was suggested to Coppola by his friend George Lucas.
- To record the unhuman scream of Prince Vlad in the prologue, after he plunges a sword into a cross and first tastes blood, Lux Interior – the lead vocalist of the punk band “The Cramps” – was invited. It is his voice (and not Gary Oldman's) that we hear in the film at that moment.
- When Jonathan Harker travels by train to Transylvania, we see a close-up of Harker's open diary, directly above which the train passes – with the shadow of the train and smoke from the chimney falling onto the pages. This effect was achieved using a distorted perspective technique: in reality, a huge model of the diary and a miniature model of the train were used.
- Later in the train sequence, Jonathan Harker looks at a map of Transylvania – and we see its ‘reflection’ on his face. This effect was achieved by simply projecting the image of the map using an epidiascope onto Keanu Reeves’ face during filming.
- In the same episode, a little later, Jonathan Harker reads a letter from Count Dracula – and we see Dracula’s eyes mysteriously appear in the sky outside the train window, watching Jonathan. This effect was achieved through simple optical compositing of three different shots. First, a shot of Gary Oldman’s eyes was filmed, with the actor made up so that only the eyes were visible when this shot was projected onto a backdrop depicting the Carpathian sky. Then, a shot was filmed in which the image of Oldman’s eyes was projected onto a backdrop of the Carpathian Mountains. And finally, Keanu Reeves was filmed sitting in the train, with a screen outside his window onto which previously filmed shots of Dracula’s eyes against the Carpathian sky were projected.
- In Transylvania, Jonathan Harker is met by Dracula’s carriage, and the mysterious coachman in black (who, according to the plot, is Dracula himself, played by Gary Oldman) extends his hand as if it lengthens and mystically places Harker into the carriage. This effect was achieved live using two simple technical devices: a camera crane on which Gary Oldman sat, and a small lift on which Keanu Reeves stood. As Oldman extended his hand, the crane smoothly moved to the right, bringing him closer to Keanu Reeves, while the filming camera synchronously also moved to the right, leaving only Gary’s hand in the frame. When Oldman’s hand reached Reeves’ shoulder, the lift rose and moved Keanu towards the carriage in parallel with the reverse movement of the crane and camera.
- As the carriage approaches Dracula’s castle, there’s a shot where, in the lower left part of the frame, we see the carriage rushing along a narrow mountain road, while in the upper right – Dracula’s castle rises on a rock in the background. This effect was achieved using a standard forced perspective technique: the castle was painted on a piece of glass, which was placed in front of the camera during the filming of the carriage rolling along the set within the studio.
- To achieve a more ominous feeling for the episode where Jonathan Harker enters Dracula’s castle, a classic ‘reverse reverse’ technique was used, meaning this episode was filmed ‘in reverse’: Keanu Reeves walked backwards out of the castle, and the filmed footage was ‘flipped’ for the film.
- The film features a scene where Jonathan Harker is shaving while looking in a mirror, and Dracula’s hand reaches towards his shoulder from behind – yet neither the hand nor Dracula himself is reflected in the mirror. This effect was achieved using a classic trick, as old as cinema itself. Jonathan, as we see him from the back, is not actually Keanu Reeves, but a stunt double. And the mirror is actually a hole in the wall, behind which stands Reeves himself, whose movements precisely match those of the double. Thus, when the hand reaches for the double’s shoulder, there is no reflection behind Reeves’ back – simply because there is no mirror. A similar trick was used, for example, by Roman Polanski in 'Dance of the Vampires' (1967).
- When Jonathan Harker explores Dracula’s castle, there is a shot in which Harker descends the stairs in the background, while in the foreground, three rats run along a metal beam upside down at the same time. This effect was achieved using the classic double exposure technique – that is, the shot was filmed twice. First, the rats running along the beam were filmed – with the camera turned upside down and the entire upper part of the frame covered with a black mask. Then, the film was rewound to the beginning of the episode, the camera was returned to its correct position, and the black mask covered the other part of the frame (where the rats had already been filmed) – and Keanu Reeves descending the stairs was filmed on the remaining part of the frame. This technique was previously used, for example, in all cases where it was necessary to split an actor or actress on the screen.
- The first shots of Dracula appearing on the streets of London look like footage from a very old film, even though they are in color. This was also not achieved using any computer or other image processing. These shots were actually filmed with a genuine old hand-cranked 'Pathé' camera, which gave them the characteristic speed-up of very old films, on old film stock from 'Kodak’s' reserves, which gave them a characteristic graininess.
- Then there is a moment when Mina Murray, leaving the pharmacy, collides with Dracula and drops a vial. The camera descends, and we see Dracula’s hand catching the vial just above the ground. Then the camera rises, and we immediately see the vial in Dracula’s hand, who hasn’t even bent down. This effect was achieved using a stunt double and two identical vials: during the filming of this episode, Gary Oldman simply stood there, already holding the second vial in his right hand, while the hand catching the first vial was the hand of the double.
- When Mina recalls her past life as Elizabeth, she says she remembers 'a land lying beyond the great forests'. 'A land lying beyond the great forests' is a precise translation of the name Transylvania.
- When the mad Mr. Renfield attacks Dr. Seward in the asylum, he bites him on the right side of the neck, while Dr. Seward clutches at the left side of his neck.
- When Dracula throws himself upon the deceased Elizabeth, her eyebrows twitch noticeably.
- In the bed scene between Mina and Dracula, modern underwear is visible through Mina’s nightgown.
- In the garden rape scene, as Mina leads Lucy away, the shadow of the film camera is clearly visible on her white shirt.
- The film is based on Bram Stoker’s novel "Dracula" (1897).
- In the scenes showing what the running werewolf-Dracula sees from his point of view, Francis Ford Coppola wanted to achieve something unusual. Ultimately, it was decided to use a so-called staccato effect. These shots were created using a vintage device that is now extremely rarely used in cinema—an intervalometer. When filming at 24 frames per second, the intervalometer randomly prevents some frames from being exposed and cuts the ends of others. This results in the 'jittery' image effect seen in the film. Again, all of this was achieved directly during filming with the camera—without any subsequent computer or other post-processing.
- Francis Ford Coppola originally intended to film the movie's location scenes in the settings of the novel—Transylvania and London. However, the executives at Columbia Pictures, for the sake of budget savings, insisted that locations be found in Los Angeles.
- Francis Ford Coppola initially wanted to film the movie in impressionistic sets, primarily using only light and shadow with a minimum of actual scenery. By saving on the budget this way, the director intended to spend more on the costumes. However, the producers at Columbia Pictures opposed this and ordered the creation of full-scale sets.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
