Doesn’t the Prince of Darkness deserve eternal love? That’s the question at the heart of Dracula: A Love Tale, opening in Prague cinemas this weekend after bowing in France and other territories this summer (a U.S. release is slated for next February). This is essentially Bram Stoker’s Dracula with strong lean towards period romance—call it Dracula meets Pride and Prejudice meets Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (for some reason)—and while it almost certainly does not work on any narrative level, it remains compulsively watchable throughout thanks to writer-director Luc Besson‘s flair for the preposterous.
Like Francis Ford Coppola‘s Bram Stoker’s Dracula—and, ironically, not like Stoker’s original novel—Dracula: A Love Tale opens in the 15th century with Prince Vladimir (Caleb Landry Jones) wildly in love with his soul mate Elisabeta (Zoë Bleu). They have pillow fights, use pillows for target practice, and share longing glances while in the throes of unbridled passion atop mounds of pillows.
When Vlad is called to repel invading Ottomans, he supplies Elisabeta with a few soldiers and sends her on her merry way. Vlad returns from battle with the heads of dozens of Ottomans on spikes and nary a scratch, but can’t quite save his beloved before a few rogue Turks hunt her down. Why do they want to kill her? Why in the world did Vlad send her into a war zone? Why does Vlad blame God for her death? Why, why, why.
It’s a lot of hoops to jump through simply because Besson doesn’t want Elisabeta to commit suicide as she does in Coppola’s film—and again, none of this is from Stoker’s novel. So Vlad curses God and is cursed right back with immortality and other vampiric superpowers, and spends the next 400 years hunting down her reincarnation. Why does he have so much faith in this happening? Something about a pure soul.
But that pure soul can be reincarnated anywhere from the Orient to the New World—how will Vlad track her down? In scenes incredulously culled from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, he spends centuries developing the perfect scent that will attract every female within smelling distance… and now he’ll just have to sort through them to find Elisabeta? It’s pretty arduous work, and by the 19th century he has retired back to his castle while his vampire brides scour the globe for his one true love.
One of those brides, Maria (Matilda De Angelis), has inexplicably managed to track down Elisabeta’s reincarnated soul, using a rough sketch from Vlad’s diary. She’s now Mina (also played by Bleu), betrothed to real estate agent Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), and while the film doesn’t spell everything out, we assume that Maria has arranged for Jonathan’s trip to Transylvania so Vlad—now the decrepit Count Dracula—can accidentally see a picture of his fiancée.
Again, this is Besson jumping through a lot of hoops to cram his revisionist romance into Stoker’s classic story. Dracula, you see, is surely not a perverted monster filled with such lust at the sight of this young woman that he travels across the continent to have her. No, he incredulously arranged for all of this to happen centuries in advance. And when he makes his way to Mina, he will win her heart by behaving like a true gentleman.
While Besson is careful to never call his Vlad “the Impaler,” we nevertheless see him tote around heads on spikes, impale a priest on a cross, seduce various women and turn them into his vampire slaves, create his own personal army of sentient gargoyle servants out of kidnapped children, and other various atrocities. And yet, Dracula: A Love Tale asks us, doesn’t he deserve love as much as any of us? No? Oh.
Christoph Waltz also features in the film, as an unnamed priest modeled after Stoker’s Van Helsing who works with local doctor Dumont (Guillaume de Tonquédec) to investigate the vampire threat that has appeared in Paris. They track down Dracula with the help of Maria’s husband Henry Spencer (David Shields), and later Jonathan, and their scenes are the most compelling in the film. Besson might be fighting Stoker’s narrative most of the way, but underneath it all, this is a story about the evil that exists in the world, and those who have the courage to confront it.
Dracula: A Love Tale has the unfortunate distinction of coming out after last year’s Nosferatu, which might be the best adaptation of the story ever put to screen—and, ironically, the most accurate to Stoker’s original novel. There’s certainly room for romance in the vampire genre, but while Besson does all he can to make it fit here, this particular story is ultimately about something else.
But while the narrative may not work, almost everything else in Dracula: A Love Tale does: this is a gorgeously-produced period film with terrific sets, costumes, and cinematography from Colin Wandersman, who captures both Paris and the rural landscapes of Finland. Danny Elfman’s flavorful score is one of his best in years, even if one can’t help but compare it to Wojciech Kilar’s unforgettable work on Coppola’s film.
Besson’s latest plays like a fever dream stitched together from centuries of vampire lore, romantic melodrama, and his own brand of cinematic excess. Dracula: A Love Tale may not make a lick of sense, and will especially turn off fans of the novel, but it remains a striking exercise in visual ambition and operatic absurdity. Even when the story loses its pulse, the film’s lavish design and Besson’s unwavering conviction ensure that it never feels lifeless.
One Response
No, not Nosferatu but GREAT and so cinematic Dracula story. Besson’s best since Fifth Element. Loved it