[Review] Bram Stoker's Dracula

when i was a kid, i could never really watched this movie. for an obvious reason, fright. i hate Lucy's vampire-bride look and totally frightened by it, and i hate the soundtrack, totally frightening. back then, of course, i didn't know that Annie Lennox had a beautiful song called Love Song For A Vampire in it.

and today, i still found the vampire-bride look frightening, but i don't mind watching it. and i think the soundtrack as a whole was excellent. moreover, i fell completely in love with Bram Stoker's Dracula. it's beautiful, it's tragic, it's romantic. i find it more romantic than a certain story about two teenagers who just hit their puberty and found "love" at first sight at a ball masquerade. the forbidden love between a nosferatu who was a lethal killer and an innocent woman who just married the love of her life was beautifully captured. different from the novel, yet it fits the story without any odd feeling to it.

so, when a local station aired Dracula few nights ago, i just can't say no to it.

i love the visualisation and cinematography in this movie .... Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder aside, of course. the old Victorian feel, the Gothic aura, the creepy things happened when the Count is around. wicked. Mr. Coppola brought a different kind of Dracula story compared to the novel, yet it has the same shivering horror, which was more tragic, in my point of view. since in the novel, we could hardly feel the Count's existence. it was pure terror of his that linger while reading the book.

Gary Oldman gave a superb performance as the Count. from that arse-look-alike wig on his head to the John Lennon look when the Count grew young ... brilliant. don't really fancy the hairstyle, though ... but what's in the hair when you've got a Transylvanian Lord with an Eastern-European accent? very hot. Winona Ryder puled off a flawless english accent, as opposite Keanu's. horrid. honestly, don't they supposed to have language/accent coach for that?

still my favourite scene by far was the condemned matrimony. when Dracula sort-of proposing Mina to be his wife, and later he called it off himself, by saying thisbeautiful line, "you will be cursed as i am to walk in the shadows of death for all eternity. i love you too much to condemn you."
damn, that's deep, my Lord.
back then when i first watched this movie as a whole [not only for the gorgeous white wolf], i felt a tear coming out when he said that. that was touching.

in the book, the Count's death was quick. not painless, i suppose. as in the movie, it was dramatic. he died in front of the altar where he took vow to be an undead, "watched" by his beloved Elisabeta, and later he died at the very same place his wife lied lifeless, witnessed by his present lover, Mina Harker.

then came Annie Lennox's song.
and i felt like crying.

Love Song For A Vampire.
come into these arms again
and lay your body down
the rhythm of this trembling heart
it's beating like a drum
it beats for you,it bleeds for you
it knows not how it sounds
for it is the drum of drums
it is the song of songs

once i had the rarest rose
that ever deigned to bloom
cruel winter chilled the bud
and stole my flower too soon
oh loneliness
oh hopelessness
to search the ends of time
for there is in all the world
no greater love than mine

love o love o love
o love o love o love
o love still falls the rain
o love o love
o love o love o love
o love still falls the night
love o love o love
o love o love o love
o love be mine forever (be mine forever)
love o love o love
o love o love o love
o love o love o love
o love o love o love

let me be the only one
to keep you from the cold
now the floor of heav’n is laid
with stars of brightest gold
they shine for you
they shine for you
they burn for all to see
come into these arms again
and set this spirit free