Bram Stoker's Dracula

Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film exists because Winona Ryder carried James V. Hart’s screenplay into a meeting with him after leaving The Godfather Part III. What that screenplay added sets the tone. The 1462 prologue, Elisabeta and the reincarnation idea are not in Stoker’s novel; the film with Bram Stoker in its title takes the count’s motive from the script, not the book. The effects were largely produced in the camera; Coppola described what he wanted as in camera opticals, or mirrors. The sea voyage was five exposures onto one negative, the 1462 prologue staged as shadow play against a blood red sky, a map of Transylvania projected onto Keanu Reeves’s face, the castle painted onto glass. Roman Coppola found a hand cranked 1905 Pathé camera. The budget sits in costume: Coppola said the script required the costumes to be the set. Eiko Ishioka’s red armour reads as flayed muscle, and Lucy’s wedding collar came from the Australian frilled lizard. The film won Oscars for Costume Design, Makeup and Sound Effects Editing, and was nominated for Art Direction. It opened at number one. A good fit if a production where costume replaces set and effects are solved on the day sounds worth it. Not for anyone expecting a faithful transcription; it opens on a love story Stoker never wrote.