In 15th-century Romania, Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) returns from the Crusades to discover his wife Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) has taken her own life, believing him to have been killed in battle.
As a result of her death, Dracula renounces his Catholicism and becomes a vampire.
Four centuries later, estate agent Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) travels to Transylvania to sell the Count a London property, but when the Count sees a picture of Harker’s fiancée Mina (also Winona Ryder), he becomes obsessed that she is the reincarnation of his dead wife and imprisons Harker in his castle while he travels to England.
Eerie, romantic and operatic, this exquisitely mounted revamp of the undead legend is a supreme artistic achievement.
Francis Ford Coppola’s film is visually grandiose and uses every cinematic trick, from the basic atmospheric lighting of the silent era to today’s more sophisticated techniques, to accentuate the poetic sensuality of Bram Stoker’s novel rather than its more exploitative bloodsucking elements.
As the tired count who has overdosed on immortality, Oldman’s towering performance holds centre stage and burns itself into the memory.
Dracula
Gary Oldman Mina Murray/Elisabeta
Winona Ryder Professor Abraham Van Helsing
Anthony Hopkins Jonathan Harker
Keanu Reeves Doctor Jack Seward
Richard E Grant Lord Arthur Holmwood
Cary Elwes Quincey P Morris
Bill Campbell Lucy Westenra
Sadie Frost RM Renfield
Tom Waits Dracula’s bride
Monica Bellucci Dracula’s bride
Michaela Bercu Dracula’s bride
Florina Kendrick
Director
Francis Ford Coppola
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