During the Halloween weekend, and thus from October 30 to November 1, one of the finest films of all time starring the vampire Dracula will return to theaters. Lucky Red is pleased to announce that it will return to the cinema, as a Special Event, Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola, based on Bram Stoker’s novel, which, released in 1996, this year celebrates its thirtieth birthday. The audience will watch — or watch again — it in the 4K restoration completed in 2022 under the supervision of Sony Pictures in collaboration with American Zoetrope.
If Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a masterpiece, we owe it above all to the extraordinary cast, made up of Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves and Anthony Hopkins. Nominated for four Oscars, the film won three: Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Editing. When Coppola set to work to bring back to the big screen the novel by the Irish writer Bram Stoker, his production company was navigating troubled waters. Its salvation came from the film’s stellar box office: $215,862,692 against a budget of $40 million.
What truly astonishes about Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the appearance and the disposition of the protagonist, which bore not the slightest resemblance to the monstrous Nosferatu, the Vampyre by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and the Nosferatu directed by Werner Herzog. No, for the director the Transylvanian count had to be enchanting, well-dressed like a nineteenth-century dandy, and above all in love, and indeed his line (addressed to Mina) “I have crossed oceans of time to find you” has remained among the most famous lines in cinema history.
Thanks to his visionary style, and to the soundtrack and the sumptuous production design, Coppola managed to fuse melodrama with horror, guiding the audience to identify with the main character or at least to root for him. The film’s plot is well remembered; anyway, the screenplay by James V. Hart tells the story of the immortal Count Dracula, bloodthirsty, driven by rage and pain, who after four centuries of solitude arrives in Victorian London to reclaim his great lost love, Elizabeth, who recognizes in the young and beautiful Mina.
There is also a trailer for Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the restored version, which we are happy to show you:
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