Over Halloween weekend, from October 30 to November 1, one of the finest films ever made featuring the vampire Dracula will return to the cinema. Lucky Red is pleased to announce that it will come back to theaters as a Special Event: Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola. Audiences will see it—or see it again—in the 4K restored version created in 2022 under the supervision of Sony Pictures in collaboration with American Zoetrope.
If Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a masterpiece, we owe it primarily to its extraordinary cast, comprised 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 out to bring the Irish writer Bram Stoker’s novel to the big screen, his production company was navigating rough waters. It was the film’s stellar box office that saved it: $215,862,692 against a budget of $40 million.
What truly astonishes about Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the appearance and demeanor of the protagonist, which bears little resemblance to the monstrous creature from Nosferatu the Vampire by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Nosferatu directed by Werner Herzog. No, for the director the Transylvanian count had to be captivating, well dressed like a nineteenth‑century dandy, and above all in love; and indeed his line (addressed to Mina) “I crossed the oceans of time to find you” remains among the most famous lines in cinema history.
Thanks to his visionary style, and the score and the sumptuous production design, Coppola managed to fuse melodrama with horror, guiding the audience to identify with the main character or at least root for him. The plot of the film is well remembered; nonetheless, 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, a love he recognizes in the young and beautiful Mina.
There is also a trailer for Bram Stoker’s Dracula in its restored version, which we promptly show you:
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