Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary2003

Hypnotic. Great dreamscape of light and foggy visions. "Psychotronic," yes.

4 1/2 Only Guy Maddin could make a silent black and white ballet of Dracula this wildly entertaining and hauntingly beautiful. There’s a fair amount of Maddin humor, poking mostly at the sexual repression, fear of female sexuality and the Other that underlies Dracula, but dance lifts the melodrama shoulders above the level of camp. Only about a third of the scenes have dance, and the transitions to dance are emotionally powerful, such as when the ravishing, spirit-like Tara Birtwhistle rises from bed, convalescing from the Count’s attacks and floats across the bedroom en pointe. Also loved the vampire hunters searching the castle with their ensemble hand lanterns flaring behind an anamorphic lens. Even if you don’t like dance or horror, if you like film, you might like this movie.

The Maddin touch seems a bit more subdued here than usual, possibly to focus on the performances by the dancers, rather than on the camera. Yet Maddin’s trademarks sense of visual storytelling does make this an imaginative and entertaining take on the story of the ol’ Count.

A worthy effort, though my very limited exposure to Dracula/vampire lore left me adrift most of the time. Ballet , for me, has always been performed on a relatively naked stage, so the 3-d props, smoke, fog etc. while not entirely out of place, got in my way. I have not evolved with many changes in the arts.

It was OK! Had a few extra steps. The Count and Lucy dancing and she reaches for his pants!!

Guy Maddin's filming and adaptation of Royal Winnipeg Ballet's production is often a bit goofy, but even more often it is stunning. Maddin is on the high wire with this film, but he makes it across without a slip.

super cool Tara Birtwhistle as Lucy is wonderful_love the dance theme for this story the cinematography is great_monocolor spiked with red_all really smart & cool _ i really enjoyed it_soft focus bending at the knees

The quackery gets tiresome and annoying. I suffered terribly while I watched.

I don't know what it is about being stuck inside because of a blizzard and watching some great Goth, but this did it for me visually as Phantasmagoria from The Damned has done it musically. It is also a great dance film and the choreography is outstanding.