Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002)

Canadian director Guy Maddin started out in local television and other ventures, and soon began his own movie career, quickly making a name for himself for his unconventional narratives, and an appreciation for silent cinema. He's not exactly what you'd call mainstream, but one of his movies managed to break through into the category of 'Films regular people have actually seen'. And it's about none other than Dracula...

With the arrival of a mysterious foreigner, young woman Lucy Westenra is growing increasingly ill. The best efforts of medicine are unable to save her, and she dies. But Dr. Van Helsing is convinced she will rise from the dead. A victim of a foul vampire. Lucy's suitors, together with a returning friend with how own horrors to tell from Transylvania, team up to hunt down this monster and kill him once and for all...

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is an odd movie. Primarily it's a ballet adaption of Dracula, told as a silent film. It's these two different styles where much of my confusion stems. A lot is made of this being a Guy Maddin film, but it really isn't, as far as I can tell. It was a pre-existing ballet show, and Maddin was just hired to film a re-enactment for TV, and did some of his own flourishes in the editing room. So who gets the lion's share I'm not sure, but it rubs me the wrong way seeing how much Maddin is credited for a production that's by and large not his.

Moving on, the big question is, what's the movie actually like? It got a lot of rave reviews on its release, and I went in looking forward to some modern silent horror! I can't say I enjoyed it much though, sadly. There's a lot to like about it, and certainly I appreciate any modern silents, but I found this an unsatisfying watch.

The story to Pages from a Virgin's Diary starts at the midpoint, with the Lucy plotline. It's only once this is all wrapped up that we're finally introduced to Johnathan and Mina, who've been entirely absent up to this point. From here on we race through the novel's first couple of acts in a matter of minutes. It's very rushed, and I wonder if this is the order the ballet did too, or if Maddin shifted things around.

Things reach an alright climax. The pacing hits a couple of lulls, but is otherwise ok, and the film could've been a bit longer, to flesh out the material better, and show more of the performances. But I think 74 minutes is as much of this as I'd wanna watch, unless it was better!

As far as adaptions go, this does the basics well enough, captures a few big setpieces, and never goes egregiously off-book. though I find suggestions that this is one of, if not THE most faithful adaption laughable. The plot is generally what's in the book, but greatly simplified, and missing huge chunks. This doesn't necessarily bother me, since an adaption can pick and choose, as long as it keeps the right things, and stays true to the spirit of the book.

It's here where I can get into what bugs me the most about Pages from a Virgin's Diary. Guy Maddin has apparently gone on record to say he not only dislikes ballet, but Dracula too! Why he decided to take the gig then is mystifying. It feels insincere to me, especially with how he portrays the dancing. The frenetic editing style not only does a disservice to the dances, but makes the film impossible to watch at times. And the amount of quick cuts are headache inducing. Now, I can't speak for the performers themselves, since for all I know they were chuffed with the finished product here. All I can do is say how I see it, and my take is that Maddin comes off as an utter tool!

One big theme to the movie, particularly with the casting of an Asian man as the Count, is that of Xenophobia. The film plays all its cards on the table by splashing "Immigrants! Others! From other Lands! From the East! From the Sea!" as an intro. This is an interesting take, but I think focusing exclusively on this one element above all else simplifies the story too much. It's more effective to touch on briefly than to constantly hammer in the movie's obvious themes to the audience's heads. I'm also not entirely sure the message lands when the foreigner in question IS a woman stealing monster. It almost makes the film accidentally racist, since it's pushing an anti immigrant message, then forgets to counter it. Oops!

Virgin's Diary also has plenty of sexual themes. To call them Freudian would be understating it. For all his talk of being a bit of a film iconoclast, I can't help but find Maddin's interpretation of the book a little naive. He acts like the male characters in Dracula are jealous alpha males all obsessed with besting and dominating the others, when in the book they were friendly and respectful. The film reduces these to penis envy and cuckolding (even spelling it right out, in distractingly modern wording).

The direction here, if that is the right word, is good. The staging and choreography may have already been worked out by others, but they are captured well on the camera, at least for still moments.

There's a lot of visual flourish here, with frequent use of irises, splashes of colour (green for money, red for Dracula's eyes, etc.), superimposing, and occasionally effective computer effects. Some look a little primitive, like the low-quality blown up Jpeg, but maybe the ballet was footing the bill here, so I won't complain too much. The title cards look neat, and are often stylised, some even coming with the action.

The cast here does well, looking neat, and performing admirably in their huge costumes. Their dancing seems good, but it's hard to tell, since I'm not a dancer, and the film seems to try its hardest to obscure their movements. It's Zhang Wei-Qiang who impresses most as Dracula, and even if he isn't Transylvanian, I'd have liked seeing him as the Count in a normal Dracula film!

While I was mostly annoyed or bored with it, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary is an interesting watch, and worth checking out for those who like modern silent films, or unique pictures. Or if you just really like Canada or Dracula!...