As for the setting of the film Dracula comes to England to live and the cast welcome their new neighbor with open arms. Dracula is living in Carfax as he does in the novel, but it is made more into a castle in the film like one would imagine Castle Dracula to appear in the novel. There are no previous encounters with the characters as there had been with Dracula and Jonathan in the novel. The characters are very welcoming of Dracula and do not treat him as the "other" as in the novel Dracula still wins over the mortals with his charm, in the film however he is portrayed as a younger beautiful man, rather than an old grey man with a strong odor.
Just as in the novel, the films portrayal of the women in Dracula makes them appear as easily manipulated and very sexual when it comes to their encounters with Dracula. The men in the film like Jonathan and Van Helsing are not manipulated by Dracula which is seen several times in the film when they are attacking him and Dracula fails to mentally manipulated then men and has to use his physical strength to over power them. The women on the other hand are manipulated by Dracula just by simply looking into his eyes. Mina and Lucy both show how easily they as women can fall under Dracula's spell. Mina (Lucy in the novel) is the first to be manipulated by Dracula. She first encounters Dracula when he comes to England on the ship where are the crew members have mysteriously faced an awful death. She sees the shipwreck from her window and goes out of the house to see what has happened. There she finds Dracula in a cave.
When Dracula makes his appearance to the party everyone is having for him, his manipulation of the women begin. While Mina is serving the Count tea they are discussing why he came to London and he mentions that he wishes to walk around and see the people. Mina replies that he has a "lust for life", which we know to be all too true, and Dracula responds with "how well you phrase it" with a malicious smile. At this Mina become instantly sick from starring into the Counts twitching eyes and almost faints. When Dr. Seward goes to give her drugs Dracula insists that they do not "taint the blood". He is able to ease her pain by again having her stare into his eyes and hypnotizing Mina. The scene shows just the beginning of Dracula being able to easily manipulate the women, just from looking into his eyes the women become helpless.
Shortly after Mina becomes the victim of the Count when he comes to her window in the night while she sleeps. Once again Mina is the helpless women who very easily opens herself up to Dracula. Just from the sight of Dracula Mina unbuttons her blouse and willing allows herself to be fed upon by Dracula. Mina then goes into a fit where she cannot breathe and then dies, only to become vampire after her death. While Mina's death comes very early in the film and is quickly manipulated by the Count, Lucy's (Mina in the novel) encounter with him is quite different. The film portrays the two as a type of lovers that are trying to be immortals together. Lucy is manipulated in the film much more than that of the role of Mina in the novel. In the novel Mina fights off becoming a vampire and a victim of Dracula, while Lucy(Mina in novel) in the film is fighting to be with Dracula forever. Lucy is also sexualized in the film and can be seen as coming onto Dracula by inviting him to dance when they first meet and continuously longing and waiting for him throughout the film. The main encounters of Dracula and Lucy's love affair is when she goes to his home and when the bite finally happens. When Lucy goes to Dracula's home for dinner(which she is wearing a very revealing shirt showing her neck and chest) Dracula seduces Lucy by his stare and they kiss passionately. At this Lucy becomes even more under Dracula's spell and does not wish to leave him.
pool of red. This representing the sexual encounter as also the transferring of each others blood. The music played is sexual as well starting off very slowly and rapidly intensifying to a point where the music sounds conquering and then goes back to a very slow melody. This scene shows the two as lovers rather than a victim and prey and concludes to what Lucy is to become.
CLIP: Music of bite scene
CLIP Seduction of Dracula throughout film:
I personally have not seen this film, but I feel I have a decent idea of it because you did such a great job describing it! I found it easy to read and follow because you went through and analyzed the different scenes in order. It's weird to imagine watching a film about Dracula and initially thinking of him as the protagonist. Seeing as our class read the novel and most people who would watch this film would have some back story on the character of Dracula, it must have been difficult to watch and not yell at your tv at all of the characters welcoming him so warmly.
ReplyDeleteOne point that you made that I think is interesting is how easily the women were manipulated by Dracula compared to the male characters. It seems that the director tried to sexualize the character of Dracula and by showing how he can have a drastic effect on Lucy just by making eye contact, and by him being Mina's love interest, it tells the audience he is something to be desired. This could be to better appeal to a female audience. Her constant lust for Dracula as well as well as her manipulation to the other male characters only reinforces the typical gender stereotypes of women in the 1890's and even when this movie was made in the 1970's. Great analysis and blog!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen this as well. But overall it seems like it would be a pretty entertaining film. Like stated above, you did a good job on giving visual detailing of the film. The connections between Lucy and min as role reversals. Make thing a bit more intriguing I would presume. It gives the story a bit more of a kick. Espicially since mina is van helsings daughter in this one. It makes the film have a pull on the father daughter relationships. Where mina, is child of van helsing is a great concept.
ReplyDeleteEven that Lucy is more a lover slave it seems like. Especially since she is completely under the spell of dracula. Where she will go about manipulating her supposed friends to keep them away from dracula. That's plainly awesome. It brings in a more intense feel to the movie.
I agree with your opinion because within all of or most of the versions of Dracula women are portrayed as weak. You did great showing and providing evidence of how women are portrayed and objectified. And you can see why women in these novels seem unrealistic because they are portrayed as such weak characters with not much will or strength. overall the movie sounds good and stays true to most of the novel it seems like a good watch.
ReplyDelete