Word: coppolas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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DIRECTOR: FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA...
...BOTTOM LINE: Coppola brings the old spook story alive -- well, undead -- as a luscious, infernal romance...
Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, to call it by its rightful name, powerfully reimagines this Victorian myth for the age of AIDS. Dracula (Gary Oldman) is a warrior-wooer impaled on the cross of his love; he must track his obsession until he is released from it. His misery gives him mesmeric mastery. The wretched Renfield (Tom Waits -- terrific) bays to do Dracula's bidding. Flowers wilt at the count's passage, and maidens burn at his touch. A young woman's tears turn to pearls in his hand...
...Coppola composes movies as Wagner composed operas, setting primal conflicts to soaring emotional lines. The force of his will is as imposing as the range of his art. He goes for majesty over subtlety and, often as not, finds what he's looking for. Magic-lantern images are everywhere: in the blood pouring from an altar crucifix; in the Castle Dracula chauffeur garbed as Darth Vader; in the endless supertrain of the count's cape; in the placental gel and rat's-nest cocoons that encase the vampire. But more: in the wonderfully spectral mood that does justice...
Everyone knows that Dracula has a heart; Coppola knows that it is more than an organ to drive a stake into. To the director, the count is a restless spirit who has been condemned for too many years to interment in cruddy movies. This luscious film restores the creature's nobility and gives him peace...