Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary

Maddin's encounter with the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, which had been an inspiration for F. W. Murnau (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Terror, 1922), W. Herzog (Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night, 1979) or F. F. Coppola (Dracula, 1992) turned out to be an extraordinary adventure.

Maddin decided to make a film adaptation of a the Royal Winnipeg Ballet performance. The classical choreography for Gustav Mahler's music was created by Mark Godden. Film critics were enchanted by the film: An elaborate, self-conscious but arresting take on the Dracula myth (Guardian), By the end, you'll wonder why all films aren't made this way (Time Out), A production that is as sexually charged as it is beautifully designed (Film Threat).

The role of Count Dracula was entrusted to Zhang Wei-Qiang, a beautiful dancer, whose Asian looks stress the xenophobic meaning of Stoker's novel. Dracula, as interpreted by Maddin, seems above all a story of a man's jealousy. This film speaks about a man's fear of an alien who would come and spoil a woman's blood, of a man he keeps comparing himself to, of a man he wants to expel from her thoughts and dreams. It also touches on the fear of otherness of women - especially of women's sexuality. Dracula is a personification of an object of jealousy which changes men into monsters.

Agata Rosochacka