1. Did you know that
in the original Columbia Pictures logo...Copy !req
2. it was Irene Dunne
that is photographed...Copy !req
3. standing there holding the torch?Copy !req
4. Of course, Columbia Pictures
at that time had been bought by Sony.Copy !req
5. And we begin the prologue
of Dracula...Copy !req
6. which is intended to provide some
historical background of the setting...Copy !req
7. the unique setting
of the story of Vlad Tepes...Copy !req
8. who was the historical figure
of Dracula.Copy !req
9. The year, 1462.Copy !req
10. Constantinople had fallen.Copy !req
11. Moslem Turks swept into Europe
with a vast superior force...Copy !req
12. striking at Romania,
threatening all of Christendom.Copy !req
13. From Transylvania arose
a Romanian knight...Copy !req
14. of the Sacred Order of the Dragon...Copy !req
15. known as Dracula.Copy !req
16. We begin the story with the
tale of how the Sultan Mehmed II...Copy !req
17. finally was able
to conquer Constantinople.Copy !req
18. And it became
the seat of the sultanate.Copy !req
19. And of course,
all the countries in that area...Copy !req
20. Romania being one...Copy !req
21. the Balkans
were profoundly affected...Copy !req
22. by the presence
of the Islamic sultan...Copy !req
23. that they're so close
in Constantinople...Copy !req
24. which had been
the Byzantine empire.Copy !req
25. And as Christians, the Romanians
were caught between...Copy !req
26. the polarity of this very powerful
Ottoman Empire...Copy !req
27. and the Christian European states,
which were quite far away.Copy !req
28. So in a sense, the Romanians
were left to deal with this problem...Copy !req
29. and Vlad was a ferocious warrior.Copy !req
30. And it was his reputation
as the Impaler...Copy !req
31. that provided
psychological warfare...Copy !req
32. for the superior
Turkish Ottoman forces.Copy !req
33. This prologue was pretty much
created after the fact...Copy !req
34. by my son Roman,
who was the second unit director...Copy !req
35. and did the special effects.Copy !req
36. And of course, the problem was,
we had very little money left...Copy !req
37. and decided to tell this opening
prologue almost as a puppet show...Copy !req
38. with shadows and banners.Copy !req
39. We didn't have many people
or soldiers...Copy !req
40. and told it
in a very abbreviated form...Copy !req
41. which was storyboarded...Copy !req
42. and which used the great work
of our colleague, Gary Gutierrez...Copy !req
43. who had worked on any number
of title and special sequences...Copy !req
44. and helped us figure out
how to tell all of this history...Copy !req
45. in a way that we could afford.Copy !req
46. I mean, using images,
in this case, dolls and puppets...Copy !req
47. and old-fashioned
effects concepts...Copy !req
48. such as glass shots
and hanging miniatures.Copy !req
49. So when the young actress...Copy !req
50. Winona Ryder came to see me...Copy !req
51. and the purpose
of our discussion was really...Copy !req
52. about the fact of how
she had dropped out...Copy !req
53. of working on Godfather III.Copy !req
54. Winona was supposed to play
the young daughter...Copy !req
55. of the Godfather III story.Copy !req
56. And when she came,
she didn't feel well.Copy !req
57. And she basically
withdrew from the film...Copy !req
58. leaving me in a tough spot
for Godfather III.Copy !req
59. Much later we talked about it...Copy !req
60. and I didn't want to have a grudge
against a young person...Copy !req
61. so I tried to be nice to her and say:Copy !req
62. "Yes, I understand what happened."Copy !req
63. And she said, "Well, good,
because I have this script of Dracula."Copy !req
64. Would you consider doing it?"Copy !req
65. And, of course,
that was a magic word to me...Copy !req
66. because I not only
knew the book so well...Copy !req
67. from this experience
reading it to my little boys...Copy !req
68. but also I knew about the historical
figure of Dracula...Copy !req
69. who was Dracula,
meaning the son of Dracul.Copy !req
70. And Dracul
was the Order of the Dragon...Copy !req
71. which was given
to certain Romanian noblemen...Copy !req
72. because of their service in the very
difficult situation Romania was in...Copy !req
73. being between the great Ottoman
Empire, which was so close to it...Copy !req
74. and yet being Christian, and being,
really, knights to defend Christianity.Copy !req
75. And so this historical person, Dracula,
who was really known as Vlad Tepes...Copy !req
76. So I knew a little bit about
this historical king of Romania...Copy !req
77. and I knew the story
of how Bram Stoker...Copy !req
78. had appropriated this history
to combine it into a vampire tale.Copy !req
79. So I agreed to do it.Copy !req
80. It was a time when I was really
sort of putting my life together...Copy !req
81. after some of the big
financial setbacks that I had had...Copy !req
82. and which was what led me
to make the third Godfather...Copy !req
83. and the Dracula picture,
and kind of stabilize my life...Copy !req
84. at a time when
it had been pretty rocky.Copy !req
85. The costume designer...Copy !req
86. Eiko Ishioka, was given the challenge
to try to find a new kind of imagery.Copy !req
87. As example, his unusual armor.Copy !req
88. This title was done,
as was much of this whole prologue...Copy !req
89. by Roman and by our colleague
Gary Gutierrez...Copy !req
90. a San Francisco filmmaker...Copy !req
91. who worked on many, many
Zoetrope films...Copy !req
92. and was
an Academy Award winner...Copy !req
93. for Phil Kaufman's film
The Right Stuff.Copy !req
94. I've done everything
that you asked, master.Copy !req
95. Tom Waits played Renfield, who was,
like, the former real-estate man...Copy !req
96. who had gone off to Transylvania
to attempt...Copy !req
97. to do a real-estate deal
with this mysterious Count Dracula...Copy !req
98. as it's told
in the Bram Stoker book.Copy !req
99. The Bram Stoker novel
is written in an unusual way.Copy !req
100. It's written as a series of entries,
notes, diary entries...Copy !req
101. or other documents,
all in a pastiche...Copy !req
102. to move the story forward...Copy !req
103. which is basically the story
of a young solicitor...Copy !req
104. or I think he was, like, a real-estate
agent, as played by Keanu Reeves...Copy !req
105. Jonathan Harker,
who is given the job by his firm...Copy !req
106. to go to the distant
East European country of Romania...Copy !req
107. to that region of it
which is called Transylvania...Copy !req
108. which technically was under
the influence of the Hungarian empire...Copy !req
109. to conclude a business deal
with Count Dracula.Copy !req
110. He wished to buy
some real estate in England.Copy !req
111. what in fact happened
to Mr. Renfield in Transylvania?Copy !req
112. Nothing. Nothing. Personal problems.Copy !req
113. Close these transactions, and your
future with this firm is assured.Copy !req
114. Yes, sir...Copy !req
115. So Harker is sent on his way...Copy !req
116. to make this trip by
train to conclude it.Copy !req
117. Of course, before going, he bids adieu
to his sweetheart, his fiancé...Copy !req
118. as played by Winona Ryder.Copy !req
119. Of course,
they're about to be married...Copy !req
120. and she's very reluctant
that he go away from her.Copy !req
121. All of these settings...Copy !req
122. were done at the sound stages,
formerly MGM, in fact.Copy !req
123. This was a great big sound stage
that had a pool.Copy !req
124. And this was the pool where
Esther Williams made all of her films...Copy !req
125. in the MGM era.Copy !req
126. We begin now something
that is part of the style of the picture...Copy !req
127. in that we pre-visualized,
or pre-designed...Copy !req
128. how everything would work.Copy !req
129. And my son Roman
worked extensively on this...Copy !req
130. and shot
many of these sequences.Copy !req
131. These scenes you are seeing,
with the train going over the diary...Copy !req
132. and the eyes and face of Dracula
in the windows...Copy !req
133. were all done in-camera...Copy !req
134. meaning that the shot
of him by the window was shot...Copy !req
135. and then the film was wound
by hand.Copy !req
136. In this case, the image of the map
is projected on his face.Copy !req
137. Everything is live.
It's not done in post-production...Copy !req
138. as it would be done
in the modern times.Copy !req
139. This plate that you see
in the window...Copy !req
140. with the landscape
of the Carpathian Mountains...Copy !req
141. and the eyes
of the mysterious count...Copy !req
142. are all being combined
in the film.Copy !req
143. It's an effect not unlike the great
German silent director G. W. Pabst...Copy !req
144. or Murnau, who made Nosferatu,
would have done.Copy !req
145. Your friend, D.Copy !req
146. It's interesting, I see
the letter, and he says, "Your friend, D."Copy !req
147. For a while, I was suggesting
that we perhaps...Copy !req
148. just call the movie D.
With a period...Copy !req
149. just to try to designate it
as being a little different...Copy !req
150. from the more
familiar Dracula movies.Copy !req
151. But I guess that wasn't
such a good idea.Copy !req
152. At any rate, it wasn't an idea
that was used.Copy !req
153. It must be so nice
to see strange countries.Copy !req
154. I wonder if we, I mean Jonathan
and I...Copy !req
155. The script, written by
Jim Hart, tried to follow...Copy !req
156. And I agreed very much
to follow the story...Copy !req
157. as it was in the book.Copy !req
158. To make a version of Dracula
that was very much like the book.Copy !req
159. Not only did
I know the book well...Copy !req
160. I used to read it to my little camp
students when I was a camp counselor.Copy !req
161. but also, I had the entire cast
sit around for probably three days...Copy !req
162. and read the book aloud...Copy !req
163. something that really frustrated
Anthony Hopkins.Copy !req
164. Didn't see for the life of him...Copy !req
165. why I wanted to have them
read the entire book.Copy !req
166. And of course, I did...Copy !req
167. because I wanted to be sure
they all read the book.Copy !req
168. And also, I was hoping we'd
discover something in the book...Copy !req
169. that had been left out.Copy !req
170. We did work with wolves.Copy !req
171. They were real wolves,
and they're tricky to work with.Copy !req
172. You have to be very respectful
of their territory.Copy !req
173. The scene where the ghostly driver
of the coach picks up Harker...Copy !req
174. was a problem for me at first...Copy !req
175. because I remember
the book described...Copy !req
176. how the coachman just reached
his hand over to Harker...Copy !req
177. and the hand just seemed
to extend so far...Copy !req
178. and literally pick him up
and lift him up into the coach.Copy !req
179. And there was a lot of concern of how
we could do this as a live-action...Copy !req
180. meaning this really was
photographed as it was happening.Copy !req
181. And the special-effect man
went home...Copy !req
182. when we failed
to know how to do it...Copy !req
183. and came back with a solution
that was quite interesting...Copy !req
184. involving the coachman and Harker
standing on boards of wood...Copy !req
185. that were leveraged in such a way
that we could actually...Copy !req
186. move the coachman to reach for him,
and move them into the room.Copy !req
187. This shot is a glass shot...Copy !req
188. which means part of the scene
is painted on a piece of glass...Copy !req
189. and then the real coach,
which is in a sound stage...Copy !req
190. is shot through that glass,
or in conjunction with that glass...Copy !req
191. to enable it to look as though
you're seeing the whole image.Copy !req
192. This was a very common way
to do effects...Copy !req
193. in the golden age of movies...Copy !req
194. before these things
could be accomplished...Copy !req
195. with digital and other effects.Copy !req
196. Much of this movie really is
a theatrical illusion.Copy !req
197. Which was my goal.
I wanted to find a new way...Copy !req
198. to find imagery for the story.Copy !req
199. And I had this fabulous studio
to work with.Copy !req
200. Already, you can see
one of the themes of the visualization...Copy !req
201. of the movie,
which is the use of shadows.Copy !req
202. It was my idea that in the presence
of a metaphysical phenomenon...Copy !req
203. such as a vampire,
that the laws of nature, of physics...Copy !req
204. don't really work correctly.Copy !req
205. Shadows seem to be liberated
from the person casting them.Copy !req
206. Things fall up instead of fall down.Copy !req
207. That you know you're in a realm
of supernatural, because subtly...Copy !req
208. things don't happen correctly.Copy !req
209. Now, it's well-known that once you step
into the world of a vampire...Copy !req
210. you cannot be harmed unless you
voluntarily take that step yourself.Copy !req
211. And so when Harker takes those
first steps over, across the threshold...Copy !req
212. he has willingly put himself
into the realm of that vampire...Copy !req
213. and thus is in danger.Copy !req
214. I was also told that once
by Mario Puzo, in regard to the Mafia.Copy !req
215. That the Mafia would be...
People who were truly in the Mafia...Copy !req
216. He had never met anyone that was
actually associated in the Mafia.Copy !req
217. And he advised me never
to willingly know them...Copy !req
218. to let them know
your phone number...Copy !req
219. or that you would
be friendly with them.Copy !req
220. And I often thought that the same rule
was the rule of the vampire...Copy !req
221. that when dealing with the Mafia...Copy !req
222. if you did not invite them
into your life...Copy !req
223. by way of accepting
their friendship, or a gift...Copy !req
224. Which was probably stolen, by the way.Copy !req
225. or go to one of their
good restaurants...Copy !req
226. that they could never have any...Copy !req
227. They would respectfully
not intrude in your life.Copy !req
228. And I always followed that rule
given by Mario...Copy !req
229. and therefore,
I never had any encounter...Copy !req
230. or any knowledge
of any Mafia person...Copy !req
231. despite having made a film that was
well-known about that group of people.Copy !req
232. And by the same token...Copy !req
233. had Jonathan Harker
not voluntarily walked over...Copy !req
234. Dracula's threshold...Copy !req
235. he would not have been in danger.Copy !req
236. Blood...Copy !req
237. Of course,
this performance of Gary Oldman...Copy !req
238. attempted to blaze a new trail...Copy !req
239. making use
of the historical Vlad Tepes...Copy !req
240. the picture
of which is on the portrait.Copy !req
241. And as well as a character...Copy !req
242. the eccentric count living
in an old castle...Copy !req
243. that had been made so famous
by Bela Lugosi.Copy !req
244. And we felt very much that we were
gonna go in another direction...Copy !req
245. for better or for worse,
and try to find a new kind of imagery.Copy !req
246. And part of this was,
we were going to have costumes...Copy !req
247. and imagery
that was totally different.Copy !req
248. Forgive me.Copy !req
249. Another interesting example...Copy !req
250. of the detail that my son Roman did.Copy !req
251. In this scene,
you begin to sense something strange...Copy !req
252. which is that the shadow
is not moving exactly in sync...Copy !req
253. with the person casting it.Copy !req
254. That's because, of course,
we were casting that shadow...Copy !req
255. with another actor
who was done up in that costume.Copy !req
256. And that enabled, again,
these strange things of where...Copy !req
257. Dracula walks off to the left,
and the shadow's still there.Copy !req
258. And yet he's able
to walk in from the right.Copy !req
259. Clearly, Jonathan Harker
should have noticed...Copy !req
260. if not alone from the hairdo
and the strange red robe...Copy !req
261. that there was something amiss
with this guy.Copy !req
262. And that there was something
very, very mysterious...Copy !req
263. in terms of the world
he was entering.Copy !req
264. Mr. Renfield.Copy !req
265. Of course...Copy !req
266. there was the photograph
of Tom Waits as Renfield...Copy !req
267. as had been the predecessor
of Keanu Reeves' character.Copy !req
268. He was the one who went first,
that they never heard from again.Copy !req
269. Again, the shadow...
Whenever you see the shadow...Copy !req
270. and Dracula in the similar frame,
you realize that they...Copy !req
271. The shadow seems to have its own will
and its own movement.Copy !req
272. And it was actually
pretty tough to do.Copy !req
273. The guy was there behind the scene,
often, with a television monitor.Copy !req
274. He was reputed to be an expert
mime who could do this.Copy !req
275. But it was much harder.Copy !req
276. It was easy to do something
so different...Copy !req
277. from what the principal was doing.Copy !req
278. But what was harder was to have it
match it, in a way...Copy !req
279. long enough
to be a convincing shadow...Copy !req
280. before it had its own
independent movement.Copy !req
281. We're to be married
as soon as I return.Copy !req
282. Are you married, count?Copy !req
283. Again, you see
the shadow is independently moving.Copy !req
284. I was married once.Copy !req
285. Ages ago, it seems.Copy !req
286. She died.Copy !req
287. - Oh. I'm very sorry.
- She was fortunate.Copy !req
288. My life, at its best, is misery.Copy !req
289. Of course...Copy !req
290. the hair design
was part of the costume, really...Copy !req
291. and part of the vision of Eiko Ishioka,
who was the costume designer.Copy !req
292. But she was really...
I hired her to do the costumes...Copy !req
293. but Eiko was a great
graphic artist in Japan.Copy !req
294. And I was looking for a really
innovative design concept...Copy !req
295. for the way the characters
would look.Copy !req
296. Again, to get away from the Bela
Lugosi, or the previous Draculas...Copy !req
297. which sort of all followed
that direction...Copy !req
298. and tried to do something
just more striking...Copy !req
299. and, you know, one of a kind.Copy !req
300. And, you know,
when you do things like that...Copy !req
301. you're always on the verge
of the ridiculous.Copy !req
302. Again, that was an homage
to John Carradine...Copy !req
303. the way he lifts up the cloak.Copy !req
304. I always remember John Carradine
in Dracula movies...Copy !req
305. doing that and turning into a bat.Copy !req
306. The film, as I watch it now... I haven't
seen it since, really, those days.Copy !req
307. And it is and it was meant to be
full of visual imagery...Copy !req
308. that tried to court
the surreal and...Copy !req
309. In a great tradition of surrealism,
of course.Copy !req
310. The films of Jean Cocteau,
and other films.Copy !req
311. That's my missing Persian print.Copy !req
312. I can't find that print.
And I know I loaned it to the movies...Copy !req
313. to be able to do this scene.Copy !req
314. And of my entire Richard Burton
collection of Arabian Nights...Copy !req
315. that book is missing.Copy !req
316. Is your ambitious John Harker...Copy !req
317. forcing you to learn
that ridiculous machine?Copy !req
318. When he could be...Copy !req
319. There was some difference of opinion...Copy !req
320. on how I imagined
the settings and the sets...Copy !req
321. vis-à-vis the costumes.Copy !req
322. I had planned this notion that,
in a sense...Copy !req
323. the costumes would be the sets.Copy !req
324. And I didn't want to have
very, very distinctive and unusual...Copy !req
325. and elaborate sets.Copy !req
326. And I did have a disagreement with
the first production designer...Copy !req
327. who I felt went way over the top
in terms of the, you know...Copy !req
328. It's hard to tell
a production designer that:Copy !req
329. "Oh, well, in this movie,
the costumes are the sets."Copy !req
330. And so ultimately,
I was forced to fire him...Copy !req
331. something that shocked him
greatly.Copy !req
332. And I hired two young
production designers...Copy !req
333. Tom Sanders and a wonderful
young man named Andrew Precht...Copy !req
334. who rose to the occasion.Copy !req
335. And in the difficulty of coming in...Copy !req
336. after the previous art director
had left...Copy !req
337. leaving me there,
Andrew and Thomas came in...Copy !req
338. and did a remarkable job.Copy !req
339. my rich friend.Copy !req
340. Yes, but not even one
marriage proposal.Copy !req
341. And here I am, almost 20.Copy !req
342. Practically a hag.Copy !req
343. Mr. Quincey P. Morris.Copy !req
344. Oh, look.
What is that?Copy !req
345. The characters in
Dracula, in this production of Dracula...Copy !req
346. the young doctor
who is caring for Lucy...Copy !req
347. and the cowboy who comes in...Copy !req
348. are all quite authentically
taken from the book.Copy !req
349. And those characters all exist.
There are many of them, her suitors.Copy !req
350. Ultimately, they later on
form the group...Copy !req
351. that follows the mad Dr. Helsing...Copy !req
352. who has his vampire killers...Copy !req
353. many of whom
were Lucy's former suitors.Copy !req
354. We had a wonderful group of actors
who participated with this...Copy !req
355. and we got to rehearse together.Copy !req
356. And, again, the costumes
were so appropriate.Copy !req
357. of love...
Oh, Jack, my darling.Copy !req
358. Oh, poor little baby.Copy !req
359. My kitten, come over here.Copy !req
360. Richard E. Grant,
the wonderful British actor...Copy !req
361. whom I had seen in a movie
called Withnail & I...Copy !req
362. played Dr. Seward.Copy !req
363. And Bill Campbell
played the American.Copy !req
364. This is the noble young lord
played by Cary Elwes.Copy !req
365. And they were such an enthusiastic
young group of people.Copy !req
366. They all came to Napa, I remember,
for a week or so of rehearsal.Copy !req
367. And I staged all sorts
of wacky adventures...Copy !req
368. for them to go on, in order
to bond together in character.Copy !req
369. I remember that the three suitors,
I ordered a hot air balloon to come...Copy !req
370. so that they could go
ballooning together.Copy !req
371. And one morning they came,
and there was the hot balloon there...Copy !req
372. but it was too windy.Copy !req
373. So they just went up,
and it was tethered by a rope.Copy !req
374. But they sort of had their adventure.Copy !req
375. Again, we used the shadow of Dracula
to begin to express his power...Copy !req
376. that from, literally, a coffin in
the hold of a boat, or wherever he is...Copy !req
377. he is able to reach out to find her
and threaten her, ultimately.Copy !req
378. But we also understand that
she is the living likeness...Copy !req
379. almost the reincarnation
of his long-lost love.Copy !req
380. returns from business
abroad in Transylvania...Copy !req
381. Partly, the movie
was interested in technology...Copy !req
382. so there's constantly
new dictating machines...Copy !req
383. and new cinemagraphic devices.Copy !req
384. George.Copy !req
385. Here's Eiko's
very curious costumes...Copy !req
386. for the people who work
in the mental asylum.Copy !req
387. It looks like they have cage boxes
on their heads.Copy !req
388. Presumably so the inmates
can't attack them.Copy !req
389. Here we have the wonderful,
brilliant Tom Waits...Copy !req
390. in a memorable performance.Copy !req
391. I'm heartbroken that when they
showed this movie on television...Copy !req
392. they always cut
these sequences out.Copy !req
393. Perhaps they're too weird.
I know they're trying to save time.Copy !req
394. But it's such a strange character.Copy !req
395. And look at these odd things
on his hands...Copy !req
396. to prevent him
from doing damage to himself.Copy !req
397. And he, of course, is so thrilled
to have his little creatures...Copy !req
398. because he, having been inoculated
by Dracula...Copy !req
399. craves life, craves blood.Copy !req
400. And makes do with the few insects
he's able to attract.Copy !req
401. Of course, he is under the care
of Richard E. Grant's character...Copy !req
402. Dr. Seward.Copy !req
403. And his behavior
is notably being studied...Copy !req
404. as for what evidence it can
ultimately then contribute...Copy !req
405. to the strange things
that begin to happen in London...Copy !req
406. with the shadow of the oncoming
of Count Dracula.Copy !req
407. A kitten.Copy !req
408. I beg you.Copy !req
409. A little, sleek... A playful kitten.Copy !req
410. Something I can teach.
Something I can feed.Copy !req
411. But the story originally,
in the Bram Stoker novel...Copy !req
412. is told in any number of excerpts,
as I said.Copy !req
413. The diaries of Mina Harker...Copy !req
414. or in this case,
the medical journals of Dr. Seward.Copy !req
415. I need lives for the master.
- What master?Copy !req
416. The master will come...Copy !req
417. and he has promised
to make me immortal.Copy !req
418. How?Copy !req
419. Get him off me!Copy !req
420. The blood is the life!Copy !req
421. Again, we have now
a sequence executed by Roman...Copy !req
422. with multiple image.Copy !req
423. Again, all done in the camera.Copy !req
424. It was our idea that the castle
of Dracula...Copy !req
425. Again to try to find imagery
that could be a little different...Copy !req
426. than what was previously done.Copy !req
427. But the castle itself
of Count Dracula...Copy !req
428. looked a little bit like Dracula.Copy !req
429. This was a live-action effect.
Here you see there's a mirror...Copy !req
430. and you don't see Dracula
reflected in the mirror...Copy !req
431. but you do see his hand.Copy !req
432. And that was hard to do,
and I don't remember how we did it.Copy !req
433. And then when he turns, of course,
Dracula's in another place.Copy !req
434. And Dracula just seems to float around.
Every little detail in the film...Copy !req
435. of how he moved or walked
or what happened...Copy !req
436. was done in a stylized way
to try to, again, express this idea...Copy !req
437. that in the presence
of a metaphysical being...Copy !req
438. the laws of nature were all awry.Copy !req
439. A foul bauble of man's vanity.Copy !req
440. Perhaps you should...Copy !req
441. grow a beard.Copy !req
442. This, of course,
was a memorable moment.Copy !req
443. The way Gary did it, primarily...Copy !req
444. I'm not exactly sure where
the idea came from.Copy !req
445. It may have been partly
in collaboration with Gary Oldman...Copy !req
446. who is a very intelligent,
inventive person...Copy !req
447. and, of course,
who has directed films himself.Copy !req
448. Good.Copy !req
449. The photographer
of the film was Michael Ballhaus...Copy !req
450. and he was a fine gentleman.Copy !req
451. I think during much of the filming,
he was very, um...Copy !req
452. confused as to what the overall
concept of this film was.Copy !req
453. I mean, it's a journey
into surrealism...Copy !req
454. and manipulation of imagery.Copy !req
455. I mean, in this scene,
things are happening...Copy !req
456. Perhaps you can't tell,
but the walls are actually moving in...Copy !req
457. closer and closer on them...Copy !req
458. producing the effect of being
sort of closed in by the character.Copy !req
459. But we were constantly
moving walls...Copy !req
460. and having shadows
that didn't belong...Copy !req
461. or doing scenes backwards.Copy !req
462. Our ways are not your ways.Copy !req
463. There's a real...Copy !req
464. Just a collection of
old-fashioned visual effects...Copy !req
465. used in the picture.Copy !req
466. And many times, you don't really
even see what's happening...Copy !req
467. but rather, you're feeling
that you're in...Copy !req
468. an extremely surreal environment...Copy !req
469. and that you're in a world...Copy !req
470. not governed by any natural laws.Copy !req
471. But most of it is in...
I mean, almost all of it...Copy !req
472. is from the Bram Stoker book
and from his imagination and lines.Copy !req
473. I mean, there, the robe goes out, and
the shadow goes after it to follow it.Copy !req
474. I haven't seen this for a while,
but it's full of...Copy !req
475. A treasure box of strange effects.Copy !req
476. In this case, again, Bram Stoker
described how Dracula...Copy !req
477. was seen to be able to crawl up
the sides of buildings.Copy !req
478. And, of course, we did
many of these things...Copy !req
479. by having the set
be lying flat on the ground...Copy !req
480. and having him crawl
across the floor, basically...Copy !req
481. but looking as though
he's going up or down a building.Copy !req
482. I said nothing of my fears
as he will read them, no doubt.Copy !req
483. I know now that I am a prisoner.Copy !req
484. Again, the laws of gravity being defied.Copy !req
485. This is a multiple-image shot
by Roman...Copy !req
486. which he did it
in subsequent exposure.Copy !req
487. You know, I... You know,
there are certain people...Copy !req
488. who basically don't like
this kind of theatricalization.Copy !req
489. Although, you know, I mean,
I think with Dracula...Copy !req
490. a movie that had been made
so many times...Copy !req
491. you either go one extreme,
kind of... Which I did.Copy !req
492. A kind of theatricalized,
do it all in the studio.Copy !req
493. Or perhaps you could go
in the opposite direction...Copy !req
494. and do an almost...Copy !req
495. super-real, naturalistic version of it.Copy !req
496. I could see that. I mean, in that case,
I would've gone to Romania...Copy !req
497. and I would've tried to endow the film
with a kind of naturalism...Copy !req
498. despite the very...Copy !req
499. fanciful and surreal nature
of the story.Copy !req
500. But I knew that I had to go one way
to the left or the right...Copy !req
501. of what the bellwether Dracula was,
which was the Bela Lugosi Dracula.Copy !req
502. Here, again, the drops float upward.Copy !req
503. I was always trying to show that
all of our familiar rules of existence...Copy !req
504. were being contradicted or defied.Copy !req
505. So, you know,
I think the photographer...Copy !req
506. was always resisting
some of these strange notions.Copy !req
507. Come.Copy !req
508. Lay down.Copy !req
509. Lay back into my arms.Copy !req
510. We consulted with a magician...Copy !req
511. who builds equipment
for stage magicians.Copy !req
512. And we devised a special bed...Copy !req
513. out of which
these brides could appear...Copy !req
514. and these footsteps could appear
out of nothing.Copy !req
515. But the idea was that these women
should materialize right out of the bed.Copy !req
516. And this young lady is,
of course...Copy !req
517. the very well-known
actress Monica Bellucci.Copy !req
518. This was her first film.Copy !req
519. She's quite a beautiful woman.Copy !req
520. I think Roman had seen her picture
in a magazine.Copy !req
521. Whenever you have to shoot something
involving sex, it is so tough.Copy !req
522. You know, you are very clear
when you cast the...Copy !req
523. In the case of women, because
men are even tougher than women.Copy !req
524. Men are so funny about showing
as much as their bellybutton...Copy !req
525. God forbid anything else.Copy !req
526. Of course, everyone is shy.Copy !req
527. And even though, in this case,
the girls had all agreed...Copy !req
528. that there would be nudity
in their contracts...Copy !req
529. when they came onstage,
they were all sort of covered up.Copy !req
530. Then I would say, "Hey, Roman,
tell them to take off their clothes."Copy !req
531. Roman said, "I won't tell
them to take off their clothes."Copy !req
532. He said to the assistant director:Copy !req
533. "Oh, okay, tell them
to take off their clothes."Copy !req
534. And nobody wanted to tell them
to take off their clothes.Copy !req
535. And that's usually what it's like.Copy !req
536. But I agree that those scenes
are not comfortable for anyone.Copy !req
537. And when I see the Dracula material
of that smoochy scene there...Copy !req
538. with them all kissing him and stuff,
I was just dying.Copy !req
539. And I just was so uncomfortable.Copy !req
540. But I must say, in looking back at it,
it really was okay.Copy !req
541. The other brides... There was
a lovely young lady from Israel...Copy !req
542. as I remember.
Her name was Michaela.Copy !req
543. And the Romanian young lady
was Florina.Copy !req
544. And she also consulted with us
on Romanian matters...Copy !req
545. and helped us speak the language.Copy !req
546. She was quite a bright young lady.Copy !req
547. Dracula's entrance was on
some sort of rail device...Copy !req
548. so we can just speed him
right on the scene.Copy !req
549. And then there was the strange motion
of the two brides together...Copy !req
550. which was... We had worked hard
with Michael Smuin, a choreographer...Copy !req
551. to try to get the girls...Copy !req
552. And I think at one point, we had
gymnasts involved in doing that.Copy !req
553. But this was all in the desire
to be constantly offering up...Copy !req
554. you know, kind of an experience
that would...Copy !req
555. put you in the strange mood
of the story.Copy !req
556. I found it so difficult
to do this scene...Copy !req
557. which so revolts Keanu.Copy !req
558. But this was
a brand-new little infant.Copy !req
559. And I always thought,
when I held this baby...Copy !req
560. It was only born recently
from when we shot this.Copy !req
561. I was so careful to do it
in a way that exposed the baby...Copy !req
562. to the little bit of handling
as possible.Copy !req
563. But I always thought I would love
to see that baby again.Copy !req
564. I held her in my hands,
and thought that.Copy !req
565. That, "Oh, I'd love to see you
in future years."Copy !req
566. And it reminds me, I should try
to find out who that baby was...Copy !req
567. so I can go bring her
a present or something.Copy !req
568. Dearest Mina, all is well here.Copy !req
569. The count has insisted
I remain for a month...Copy !req
570. to tutor him in English custom.Copy !req
571. I can say no more,
except I love you.Copy !req
572. Ever faithful, Jonathan.Copy !req
573. The letters I have written
have undoubtedly sealed my doom.Copy !req
574. The count's gypsies, fearless
warriors who are loyal to the death...Copy !req
575. to whatever nobleman they serve...Copy !req
576. day and night they toil,
filling boxes with decrepit earth...Copy !req
577. from the bowels of the castle.Copy !req
578. They are to be delivered...Copy !req
579. to his newly acquired Carfax Abbey
in London.Copy !req
580. Why do they
fill these boxes with earth?Copy !req
581. In the shot of Dracula
kind of rising up through the frame...Copy !req
582. that was what we call in the movie
racket... We call it an homage.Copy !req
583. But that was for sure an homage
for Nosferatu...Copy !req
584. in this extraordinary moment when
the Dracula figure rises up in that way.Copy !req
585. And I just had to have that
in the movie...Copy !req
586. because it was something I always
loved when I saw Nosferatu...Copy !req
587. which, as I've said...Copy !req
588. is probably the greatest
Dracula movie ever made.Copy !req
589. And a silent movie.Copy !req
590. Mina, what is it? It's the most
exciting day of my lifeCopy !req
591. You don't seem to care.Copy !req
592. It's just that I'm so terribly
worried about Jonathan.Copy !req
593. This letter I received is so...Copy !req
594. This is the work of Andrew and Tom.Copy !req
595. The garden, again, is built
into the swimming pool...Copy !req
596. that was Esther Williams'
swimming pool.Copy !req
597. You know, we wanted to show
the effect of the coming of Dracula...Copy !req
598. even on the girl.Copy !req
599. He's on the ship, in his coffin,
buried in the earth of Transylvania.Copy !req
600. And it's beginning to influence
even those girls in England.Copy !req
601. This is a sequence
trying to express...Copy !req
602. the crates of boxes of Dracula's
belongings, including himself...Copy !req
603. in a kind of almost
embryonic state in the box.Copy !req
604. And, of course, the movement
of the ship on the water...Copy !req
605. is now translated even to the girls
in their garden and maze...Copy !req
606. trying to unify
the turmoil of storm...Copy !req
607. that is about to reach them.Copy !req
608. As though the earth
of this English estate is moving.Copy !req
609. And the animals in the zoo
are all becoming like a boat.Copy !req
610. I would... If I'm trying to think back
as to who this would be an homage to...Copy !req
611. I would say Abel Gance...Copy !req
612. who was very, very comfortable with
using the movement of the camera...Copy !req
613. to express a unifying idea
such as this.Copy !req
614. —Crew uneasy.Copy !req
615. Believe someone or something...Copy !req
616. is aboard the ship with us.Copy !req
617. You know,
all hell is breaking loose in the asylum...Copy !req
618. because the coming of the boat...
Again, the metaphor is that...Copy !req
619. the boat is expressed
by boat-like movement...Copy !req
620. even in a rock-solid place
like an asylum.Copy !req
621. But he's getting so stoked,
Renfield, that his master is coming.Copy !req
622. And, again, authentically
told from the book...Copy !req
623. Seward is shooting up himself
with morphine.Copy !req
624. And the emotion of all the characters
is being intensified...Copy !req
625. by the mere approach
of this prince of darkness...Copy !req
626. who arrives
on the shore in England...Copy !req
627. and no doubt has killed and taken
the blood out of all the sailors...Copy !req
628. so that it's totally a dead ship.Copy !req
629. And now using a technique
called pixilation...Copy !req
630. in which we just shot
a few frames at a time...Copy !req
631. to try to give a curious
point-of-view look...Copy !req
632. for the spirit of Dracula.Copy !req
633. Roman shot that pixilation.Copy !req
634. I think it was a term...Copy !req
635. that comes from certain
experimental filmmakers...Copy !req
636. maybe in the San Francisco
period in the '50s.Copy !req
637. It's interesting that, you know,
a filmmaker, you know...Copy !req
638. as a young person, I saw
all this stuff, saw all these films...Copy !req
639. experimental films
from San Francisco.Copy !req
640. Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage...Copy !req
641. the great works of G. W. Pabst
and Murnau...Copy !req
642. and the other Dracula stories.Copy !req
643. Carl Dreyer.Copy !req
644. And all of us are really sort of,
like, just receiving this...Copy !req
645. and then it's all mixed up
in our own personalities and souls.Copy !req
646. And then we put it out
in some new form.Copy !req
647. It's a process of gathering
from everyone...Copy !req
648. and our own life experience...Copy !req
649. and then, like, putting it together...Copy !req
650. in a form that it had
never existed before.Copy !req
651. And, you know, I always tell
the young filmmakers I meet...Copy !req
652. that, you know, the different writers,
Balzac, and the different filmmakers...Copy !req
653. they want you
to take what they've done...Copy !req
654. and if they want, just copy it.
Because you never really copy it.Copy !req
655. It's impossible for you to copy it.Copy !req
656. You put it out in your own form,
and then that makes the...Copy !req
657. I read that once, of Balzac, saying:Copy !req
658. "Oh, we want the young writers
to take from us..."Copy !req
659. because if they take from us
and put it in their work...Copy !req
660. "... then we'll be immortal."Copy !req
661. And that is the tradition.Copy !req
662. You're inspired by others,
and then, hopefully, if we're fortunate...Copy !req
663. we inspire people
who come after them.Copy !req
664. I'm a little surprised
by this movie, is...Copy !req
665. I haven't seen it in such a long time,
but it never stops doing stuff.Copy !req
666. It's hard for me to talk about it,
because normally...Copy !req
667. on doing a commentary
on a movie...Copy !req
668. Oh, yeah, he's, like, actually seeing
the blood coursing through her veins.Copy !req
669. These are all ideas that we hoped
to do when we planned it out.Copy !req
670. And then, of course, we had to find
ways to be able to do this imagery.Copy !req
671. But... And some worked really very,
very successfully, and some not at all.Copy !req
672. But you can see that it was
a production that was full of ideas...Copy !req
673. and basically innovations...Copy !req
674. to try to bring this old tale...Copy !req
675. this beloved, you know,
horror classic...Copy !req
676. Stoker's Dracula...Copy !req
677. Once again, to film
without just following the path...Copy !req
678. of what had been done before.Copy !req
679. You know, if it had used what
had been done before, I would say:Copy !req
680. "Well, yes, it used, you know,
Beauty and the Beast by Cocteau."Copy !req
681. Or all these other references...Copy !req
682. that I'm trying to acknowledge
here and now...Copy !req
683. so that you can have the extreme
pleasure of going back...Copy !req
684. to films like Beauty and the Beast
and Nosferatu...Copy !req
685. and Vampyr by Carl Dreyer...Copy !req
686. and the other projects that have
their DNA in this movie...Copy !req
687. as it were.Copy !req
688. Swing it round here.Copy !req
689. Master.Copy !req
690. I am here to do your bidding.Copy !req
691. Master! I am here!Copy !req
692. I have worshiped you.Copy !req
693. Contrary to some beliefs,
the vampire...Copy !req
694. like any other night creature,
can move about by day...Copy !req
695. though it is not his natural time,
and his powers are weak.Copy !req
696. That was a good shot, is that...Copy !req
697. Like, he's in this box,
and he bursts out...Copy !req
698. young and healthy and so vital.Copy !req
699. This sequence is actually shot...Copy !req
700. with a Pathé camera,
hand-cranked camera.Copy !req
701. I wanted to shoot much more of it
with the camera...Copy !req
702. but the photographer was
less than interested...Copy !req
703. but it really has a wonderful
sense of the period.Copy !req
704. This is really being shot...Copy !req
705. the way early silent movies
were shot, on the same camera.Copy !req
706. With uncoated lenses.
Very, very intriguing.Copy !req
707. I know there was lots of debate
as to whether or not a vampire...Copy !req
708. could, in fact, walk around
in the daytime.Copy !req
709. Because in this scene, and in the book,
there was a sense that it did happen.Copy !req
710. And I was able to uncover, in the lore,
as to where these things came from...Copy !req
711. such as a vampire
can't be seen in a mirror...Copy !req
712. and a vampire cannot
walk around in the daylight.Copy !req
713. But I... And in this case, you see
that he's there looking at the window...Copy !req
714. but his reflection
is not in the glass.Copy !req
715. And I don't remember it now, but I felt
convinced that I had justification.Copy !req
716. Whether it was in the Bram Stoker
book or something else...Copy !req
717. that I could portray him...
That he could be in daylight.Copy !req
718. Again, this little effect went by so fast
that she drops the medicine...Copy !req
719. and he picks it up,
but then it's up high.Copy !req
720. We were constantly doing
sort of almost, like, magic...Copy !req
721. to, again, show you
that she was in the presence...Copy !req
722. of someone who was not bound
to adhere to the rules of nature.Copy !req
723. I have offended you.Copy !req
724. I am only looking for the cinematograph.Copy !req
725. I understand it is a wonder
of the civilized world.Copy !req
726. If you seek culture,
then visit a museum.Copy !req
727. London is filled with them.
Excuse me.Copy !req
728. He's standing there,
behind her walking away.Copy !req
729. And then as she approached,
he's standing there on the other side.Copy !req
730. So there are hundreds
of such staging tricks...Copy !req
731. to confuse her, and to hopefully
delight the audience...Copy !req
732. to be in the presence
of this unusual figure, you know?Copy !req
733. Here as a count,
as also a suitor, as a lover.Copy !req
734. Because he's come... In our story
and in Jim Harts' script...Copy !req
735. the innovation is that
his whole reason...Copy !req
736. for wanting to once again
be united with Mina...Copy !req
737. is because of his love
for Elisabeta...Copy !req
738. who, somehow,
she is the reincarnation of.Copy !req
739. I've always had the theory myself...Copy !req
740. Because this theme
of the reincarnation of a woman...Copy !req
741. comes up
in a number of my projects.Copy !req
742. And, actually, it comes up
in this recent film that I've made:Copy !req
743. Youth Without Youth.Copy !req
744. I've always had the theory that,
you know...Copy !req
745. a man loves the same woman
all his life...Copy !req
746. even if she takes
the form of different women.Copy !req
747. But ultimately, from day one, a man
loves the same woman all his life...Copy !req
748. and she is him.Copy !req
749. You know, one of the interesting
things about this Dracula story...Copy !req
750. and I think a positive thing,
is that we told it as a love story.Copy !req
751. This really wasn't
in the Bram Stoker book.Copy !req
752. It was a little bit in the history
of Vlad Tepes himself...Copy !req
753. that there was some root of this
supposed story of a beloved.Copy !req
754. And, of course, this
we would credit Jim Hart for.Copy !req
755. For finding the story, and weaving it
into the Dracula story.Copy !req
756. But I think it was
the Turks deliberately sent an arrow...Copy !req
757. and we did it that way to her,
saying that he had been killed in battle.Copy !req
758. And when, in fact, it wasn't true.Copy !req
759. So he returned to find his beloved
had killed herself.Copy !req
760. I'm here as your doctor.Copy !req
761. Here, you see
the extraordinary dress, wedding dress...Copy !req
762. made for Sadie Frost
by Eiko Ishioka.Copy !req
763. And this dress is an extraordinary
piece of work...Copy !req
764. of design and execution,
as all the costumes are.Copy !req
765. And people can actually see
these costumes...Copy !req
766. at the Francis Coppola Winery
in Geyserville...Copy !req
767. in Sonoma.Copy !req
768. It's a beautiful, beautiful collection.Copy !req
769. I hear mice in the attic,
stomping like elephants.Copy !req
770. I liked Sadie Frost.Copy !req
771. She was a very nice girl,
and, you know, appealing...Copy !req
772. and pretty and sexy.Copy !req
773. I was sort of surprised.Copy !req
774. So many young people
have come through our doors...Copy !req
775. and started and go on
to become great stars.Copy !req
776. I guess she made other choices...Copy !req
777. or she had many children.
She was married.Copy !req
778. And we haven't seen much of her
after the debut in Dracula.Copy !req
779. But she was a nice girl,
and very good to work with.Copy !req
780. I would watch my colonial
tongue if I were you.Copy !req
781. Again, I'm always pleased...Copy !req
782. to remind the audience...Copy !req
783. that absolutely every single
scene in this movie...Copy !req
784. was shot inside a sound stage.Copy !req
785. And, you know, rarely does... Is a movie
100 percent shot in a sound stage.Copy !req
786. And I think this is.Copy !req
787. And especially when we get
to the bigger scenes...Copy !req
788. at the end of the big chase
on the Borgo Pass.Copy !req
789. Clearly, Lucy is being affected
by her encounter with Dracula...Copy !req
790. and is being affected, in a way...Copy !req
791. affected and infected,
I should say...Copy !req
792. because she has the metaphoric...Copy !req
793. blood of a vampire in her.Copy !req
794. Which means that she, too,
will be a vampire.Copy !req
795. He's my teacher and mentor.Copy !req
796. Do it, man.Copy !req
797. I guess
a lot of this myth comes from, you know...Copy !req
798. It's ironic, because
even in modern time...Copy !req
799. we have the fear of the infected
blood given to us by someone.Copy !req
800. I mean, the whole metaphor
of AIDS...Copy !req
801. and earlier diseases
and plagues and leprosy.Copy !req
802. And metaphorically, you know...Copy !req
803. a sex offender
can abuse a young person...Copy !req
804. and that young person
grows up to be an offender.Copy !req
805. I guess this is a bit of knowledge
that humans have known a long time...Copy !req
806. this contagion.Copy !req
807. Astounding.Copy !req
808. There are no limits to science.Copy !req
809. How can you call this science?Copy !req
810. Here was a scene in which we tried...Copy !req
811. Roman and I were
very pleased to do this...Copy !req
812. To try to portray
an early nickelodeon.Copy !req
813. And, in fact, even on the screen
are some very early motion pictures...Copy !req
814. and exhibits of how magicians
used illusions...Copy !req
815. and used cinema, in this...Copy !req
816. In the way movies were first shown
in these days...Copy !req
817. in a magic room.Copy !req
818. This shot of Dracula
literally sweeping her off her feet...Copy !req
819. of course,
was a mechanical effect.Copy !req
820. He takes her, and then they're on
a little trolley that is pulled.Copy !req
821. Stop this.Copy !req
822. It's interesting.
When I did this shot with her...Copy !req
823. just to show the kind of kid
that Winona was...Copy !req
824. she looked at me...Copy !req
825. I mean, she was a little too smart
for her own good, in a way...Copy !req
826. as a kid. She said, "I've already
done this shot once."Copy !req
827. Because this was a tricky setup.Copy !req
828. They had to step
onto this moving thing.Copy !req
829. And I said, "Oh, really?" She said,
"Oh, yes, I did it with Tim Burton."Copy !req
830. But I have always felt...Copy !req
831. that Winona had a deeper well of
talent than she was willing to dip into.Copy !req
832. That effect, by the way,
was known as the magic box.Copy !req
833. That was a real illusion...Copy !req
834. as was the staging of the battle
at Constantinople with puppets.Copy !req
835. And we showed the backings
of how it works.Copy !req
836. This movie is full of little treasures,
that you almost have to go slow for it...Copy !req
837. and see how these things
were reconstructed.Copy !req
838. Because in this scene,
with the cinema being shown...Copy !req
839. along with other novelties,
the puppets, and the magic box...Copy !req
840. which was an illusion
that you just saw...Copy !req
841. it was sort of like
how the birth of cinema happened.Copy !req
842. And exhibition,
what became the modern movie...Copy !req
843. and, God help us, the multiplex,
began as a little hall of wonders...Copy !req
844. in a way that we commemorated
in this movie...Copy !req
845. you know, to show
the marriage, really...Copy !req
846. of the date of the creation
of Dracula, around 1900...Copy !req
847. with the birth of the cinema.Copy !req
848. Don't ever try this with
a wolf, by the way.Copy !req
849. This is not something you wanna do.Copy !req
850. Again, it's used to show...Copy !req
851. Dracula's, you know,
seduction of Mina.Copy !req
852. The sensuality that lay under the skin
of the vampire legend.Copy !req
853. It's so confused with sex and romance
and love and death.Copy !req
854. The two sometimes are difficult
to separate, as we know...Copy !req
855. and has been pointed out
in much literature...Copy !req
856. and cinema and theater.Copy !req
857. Here we have
a miniature of the manor.Copy !req
858. It's a small building that is meant
to show at a distance away.Copy !req
859. We played the scene at the gate.Copy !req
860. So, yes, that's a miniature house
standing quite close to the gate...Copy !req
861. but giving the illusion
of perspective.Copy !req
862. Again, you see...Copy !req
863. there's always an interest
in modern technology in this movie.Copy !req
864. Because it was the turn of the century,
and so much was happening.Copy !req
865. Telegraphs and telephones
and microscopes and, you know...Copy !req
866. this whole dictating machines,
and all kinds of stuff.Copy !req
867. And we tried to show it all.Copy !req
868. Now we introduce essentially
a new character, Dr. Van Helsing...Copy !req
869. who's such a important character
in the second half of the story...Copy !req
870. as he is the one who comes
and basically is the only force...Copy !req
871. capable of being able to resist...Copy !req
872. or hopefully have knowledge
or secrets...Copy !req
873. that could counter
the magical powers of Dracula.Copy !req
874. You know, it was my...
Of course, we had a great actor.Copy !req
875. But it was my hope or my feeling
to show that anyone...Copy !req
876. who had made his profession
pursuing the occult...Copy !req
877. and the strange, dark secrets
of science, such as Dr. Van Helsing...Copy !req
878. It was my thought to try to make him
a little crazy himself.Copy !req
879. Or a little eccentric, to say the least.Copy !req
880. You know, I encouraged the doctor
to go in that direction...Copy !req
881. to be as kind of strange and colorful
a character as was Dracula.Copy !req
882. I mean, a sense...Copy !req
883. You had Dracula on one side
of the equation...Copy !req
884. and you had Dr. Van Helsing
on the other.Copy !req
885. And they had to, in some way,
be comparably weird.Copy !req
886. Or, at least,
that was the choice I made.Copy !req
887. That blood rolling down the floor
was a beautiful effect shot.Copy !req
888. —Barely alive so I cannot escape.Copy !req
889. I will try one last time today
to escape to the water.Copy !req
890. There must be passageway
to the river...Copy !req
891. and then away
from this cursed land...Copy !req
892. where the devil and his children
still walk with earthly feet.Copy !req
893. Again, the pixilation...Copy !req
894. to imply the vampire's
point of view.Copy !req
895. And now we have the arrival
of Dr. Van Helsing at the scene.Copy !req
896. He is now gonna conduct
the investigation...Copy !req
897. and hopefully provide the means
of defeating Dracula.Copy !req
898. I remember the window
for Lucy's bedroom...Copy !req
899. Talk about another homage,
this big window.Copy !req
900. I saw a movie, a great, great
Frank Capra movie...Copy !req
901. which you all must see,
with Barbara Stanwyck...Copy !req
902. called The Bitter Tea of General Yen.
And it's a great movie.Copy !req
903. And there's a big window
in a bedroom somewhere...Copy !req
904. that I think
was in the back of my mind...Copy !req
905. when I asked the art directors
to put this window in.Copy !req
906. A lot of Lucy's movements here
are done backwards.Copy !req
907. And just the idea
that the presence of Dracula...Copy !req
908. in the form of the shadow
just would kill anything alive...Copy !req
909. You know, the flowers die
as the shadows pass.Copy !req
910. I always come to my
friends in need when they call me.Copy !req
911. So, Jack, tell me
everything about your case.Copy !req
912. She has all the usual
physical anemic signs.Copy !req
913. Her blood analyzes normal,
and yet it is not.Copy !req
914. She manifests continued blood loss.
I cannot trace the cause.Copy !req
915. Blood loss? How?Copy !req
916. We brought in a singer...Copy !req
917. a vocalist named Diamante Galant...Copy !req
918. who provided
some very orgiastic...Copy !req
919. and other feminine sounds
of intensity.Copy !req
920. And... To help us with this sequence.Copy !req
921. My God, she's only a child.Copy !req
922. Ja.Copy !req
923. My God.Copy !req
924. There's no time to be lost.
There must be a transfusion at once.Copy !req
925. Interestingly, a blood transfusion...Copy !req
926. another example
of modern technology at the time.Copy !req
927. And we did it as authentically
as we knew how.Copy !req
928. We really tried to find out,
well, how did they do transfusions?Copy !req
929. And we did it the way they did.Copy !req
930. However, shows what
a pansy director I am. I...Copy !req
931. It wasn't really a transfusion,
it was just a, you know, movie scene.Copy !req
932. But the great director Clouzot,
in one of his movies...Copy !req
933. actually had to have the character
get a blood transfusion.Copy !req
934. And the actors showed up,
and they began to shoot the scene.Copy !req
935. And he had brought a doctor...Copy !req
936. and they did a real blood transfusion,
actually, while they were shooting it.Copy !req
937. So I realize, you know,
I'm not as crazy as I like to think I am.Copy !req
938. And, damn, why didn't I have it
be a real transfusion?Copy !req
939. But, you know,
Clouzot was Clouzot, and I'm...Copy !req
940. I don't think I would've
gotten away with it.Copy !req
941. My point that both
Frankenstein and Dracula...Copy !req
942. Arguably America's
two favorite horror figures.Copy !req
943. come from the same root...Copy !req
944. is based on a story that actually
took place on a lake in Switzerland...Copy !req
945. when four young people
went on a trip.Copy !req
946. They were Shelley,
his wife, Mary Shelley...Copy !req
947. the great Lord Byron,
and a friend of Byron's, Dr. Polidori.Copy !req
948. Now, these people in those days
were sort of like...Copy !req
949. the equivalent of, you know,
Snoop Doggy Dogg.Copy !req
950. They were the hip people
of the day, as when I was young...Copy !req
951. it would've been Jack Nicholson
and Michele Pfeiffer...Copy !req
952. and what have you,
going off to Switzerland.Copy !req
953. And they decided
that each of them...Copy !req
954. while staying in a castle
on a lake in Switzerland...Copy !req
955. would write a horror story,
a ghost story, as it were.Copy !req
956. And of course, Mary Shelley,
who was not much older than 17...Copy !req
957. at that young age,
wrote the classic Frankenstein.Copy !req
958. And it's felt that Frankenstein...Copy !req
959. was somewhat based on
the intriguing character of Lord Byron.Copy !req
960. Byron was, of course,
the famous poet.Copy !req
961. Byron was very handsome,
but he had a club foot.Copy !req
962. And so when he walked...
He was a large man.Copy !req
963. Somehow this inspired, in Mary
Shelley's impressionable mind...Copy !req
964. the figure of the inarticulate
monster Frankenstein.Copy !req
965. And those of you who've read
the real Frankenstein book...Copy !req
966. the monster has, really, a soul...Copy !req
967. and, of course, speaks out in that
desire to know why he was made...Copy !req
968. if he... Only to suffer.Copy !req
969. But the Dr. Polidori,
who was the companion of Byron...Copy !req
970. who was probably
in love with Byron...Copy !req
971. in a way that was unspeakable,
he wrote a vampire tale.Copy !req
972. And this vampire tale
was Varney the Vampire...Copy !req
973. which became an enormous
success in England...Copy !req
974. and ultimately inspired Bram Stoker,
due to its success...Copy !req
975. to write Dracula.Copy !req
976. And Varney was a vampire,
also inspired by Byron...Copy !req
977. who was a man
so charming and attractive.Copy !req
978. And if you imagine that Dr. Polidori
was secretly in love with him...Copy !req
979. the idea of a figure who, like,
by his attractiveness...Copy !req
980. sucks the life, or sucks the blood
out of you.Copy !req
981. So he cast Byron in his mind
as a vampire.Copy !req
982. And so thus
our two favorite characters...Copy !req
983. the monster, Frankenstein...Copy !req
984. and the vampire, Dracula,
both really stem from Lord Byron.Copy !req
985. I think this is a fascinating
piece of history...Copy !req
986. behind these two
classic Gothic stories.Copy !req
987. Thinking back on this movie, it wasn't
a terribly enjoyable experience for me.Copy !req
988. I was very happy to be there
working with my son.Copy !req
989. And I remember I was sort of
in a funk during the film.Copy !req
990. And I liked having the chance
to do all these wacky ideas...Copy !req
991. and I remember being
very disgruntled over the fact...Copy !req
992. that I had tried so hard,
and indeed executed very hard...Copy !req
993. doing it exactly on schedule
and on budget.Copy !req
994. And so much to the point that
I remember going to the executives...Copy !req
995. and saying, "Look, we're now
a week ahead of schedule..."Copy !req
996. and could I have the money that
that week represents...Copy !req
997. "... and spend it on additional
special effects?"Copy !req
998. And they studied it and said,
"Indeed, you are ahead of the budget...Copy !req
999. and so you can have the money
for these extra special effects."Copy !req
1000. And then about two weeks later,
I get this visit...Copy !req
1001. from this obnoxious studio
executive who tells me...Copy !req
1002. that they've just gotten a bill
of all people from the studio...Copy !req
1003. which is to say, from them...Copy !req
1004. and somehow, their accounting
system was broken...Copy !req
1005. but there were many, many more
light rentals...Copy !req
1006. and equipment rentals
that anyone knew about.Copy !req
1007. And it really, you know,
made me feel frustrated.Copy !req
1008. And I had tried and succeeded
to make this big production...Copy !req
1009. on, you know, what was not
a super-affluent budget...Copy !req
1010. but certainly a respectable budget.Copy !req
1011. And I had done it so carefully...Copy !req
1012. and even to the point
that they themselves agreed...Copy !req
1013. that I was ahead of budget.Copy !req
1014. And then to be told that, oh,
their billings were screwed up...Copy !req
1015. and therefore, I was suddenly,
magically over budget...Copy !req
1016. so that they could
do what they like to do so much...Copy !req
1017. which is to come in
and castigate you, and...Copy !req
1018. This sequence, by the way,
on a more pleasant subject...Copy !req
1019. was the absinthe sequence.Copy !req
1020. And Roman did such beautiful
effects work in it...Copy !req
1021. to weave the legendary
and somewhat magical effects...Copy !req
1022. of the drink absinthe...Copy !req
1023. which was, of course, made illegal
around this time...Copy !req
1024. or a little later, primarily because
it was the first aperitif...Copy !req
1025. that was made out of something
other than grapes.Copy !req
1026. And all the grape owners
and makers of aperitifs...Copy !req
1027. which came from grapes...Copy !req
1028. really got together and got it banned
for its dangerous effects.Copy !req
1029. Notably because of a murder
that happened in France...Copy !req
1030. where some man drank some
absinthe and then got crazy...Copy !req
1031. went home
and murdered his family.Copy !req
1032. But no one had said
that before he drank the absinthe...Copy !req
1033. he had drunk
two quarts of brandy...Copy !req
1034. and sniffed so many tons
of various other drugs.Copy !req
1035. And so absinthe was made illegal,
probably quite unfairly...Copy !req
1036. because it basically threatened
what was the reigning business...Copy !req
1037. which was making aperitifs
out of grapes.Copy !req
1038. But we tried to have a love scene...Copy !req
1039. with imagery liberated by the thought
that they're drinking absinthe.Copy !req
1040. As with every scene,
there was a new challenge...Copy !req
1041. of how can we show the past...Copy !req
1042. show her resonance with
the ancient woman that he had loved...Copy !req
1043. and, again, present Dracula
as a romantic figure...Copy !req
1044. rather than just a monster?Copy !req
1045. The princess...Copy !req
1046. she's a river...Copy !req
1047. I think this movie...Copy !req
1048. you know,
was thought of many different ways.Copy !req
1049. But among
the most enthusiastic people...Copy !req
1050. who seem to have enjoyed the film
are women.Copy !req
1051. It's that... I guess
the nature of the love story.Copy !req
1052. I mean,
everybody at some point...Copy !req
1053. is in love with someone
who's bad for them.Copy !req
1054. Certainly, being in love with Dracula
would fit that description.Copy !req
1055. I thought, at the time, Winona Ryder
was a very talented young lady.Copy !req
1056. And like so many people who start
when they're really young...Copy !req
1057. they just have a gift.Copy !req
1058. But one of the possible
problems with that...Copy !req
1059. is that they tend
to not go all the way.Copy !req
1060. There comes a point where they know
so much, it almost works against them.Copy !req
1061. But I will not be surprised...Copy !req
1062. if Winona suddenly is in some movie
at any time...Copy !req
1063. and just astonishes everyone.Copy !req
1064. This is definitely
an homage to Cocteau...Copy !req
1065. but a lovely image.Copy !req
1066. He takes her tears
and gives them to her as diamonds.Copy !req
1067. Every man would like to do that,
if he makes the woman he loves cry.Copy !req
1068. Choosing a composer for a movie...Copy !req
1069. is always a very important thing
in any project.Copy !req
1070. But for me in particular,
being the son of a composer...Copy !req
1071. being raised in
a musical household...Copy !req
1072. I very much wanted
a classical score.Copy !req
1073. And my knowledge told me that some
of the greatest classical composers...Copy !req
1074. were in the East European world,
particularly in Poland...Copy !req
1075. partly to do with the state
sponsorship of classical music.Copy !req
1076. And for a long time, the composer
I really wanted to do it...Copy !req
1077. was a great Polish composer
named Lutoslawski.Copy !req
1078. I eventually tracked him down
at a concert...Copy !req
1079. where he was
conducting his own work.Copy !req
1080. And when I proposed that he might
consider doing a score for me...Copy !req
1081. his reaction was sort of like
at the level of, I mean:Copy !req
1082. "Young man, do you know
how many hours it takes me...Copy !req
1083. to write one minute of music?"Copy !req
1084. And that... The implication being that,
at that level of classical music...Copy !req
1085. And it's not only the composition,
it's the orchestration.Copy !req
1086. it is a very arduous,
time-consuming job...Copy !req
1087. to compose
so many minutes of music.Copy !req
1088. It's not as we think of it, where,
oh, you get a motif...Copy !req
1089. and possibly bring in
an orchestrator.Copy !req
1090. And you play the theme
over and over again.Copy !req
1091. So at that level of handmade music...Copy !req
1092. it's incredibly time-consuming.Copy !req
1093. And basically,
what he was saying is, you know...Copy !req
1094. he wouldn't be able to devote
the time to write whatever it is...Copy !req
1095. 30 minutes, 40 minutes
of new music.Copy !req
1096. And actually, in truth, he died
not that long after that brief meeting.Copy !req
1097. But I continued researching
Polish composers.Copy !req
1098. And I was very interested in Ligeti,
Górecki, many wonderful composers...Copy !req
1099. some of which I heard
in Stanley Kubrick's last film.Copy !req
1100. Although it was not
an original composition...Copy !req
1101. I believe he used existing work
of those composers.Copy !req
1102. But ultimately, I was led to consider
the notion of Kilar...Copy !req
1103. another Polish composer,
to write this score.Copy !req
1104. And I approached him,
and he was willing.Copy !req
1105. And what I noticed
from that experience...Copy !req
1106. What he wrote
was very, very effective...Copy !req
1107. and, in fact, really has
weathered time very well.Copy !req
1108. And for years, I would see
trailers of movies coming out...Copy !req
1109. that had just used his music
for Dracula in the trailer.Copy !req
1110. And what I noticed was he wrote
about three, or at the most four cues.Copy !req
1111. I think it was three.Copy !req
1112. A love theme, a kind of initial
very dramatic theme...Copy !req
1113. and then a third theme.Copy !req
1114. And he gave me these three themes,
and we recorded them...Copy !req
1115. and that was all he gave me.Copy !req
1116. And we had a whole movie
that we had to score.Copy !req
1117. And we had these three themes.Copy !req
1118. And I said, "Well,
can you give me some variations?"Copy !req
1119. For example, could we play
the love theme this way and that way...Copy !req
1120. "... this orchestration,
that orchestration?"Copy !req
1121. And he tried and tried and tried...Copy !req
1122. but ultimately,
when it was all said and done...Copy !req
1123. he wrote those three cues,
they sounded great...Copy !req
1124. and he was giving it to me,
and that was it.Copy !req
1125. So when we actually finished
the complete movie...Copy !req
1126. we found that we had to take
these three cues, and...Copy !req
1127. Fortunately, we had
the original recordings...Copy !req
1128. which were recorded
with a number of microphones.Copy !req
1129. So we could play the cue, and,
you know, not play the string section...Copy !req
1130. or not play the brass section...Copy !req
1131. or the music editor had to find ways
that we could, like...Copy !req
1132. make these three
very, very impressive cues...Copy !req
1133. work for the whole movie without just
repeating them over and over again.Copy !req
1134. And that was an interesting experience,
very, very positive...Copy !req
1135. and yet somewhat troublesome...Copy !req
1136. with, like, a really classical
musician-composer.Copy !req
1137. I guess it comes down to that,
you know...Copy !req
1138. every minute of music is the result
of a lot of hard work.Copy !req
1139. Weeks and weeks of hard work.Copy !req
1140. And you just don't have,
you know, 12 cues...Copy !req
1141. and do it this way and do it that way,
and have enough for a whole movie.Copy !req
1142. You know, in a sense, it was...Copy !req
1143. This group of young people,
all the people in this scene...Copy !req
1144. It was like being with your kids.Copy !req
1145. And for all the plus and minus
of that.Copy !req
1146. You know, they were all young...Copy !req
1147. and talented.Copy !req
1148. And, you know, I love to work
with young people.Copy !req
1149. I always did, ever since
I was a young person.Copy !req
1150. put you out of your
misery like a lame horse.Copy !req
1151. Quincey.Copy !req
1152. You're such a beast.Copy !req
1153. She's sort of sexy
with those cute little baby vampire teeth.Copy !req
1154. Will you kiss me, Quincey?Copy !req
1155. Anthony Hopkins was,
you know, a fine actor.Copy !req
1156. He didn't like to rehearse.Copy !req
1157. And I understand it now,
I didn't then.Copy !req
1158. Because I thought all theater actors,
they loved to have three, four weeks...Copy !req
1159. screw around
and kind of explore things.Copy !req
1160. Do it this way, do it that way.Copy !req
1161. But his disposition was such that
he liked, you know...Copy !req
1162. If there was no rehearsal,
it'd be fine with him.Copy !req
1163. Just come in and start to do it,
do your job, and go home.Copy !req
1164. And so I really started off
at the wrong foot with him...Copy !req
1165. because I had
a very lengthy rehearsal.Copy !req
1166. But I found him very cooperative.Copy !req
1167. You know,
he was ultimately enthusiastic...Copy !req
1168. and sort of impatient with it all.Copy !req
1169. And I don't imagine that it was
one of his favorite movies to work on.Copy !req
1170. And I think partly I took too much time
in the rehearsal period...Copy !req
1171. which I guess I was used to
because I was a theater director...Copy !req
1172. or trained in that way,
and didn't know any other way.Copy !req
1173. But now the older I get,
I think, you know...Copy !req
1174. maybe there's something to speak...Copy !req
1175. Because when you actually
start to shoot, and you have the...Copy !req
1176. You're ready, you have the camera,
the costumes, and what have you...Copy !req
1177. things happen
that you almost can't rehearse...Copy !req
1178. or you can't guess
are gonna happen.Copy !req
1179. And then, you know, as I say,
it's only what you've gathered.Copy !req
1180. It's only, you went
out picking mushrooms...Copy !req
1181. and that day you got
so many mushrooms.Copy !req
1182. And later on, when you cut the film...Copy !req
1183. you'll see whether or not
they were useful.Copy !req
1184. You'll make the movie
out of what you have.Copy !req
1185. This scene is an example
of minimalism.Copy !req
1186. The set is just basically
the light and the rope.Copy !req
1187. And you get the idea she's on a boat.Copy !req
1188. Of course, there's nothing there
but the light and the rope.Copy !req
1189. And, you know, of course
I love that tradition.Copy !req
1190. And you saw much of it over the great
golden age of Hollywood.Copy !req
1191. The MGM films
and Warner Bros. Films...Copy !req
1192. where they were able to give you,
by illusion, something...Copy !req
1193. without having to build
a whole set.Copy !req
1194. And, of course, it enables you...Copy !req
1195. to spend more money on something,
really, where you have to.Copy !req
1196. And you save the money
in that or in this case...Copy !req
1197. where it's just some candles.Copy !req
1198. This sequence with the candles
is very much the brainchild of...Copy !req
1199. You know, the idea
of having them dancing...Copy !req
1200. in the candles,
and what have you...Copy !req
1201. was very much the brainchild
of Michael Ballhaus...Copy !req
1202. who was a wonderful man...Copy !req
1203. and really trying to get with this,
what ultimately he understood...Copy !req
1204. was a kind of far-out style,
in which almost anything goes.Copy !req
1205. And I think, if I'm correct...Copy !req
1206. he dreamt up the idea of a scene...Copy !req
1207. where there were just some candles
and what have you.Copy !req
1208. Guard her well, Mr. Morris.Copy !req
1209. Do not fail here tonight.Copy !req
1210. I remember pushing Van Helsing...Copy !req
1211. in this direction
that you see in this scene.Copy !req
1212. That, you know, having him
really come on a little, you know...Copy !req
1213. Well, you're a sick old buzzard.Copy !req
1214. hysterically, you know?Copy !req
1215. And, you know, he's a great actor.Copy !req
1216. And, you know, you could say:Copy !req
1217. "Oh, I encouraged him
to be a little over-the-top."Copy !req
1218. But, you know, the whole movie
is over-the-top.Copy !req
1219. So, what's over-the-top, you know?Copy !req
1220. The top is determined
by what the stylistic approach...Copy !req
1221. And after all,
we're making Dracula here.Copy !req
1222. This is... It's clearly not
the first time it was being done.Copy !req
1223. As I said, I think Dracula's probably
the most oft-sequelized film on earth.Copy !req
1224. And, you know, I don't get it.Copy !req
1225. I didn't think my job
was to come in here...Copy !req
1226. and do the same thing over again.Copy !req
1227. And so, you know, I took the path...Copy !req
1228. that was really
out of my heritage...Copy !req
1229. and my background
and my training...Copy !req
1230. and my view of things.Copy !req
1231. And that's all you can ask
from a film, I think...Copy !req
1232. is you want a film to have
a personality given to it...Copy !req
1233. uniquely by its maker...Copy !req
1234. that has something of the personality
of the maker in it.Copy !req
1235. You know, I'm even, these days,
beginning to think...Copy !req
1236. of an era in which I make movies,
not only which, you know...Copy !req
1237. you tend to hold closer
to the vest by...Copy !req
1238. Which is to say,
you don't show anyone the script...Copy !req
1239. and you don't ask
anyone's opinion.Copy !req
1240. But maybe even one day that you
don't even show the film to anyone.Copy !req
1241. Maybe you just make it and you look it,
and then you say, "Okay."Copy !req
1242. And then you put it in
the closet drawer, and you forget it.Copy !req
1243. All you need to do that
is a lot of money.Copy !req
1244. Clearly, I've used parallel editing...Copy !req
1245. and specifically in regard
to a baptism in The Godfather.Copy !req
1246. Clearly, one of the tools you have
in cinema is to juxtapose a ritual...Copy !req
1247. a religious ritual of some type,
as this is, a wedding...Copy !req
1248. with other action happening
at the same time.Copy !req
1249. And I've done it before,
and probably will do it again.Copy !req
1250. There's a lot going on here, because
there are these various killings...Copy !req
1251. and awakening of Lucy.Copy !req
1252. So, yes, doing a collection of actions
simultaneously happening...Copy !req
1253. and edited parallel with a ritual...Copy !req
1254. is reminiscent
of the time I did it first...Copy !req
1255. which was in the baptism scene
of The Godfather.Copy !req
1256. The orthodox religions,
Greek Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox...Copy !req
1257. Russian Orthodox, is, in fact,
the original Christianity.Copy !req
1258. And for my part, I think the most
beautiful expression of Christianity...Copy !req
1259. that Roman Catholicism...Copy !req
1260. is Christianity having been fused
with the Roman Empire...Copy !req
1261. and, really, I think, has more to do
with the Roman Empire...Copy !req
1262. than it does with Christianity.Copy !req
1263. We're shooting in
a beautiful church here...Copy !req
1264. in Los Angeles,
a Greek Orthodox church.Copy !req
1265. We didn't have this scene
in the movie on the first shoot.Copy !req
1266. I forget... I think we did it in some...
One of those stylized way...Copy !req
1267. where you don't really have anything
but some shadows on the wall.Copy !req
1268. And looking at the film, I decided
that having the real ceremony...Copy !req
1269. the real wedding ceremony,
as it might be in that religion...Copy !req
1270. would be beautiful.Copy !req
1271. And this is pretty authentic,
and, I think, very beautiful.Copy !req
1272. Because we actually did the ceremony,
and we had the priest do the ceremony.Copy !req
1273. So in a sense, we realized
when we were all done...Copy !req
1274. that Keanu and Winona
really are married...Copy !req
1275. as a result of this scene
and the ceremony.Copy !req
1276. And that's clearly a homage...Copy !req
1277. to Stanley Kubrick's movie,
The Shining.Copy !req
1278. I found the actual
Romanian Orthodox churches...Copy !req
1279. when I did go and spend time
in Romania, which I did recently...Copy !req
1280. making Youth Without Youth,
very beautiful.Copy !req
1281. Maybe it's because I wasn't raised in it,
and I'm able to see it...Copy !req
1282. as an expression
of spiritual feelings...Copy !req
1283. in terms of Christianity in a form
that I don't find oppressive and mean...Copy !req
1284. which is how my childhood
impression of religion was.Copy !req
1285. And this... If I am talking about homage,
this is Snow White in her glass coffin.Copy !req
1286. As a child, I just loved Snow White...Copy !req
1287. because she had beautiful black hair,
like my mother.Copy !req
1288. And I never could forget
the glass coffin that she was in...Copy !req
1289. and the seven dwarves
mourning her.Copy !req
1290. That's what this scene
sort of looks like to me.Copy !req
1291. How can I believe?Copy !req
1292. I want you to bring me, before nightfall,
a set of post-mortem knives.Copy !req
1293. An autopsy? Lucy?Copy !req
1294. No, no, no, not exactly.Copy !req
1295. I just want to cut off her head
and take out her heart.Copy !req
1296. Of course,
when you make movies, you know...Copy !req
1297. you tend to shoot in order
of the set that's up.Copy !req
1298. So that scene, the funeral scene,
was shot way early in the movie...Copy !req
1299. because we were shooting all
the scenes in that mansion first.Copy !req
1300. And then way, way, way, later,
these other scenes.Copy !req
1301. —Streets of London.Copy !req
1302. For me, now that Lucy is dead,
it is a sad homecoming.Copy !req
1303. It is as if a part of me is dead too...Copy !req
1304. except for the tiny hope
that lives in me...Copy !req
1305. that I will again see my prince.Copy !req
1306. Is he here?Copy !req
1307. Now that I am married...Copy !req
1308. I begin to understand the nature
of my feelings for my strange friend...Copy !req
1309. who is always in my thoughts.Copy !req
1310. I don't remember where this set was.Copy !req
1311. I know it was on some stage
or another...Copy !req
1312. but it's a pretty... I mean, this
film... Given that everything is built...Copy !req
1313. with the exception
of the Greek Orthodox church...Copy !req
1314. which was a real church...Copy !req
1315. there was a lot of work
and production and sets building.Copy !req
1316. And the movie was not
that costly a movie, as I recall.Copy !req
1317. I mean, nowadays, you hear
of these movies that cost...Copy !req
1318. you know, $80 million
or $100 million.Copy !req
1319. This movie was far less than that,
as I recall.Copy !req
1320. But when you look at it,
you realize that everything is a set.Copy !req
1321. And all these people and costumes,
and the time to do this stuff...Copy !req
1322. I think we did it
pretty economically...Copy !req
1323. to put a stylish production on film
for whatever it was.Copy !req
1324. I must confess, and this maybe
sounds disheartening...Copy !req
1325. but when I look at this
and I think of, you know...Copy !req
1326. all the work it is to make a movie,
any movie...Copy !req
1327. I have to say
that unless it's a theme...Copy !req
1328. or a subject matter
that you have to make...Copy !req
1329. because it says something
that has never been said before...Copy !req
1330. or it just is in your soul,
and you have to get it out...Copy !req
1331. I can't see any point
to wanting to make a film at all.Copy !req
1332. The way it's been set up, and the way
the whole profession has gone...Copy !req
1333. it's like you have to tolerate
so much stuff.Copy !req
1334. You have to... You work
on this movie for so long...Copy !req
1335. under such unenlightened directives
from the company financing it.Copy !req
1336. And when it's all said and done,
they publish in the newspaper...Copy !req
1337. like sports scores,
how much money it did.Copy !req
1338. And they show it in a theater
that's a box with 10 other theaters.Copy !req
1339. And you have to, you know...Copy !req
1340. not only hear
the battery of critics...Copy !req
1341. that rightly or wrongly
say their opinion...Copy !req
1342. but, like, absolutely
everybody else.Copy !req
1343. It seems to me that
the only reason to make a movie...Copy !req
1344. is because it's something
that's never been made before...Copy !req
1345. and it is really
part of your feelings about life.Copy !req
1346. And therefore,
it should be something...Copy !req
1347. that you should finance
as well as make.Copy !req
1348. Because that's the only way
that you can have the same right...Copy !req
1349. that a painter has
when he paints a picture...Copy !req
1350. or a poet has
when he writes a poem...Copy !req
1351. or, to a large extent, a novelist has
when he writes a novel.Copy !req
1352. Even, really, an opera composer,
more or less...Copy !req
1353. has the right to sit down
and do his opera the way he sees it.Copy !req
1354. Of course, I suppose, to really,
you know, produce Aida...Copy !req
1355. you have to have someone
pay for the elephants.Copy !req
1356. But you don't hear so much
about composers complaining...Copy !req
1357. because the Bay of Egypt
didn't like the third act.Copy !req
1358. And what... Of course, then,
he was Giuseppe Verdi...Copy !req
1359. so he didn't have to put up with it.Copy !req
1360. A little child...
I mean, these poor kids.Copy !req
1361. I mean, the infant that I wanna meet,
again, someday was just a little infant.Copy !req
1362. And we held her with great tenderness
and affection.Copy !req
1363. But this little kid
who was in this scene...Copy !req
1364. had to be in the midst
of all these obscenities...Copy !req
1365. and, well, she was scared
of the fake teeth and Lucy.Copy !req
1366. And can you imagine
what a little 2-year-old...Copy !req
1367. thinks of something like that? It's...Copy !req
1368. We had a very difficult time
calming her down...Copy !req
1369. and getting her to even be present
on the set.Copy !req
1370. Kiss me and caress me...Copy !req
1371. my darling husband, please.Copy !req
1372. We wave Christ and His holy blood!Copy !req
1373. This scene...Copy !req
1374. is very much influenced by Cocteau,
and...Copy !req
1375. The candles lighting themselves.Copy !req
1376. And, of course, this scene
was all acted backwards.Copy !req
1377. She was in the coffin,
and started out in it, and got out.Copy !req
1378. And then we just... We reversed it.Copy !req
1379. Winona Ryder was really
thrilled with the cast.Copy !req
1380. I mean, she loved Gary Oldman...Copy !req
1381. of course, Anthony Hopkins,
and Richard E. Grant was one of...Copy !req
1382. All of the actors. It was sort of
her dream cast. And it was her idea.Copy !req
1383. She's the one
who gave me the script.Copy !req
1384. And in a way, I was very, very
attentive to her wishes...Copy !req
1385. and looked into
all the actors she loved.Copy !req
1386. But she had a friend, Keanu...Copy !req
1387. who was, you know, like,
just a friend...Copy !req
1388. and she liked very much,
and thought was a very good person...Copy !req
1389. and I did too.Copy !req
1390. And so we cast Keanu in the role.Copy !req
1391. But it wasn't really my film,
in a sense.Copy !req
1392. I mean, I was brought in,
I was the director and what have you.Copy !req
1393. But, you know, it had been developed
by other people.Copy !req
1394. You see a whole bunch
of other producers and stuff on it.Copy !req
1395. And, you know, as I said,
I was very fond of Keanu.Copy !req
1396. I thought he was a, you know,
really nice kid.Copy !req
1397. Was she in great pain?Copy !req
1398. Ja, she was in great pain.
Then we cut off her head...Copy !req
1399. and drove a stake through her heart
and burned it and then she found peace.Copy !req
1400. Doctor! Please.Copy !req
1401. So, Mr. Harker...Copy !req
1402. I must now ask you, as your doctor...Copy !req
1403. You know, from my standpoint...Copy !req
1404. I was doing this movie...Copy !req
1405. as I said, on
a string of movies that...Copy !req
1406. I planned to do a few movies
to get myself on my feet...Copy !req
1407. and then I wasn't gonna
do these movies.Copy !req
1408. I wasn't gonna do movies anymore.Copy !req
1409. I was gonna just
do little personal things...Copy !req
1410. which is more or less
what I've done.Copy !req
1411. No?
- No.Copy !req
1412. Good!Copy !req
1413. Then you have not infected
your blood with the terrible...Copy !req
1414. disease that destroyed poor Lucy.Copy !req
1415. Doctor, you must understand.Copy !req
1416. I doubted everything...Copy !req
1417. even my mind.Copy !req
1418. I was impotent with fear.Copy !req
1419. - I know.
But, sir...Copy !req
1420. I know where the bastard sleeps.Copy !req
1421. I brought him there, to Carfax Abbey.Copy !req
1422. Vampires do exist.Copy !req
1423. And this one we fight,
this one we face...Copy !req
1424. has the strength
of 20 or more people...Copy !req
1425. I think if people really sit down...Copy !req
1426. and read the Bram Stoker novel...Copy !req
1427. they'll find that this film follows
the intent and the spirit of the book...Copy !req
1428. closer than many.Copy !req
1429. With the one exception
of the love story...Copy !req
1430. which, of course, is the framing
device, or the motivating device...Copy !req
1431. at the beginning.Copy !req
1432. And as I say, was pretty much
created by Jim Hart...Copy !req
1433. in his original screenplay,
which existed far before I did.Copy !req
1434. I mean, I was brought in
as a director to do that script.Copy !req
1435. You'll notice I have
no screenwriting credit on this film...Copy !req
1436. and that's because, you know,
beyond working as a director...Copy !req
1437. making director's suggestions...Copy !req
1438. I took no part in the writing
of the screenplay.Copy !req
1439. planning
on getting that close, doc.Copy !req
1440. You know, at the time,
I thought well, I would do two movies.Copy !req
1441. I would do this film,
Bram Stoker's Dracula...Copy !req
1442. and then I would do
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein...Copy !req
1443. because I had a whole thought
of how that should be done.Copy !req
1444. And then at the last minute, I said:Copy !req
1445. "What am I wasting my time for?Copy !req
1446. I should be reading books
or something."Copy !req
1447. And we, of course, turned over
that project to Kenneth Branagh...Copy !req
1448. and, you know, was involved
as a producer.Copy !req
1449. Of course, a producer, especially
if the producer is a director...Copy !req
1450. you have little to say
to the new directors...Copy !req
1451. because you don't wanna
come off as though, well...Copy !req
1452. you're some know-it-all director...Copy !req
1453. who's now gonna produce
some other guy's work.Copy !req
1454. I gave my notes to Kenneth Branagh
on his version of Frankenstein...Copy !req
1455. and ultimately he...Copy !req
1456. You know, my main suggestion was
they cut the first 25 minutes off of it...Copy !req
1457. and get right to the story,
which was the creation of the monster.Copy !req
1458. But if you see that movie,
and you started a little later...Copy !req
1459. a little bit more closer to the time
he creates the monster...Copy !req
1460. it has some interesting things in it.Copy !req
1461. That he is coming.Copy !req
1462. That he is coming for you.Copy !req
1463. Oh, please.Copy !req
1464. Don't stay here.Copy !req
1465. Get away from these men, please.Copy !req
1466. And I pray to God I may never
see your sweet face again.Copy !req
1467. And may the Lord bless and keep you.Copy !req
1468. Such a shame...Copy !req
1469. that when they show these movies
on television...Copy !req
1470. even cable...Copy !req
1471. they just cut them down.Copy !req
1472. I mean, the entire
Tom Waits performance...Copy !req
1473. is out of the version of Dracula
that they show on television.Copy !req
1474. And it's not because of anything
other than to fit it into the time slot.Copy !req
1475. I'm no lunatic man!Copy !req
1476. I'm a sane man fighting for his soul!Copy !req
1477. My quarters are spare, but I think
you will find them comfortable.Copy !req
1478. Dr. Jack!Copy !req
1479. Water and toiletries at your disposal.Copy !req
1480. You'll be completely safe here.Copy !req
1481. Yeah, that set,
as she walks out into the room...Copy !req
1482. and then you see the remains
of the abbey, that was a miniature.Copy !req
1483. Now, in the book of Dracula,
the beast, as it were...Copy !req
1484. was expressed in any number
of forms. A wolf, a bat.Copy !req
1485. And we had a very talented
special makeup-design person.Copy !req
1486. And fortunately or unfortunately,
when we started shooting this movie...Copy !req
1487. there was about two weeks...Copy !req
1488. while Gary Oldman was waiting
to do his first scenes...Copy !req
1489. while we were shooting, according
to the schedule, other scenes.Copy !req
1490. And Gary would hang out with
Greg Cannom and just, you know...Copy !req
1491. wait while he wasn't
getting to shoot.Copy !req
1492. And they would just keep
coming up with:Copy !req
1493. "Oh, well, why don't we have
a creature...Copy !req
1494. that looks weird like this,"
and so and so.Copy !req
1495. And so, of course,
every time they did...Copy !req
1496. Greg would go in there
at incredible cost...Copy !req
1497. and create yet another
weird rubber suit...Copy !req
1498. that Gary would have to wear.Copy !req
1499. It's very uncomfortable for the actors
to be swathed in rubber prosthetics...Copy !req
1500. and suits, and bodysuits and stuff.Copy !req
1501. And I said, "Hey, Gary, you're the one
who dreamt up this weird bat creature."Copy !req
1502. It was... That was the added one.Copy !req
1503. You have betrayed me.Copy !req
1504. No.Copy !req
1505. No, master.Copy !req
1506. No, I...Copy !req
1507. I serve you.Copy !req
1508. I serve only you.Copy !req
1509. This was a live-action effect.Copy !req
1510. In other words,
Roman shot the room...Copy !req
1511. and then he rewound the film...Copy !req
1512. and then he shot just
the swirling mist going into the bed.Copy !req
1513. And it all had to... When you
develop the film and look at it...Copy !req
1514. because you don't develop the film
until you make the final pass...Copy !req
1515. it all has to work.Copy !req
1516. As opposed to doing it
after the fact...Copy !req
1517. when you can just, you know,
get it exactly...Copy !req
1518. so you know it is gonna work.Copy !req
1519. When you do it in the camera,
you're sort of at the mercy...Copy !req
1520. And then if you goof it up,
and you've shot it...Copy !req
1521. Now, of course, you shoot it
a few times, so you can do a few...Copy !req
1522. And you save one
in case it doesn't work.Copy !req
1523. But if you goof it up,
and it doesn't work...Copy !req
1524. and you've already developed it,
you're sort of dead.Copy !req
1525. what you are saying.Copy !req
1526. Yes...Copy !req
1527. I do know.Copy !req
1528. I feared I would never feel
your touch again.Copy !req
1529. I thought you were dead.Copy !req
1530. There is no life in this body.Copy !req
1531. But you live.Copy !req
1532. You live.Copy !req
1533. What are you?Copy !req
1534. I must know. You must tell me.Copy !req
1535. I am...Copy !req
1536. nothing.Copy !req
1537. Lifeless.Copy !req
1538. - Soulless.
- What do you mean?Copy !req
1539. Hated and feared.Copy !req
1540. I am dead to all the world.Copy !req
1541. Hear me.Copy !req
1542. I am the monster...Copy !req
1543. that breathing men would kill.Copy !req
1544. I am Dracula.Copy !req
1545. No.Copy !req
1546. You murdered Lucy!Copy !req
1547. I love you.Copy !req
1548. Oh, God, forgive me, I do.Copy !req
1549. I want to be what you are...Copy !req
1550. see what you see...Copy !req
1551. love what you love.Copy !req
1552. Mina...Copy !req
1553. I think if I was gonna shoot...Copy !req
1554. a big, elaborate, sexy scene...Copy !req
1555. involving so-called sexual activity,
I would hire a fight coordinator to do it.Copy !req
1556. Because fight coordinators...Copy !req
1557. I mean, obviously,
if you're having a knife fight...Copy !req
1558. or you're having combat
and punching and stabbing and stuff...Copy !req
1559. you're not really doing it...Copy !req
1560. but you have to make it look
as though you're doing it.Copy !req
1561. And it's all done
by very careful choreography.Copy !req
1562. Okay, the guy turns,
and he lifts the knife...Copy !req
1563. and then he brings the knife
down, like, here.Copy !req
1564. And the camera sees it as being
something very, very...Copy !req
1565. You know, a hit, when in fact it's not.Copy !req
1566. And I think the same rationale
would go for shooting a sexy scene.Copy !req
1567. And if I would ever do one again, I...Copy !req
1568. Because it's not about, "Oh, get them
in a sexy mood, and then just shoot it."Copy !req
1569. It's so awkward.Copy !req
1570. And the camera
has to be in a place that...Copy !req
1571. You know, when people are smooching,
they're all covering each other up.Copy !req
1572. And it doesn't necessarily
make good pictures.Copy !req
1573. So I would bring in
a combat coordinator...Copy !req
1574. a guy who's experienced with staging
knife fights and fist fights and things.Copy !req
1575. And say, "Okay,
here's what we gotta do."Copy !req
1576. You gotta be lying here,
and you're gonna come in here.Copy !req
1577. And it looks like you're kissing him.Copy !req
1578. "And then you reach down,
and you do this and you do that."Copy !req
1579. And it's all done through planning...Copy !req
1580. and sort of very logical
and dispassionate laying out.Copy !req
1581. The same way you would do a fight.
But nonetheless...Copy !req
1582. I think it was Orson Welles
who said the two most difficult...Copy !req
1583. or convincing things
to show in a movie...Copy !req
1584. are people praying
or people making love.Copy !req
1585. No.Copy !req
1586. I cannot let this be.Copy !req
1587. Please, I don't care...Copy !req
1588. I always think back...Copy !req
1589. of a scene
in a movie made by Stephen Frears...Copy !req
1590. called The Grifters, in which
the great actress Annette Bening...Copy !req
1591. who was an experienced
and accomplished theater actress...Copy !req
1592. has to go in front
of some crummy guy...Copy !req
1593. and suddenly just appear there
totally naked in front of him...Copy !req
1594. by way of whatever
the story point had to be made.Copy !req
1595. And she did that scene totally naked,
not a stitch of clothing on.Copy !req
1596. And it's so amazing...Copy !req
1597. because she does the entire scene,
and she never stops acting.Copy !req
1598. And that's the objective of...
If an actress can do that...Copy !req
1599. then she has conquered
all the phobias that we all have.Copy !req
1600. Oh, yeah, I remember this now, also.Copy !req
1601. The fact that we had him...Copy !req
1602. I remember I really blew my top
once in rehearsal...Copy !req
1603. because we were trying
to stage this scene...Copy !req
1604. and, you know, I'm saying,
"Okay, you're in the wolf suit."Copy !req
1605. But, like, you're not in the wolf suit,
because we don't have the wolf suit.Copy !req
1606. But, you know,
you get up on the bed.Copy !req
1607. And, of course, they're all frightened
because you look like a bat...Copy !req
1608. "... or whatever it is you look like."Copy !req
1609. And he starts to get very...Copy !req
1610. You know, he's a very good actor,
and he's a very intelligent person.Copy !req
1611. But he started to, you know,
in this early phase of rehearsal...Copy !req
1612. saying to me,
"Well, how can I go up on this bed..."Copy !req
1613. and be this weird creature...Copy !req
1614. "... when I'm not in
the weird creature suit?"Copy !req
1615. And I said,
"Well, just pretend you are."Copy !req
1616. And he started to get really,
"How can I do it?"Copy !req
1617. And I just lost my cool. I remember.Copy !req
1618. I kicked the chair across the room,
and I just left.Copy !req
1619. And I said, "Forget it, goodbye."
And I left the rehearsal.Copy !req
1620. But, you know, I mean,
I can see his part in it...Copy !req
1621. that, you know, how is he really
gonna go through the motions...Copy !req
1622. of what it might be like
if he was in a...?Copy !req
1623. Looked like a beast, like this.Copy !req
1624. So maybe that's a point
for not trying to rehearse.Copy !req
1625. I can remember
when I was really young...Copy !req
1626. I was directing a movie
that the young Jack Nicholson was in.Copy !req
1627. And I... It was all in Big Sur.Copy !req
1628. And I went up there,
and they were all hanging around...Copy !req
1629. up in the lodge in Big Sur.Copy !req
1630. And I'm this kind of erstwhile,
young theater director from New York.Copy !req
1631. And I said, "Well, let's rehearse."Copy !req
1632. And Jack is saying things like,
"Well..."Copy !req
1633. You know, that was a nice effect.Copy !req
1634. The whole Dracula turns into
millions of little rats.Copy !req
1635. But Jack is saying, "Well, Francis,
how are you gonna rehearse?"Copy !req
1636. We're all supposed
to be out in the forest...Copy !req
1637. "... and we're here in this place."Copy !req
1638. I said, "Well, we can put chairs around
and say they're trees..."Copy !req
1639. and we can rehearse."Copy !req
1640. "That's not gonna...
I don't wanna do that."Copy !req
1641. So I said, "Okay,
we'll rehearse out in the forest."Copy !req
1642. And, you know, it's funny.
People who love to make movies...Copy !req
1643. and love to act
and love to do all this stuff...Copy !req
1644. when push comes to shove...
Even composers who love to compose.Copy !req
1645. When push comes to shove,
they either...Copy !req
1646. Whether through fear or what,
they don't...Copy !req
1647. It's very hard to get them to do it.Copy !req
1648. You know, there's always a million
reasons of, "We can't really do it."Copy !req
1649. So, in this case, you know,
what Gary was telling me is...Copy !req
1650. that my attempt to stage this scene
was sort of futile...Copy !req
1651. because he wasn't in his rat suit.Copy !req
1652. And I was saying:Copy !req
1653. "Well, we know it's gonna be something
interesting and horrendous.Copy !req
1654. So just kind of... Let's just
work it out for the movement."Copy !req
1655. But I guess this is
what leads me to wonder...Copy !req
1656. if even there's any point
to rehearsing.Copy !req
1657. I would think that the actors
would welcome the opportunity...Copy !req
1658. to get a chance
to try out the lines...Copy !req
1659. and start to feel their way
toward it...Copy !req
1660. and also to see what they're
getting back from the other actors...Copy !req
1661. so that the characters can deepen
and evolve.Copy !req
1662. But, you know, I mean, they...Copy !req
1663. Of course, every actor is different
and has their own way of doing it.Copy !req
1664. But more or less,
generally speaking...Copy !req
1665. as they get more and more
into it, there's a...Copy !req
1666. Whether it's a combination
of fear, stage fright, or laziness...Copy !req
1667. it's like you really
have to seduce them...Copy !req
1668. to get them to finally do it.Copy !req
1669. I think one actor who was always...Copy !req
1670. As a young person,
was always really a serious...Copy !req
1671. And just would do anything,
and wanted to jump into it...Copy !req
1672. and work hard, hard, hard,
was Tom Cruise.Copy !req
1673. Though I, of course, never worked
with him after The Outsiders.Copy !req
1674. —In stormy seas...Copy !req
1675. no doubt from the passage
of the count's ship.Copy !req
1676. He commands the winds,
but we still have the advantage.Copy !req
1677. By train, we can reach
the Romanian port at Varna in three days.Copy !req
1678. By ship, it will take him
at least a week.Copy !req
1679. Now we begin
the final portion of the movie...Copy !req
1680. which deals with them
tracking down the count...Copy !req
1681. in this mad attempt
to head him off...Copy !req
1682. by going by train to get to Varna...Copy !req
1683. Which, by the way, is in Bulgaria,
which is now in Bulgaria.Copy !req
1684. before the ship gets there.Copy !req
1685. And through a combination
of these...Copy !req
1686. Roman's work, these miniature trains
and mountains and double exposures...Copy !req
1687. again, all done
the old-fashioned way.Copy !req
1688. We have the race against time...Copy !req
1689. as Mina is now clearly been...Copy !req
1690. Become his bride,
and is a vampire herself, no doubt.Copy !req
1691. And they are with her husband,
Jonathan Harker...Copy !req
1692. whom you'll notice,
his hair is becoming white...Copy !req
1693. from all the horrific experiences
he's been through.Copy !req
1694. They are gonna head off Dracula...Copy !req
1695. and get him before he's able
to be safe in the earth of his homeland.Copy !req
1696. No, no, I have done this to both of us.Copy !req
1697. I can hear him. He's coming closer.Copy !req
1698. He's calling me to him.Copy !req
1699. Mina. Mina.Copy !req
1700. Stay with me. Please.Copy !req
1701. I am so cold.Copy !req
1702. This is, you know, a glass shot...Copy !req
1703. or some old-fashioned style
of '40s studio effect.Copy !req
1704. Holmwood received
a wire from his clerk at Lloyd's.Copy !req
1705. The count's ship sailed
past us in the night fog...Copy !req
1706. to the northern port of Galatz.Copy !req
1707. The black devil is reading Mina's mind.Copy !req
1708. How can we catch him now?Copy !req
1709. Varna. Galatz.Copy !req
1710. It's about 200 miles.Copy !req
1711. I think that with the horses,
we can cut him off...Copy !req
1712. reach him before he reaches the castle.Copy !req
1713. I will dispatch Van Helsing
straight for the Borgo Pass.Copy !req
1714. If we fail in our task...Copy !req
1715. So here we had the prospect...Copy !req
1716. of this huge scene in the book...Copy !req
1717. where they're racing across
the Carpathian Mountains...Copy !req
1718. in the snow,
and train stations and stuff.Copy !req
1719. This is another effects shot.
Nicely done.Copy !req
1720. —Where we still hoped...Copy !req
1721. to intercept the count
before he reaches land.Copy !req
1722. I forget, even now watching...Copy !req
1723. what we had built and what we added.Copy !req
1724. I think my mind was going
at this point, and I...Copy !req
1725. You know, it was a lot of stuff to
shoot in a relatively rapid time.Copy !req
1726. This is for sure a glass shot...Copy !req
1727. where the road is real,
and then the rest is painted.Copy !req
1728. Now here, we're in our little... Little?Copy !req
1729. The huge stage...Copy !req
1730. which just has, all around it,
remnants of these mountains.Copy !req
1731. And this last sequence...Copy !req
1732. which actually looks pretty good,
is really all shot in this one stage.Copy !req
1733. Dracula has outsmarted us again.Copy !req
1734. We learned that his gypsies took charge
of the vampire's box at Galatz...Copy !req
1735. and are now on the Borgo Pass road.Copy !req
1736. As I've said before...Copy !req
1737. it was great
to have my son's collaboration.Copy !req
1738. Because unlike many of the other
professionals in the film industry...Copy !req
1739. basically, there's a pressure...Copy !req
1740. to kind of do things
the way you always do them.Copy !req
1741. And when you consider
that for a second...Copy !req
1742. and realize that, you know,
there's the stunt coordinators...Copy !req
1743. and there's the effects guys,
and there are the prop guys...Copy !req
1744. and there are all these people...Copy !req
1745. and they all make
one movie after another...Copy !req
1746. you begin to wonder
why the movies you go to see...Copy !req
1747. sort of all look the same
and are alike.Copy !req
1748. And it's because the solutions
to problems are done a certain way.Copy !req
1749. And when you're making a movie
and you have that stunt guy...Copy !req
1750. he says, "Well,
you fall off the horse this way."Copy !req
1751. But that's the way
they fall off the horse in every movie.Copy !req
1752. And, I mean, good reason,
because it's probably the safe way.Copy !req
1753. But it's sort of a...Copy !req
1754. It's an undertow
when you make an industrial film...Copy !req
1755. which this is...Copy !req
1756. to do it the same way
they're used to doing it.Copy !req
1757. And there's so much pressure...Copy !req
1758. Two kinds of pressure
against innovation.Copy !req
1759. I mean, there's the fact that they
don't know how to do it another way.Copy !req
1760. But there's also
a kind of peer pressure.Copy !req
1761. In other words,
if you have a photographer...Copy !req
1762. and you ask the photographer
to do something...Copy !req
1763. stupid or unconventional...Copy !req
1764. he's worried that... It's not so much
what you want as the director.Copy !req
1765. He's worried what his peers
are gonna say.Copy !req
1766. Is he gonna be laughed at
at the photographers' ball...Copy !req
1767. when they all get together?Copy !req
1768. So you kind of are working
against a force...Copy !req
1769. to have you make the film
the way they're all made.Copy !req
1770. So that nobody...
Nothing sticks out too much.Copy !req
1771. And you find that
in order to break that...Copy !req
1772. you have to find something
excessive and demanding in yourself.Copy !req
1773. My daughter, Sophia, does it
another way. She's a tiny woman.Copy !req
1774. She's not a...
She's a very petite woman...Copy !req
1775. and very sweet and gentle.Copy !req
1776. But she's just
hard as nails underneath.Copy !req
1777. So she'll just say,
"I don't wanna do it that way."Copy !req
1778. And that's all. But when she says,
"I don't wanna do it that way"...Copy !req
1779. she really is not gonna
do it that way...Copy !req
1780. and nothing on earth
can change her.Copy !req
1781. I'm kind of much more emotional,
and...Copy !req
1782. That was an effect, by the way...Copy !req
1783. that I had tried to get
the extra money for, I recall.Copy !req
1784. The women killing the horses,
and all of this stuff here.Copy !req
1785. There was no money budgeted
for any of this stuff.Copy !req
1786. And when I went to the company
to ask permission to do these effects...Copy !req
1787. I recall it was related
to this section.Copy !req
1788. This is the famous kukri knife...Copy !req
1789. that the famous warriors from Nepal,
the Gurkhas, use.Copy !req
1790. Well, so much
for the three brides of Dracula.Copy !req
1791. They... You cut off their heads,
and they're...Copy !req
1792. They're finished.Copy !req
1793. This is all inside. This snowy scene
is all inside the stage.Copy !req
1794. And the whole subsequent chase,
as I've said before, is all shot there.Copy !req
1795. He says that the Gypsies...Copy !req
1796. The count's Gypsies...Copy !req
1797. took control of the last...Copy !req
1798. Of the wagon with the box
of his dirt, to get him back.Copy !req
1799. And they were pursuing
those Gypsies.Copy !req
1800. They're racing against the sunset.Copy !req
1801. It may be too late. God help us.Copy !req
1802. That was to show that sort
of Mina had that pixilated vision...Copy !req
1803. that she wasn't...
If she was a vampire now...Copy !req
1804. she'd need the binoculars.Copy !req
1805. That's a classic fall-off-the-horse
and-be-dragged...Copy !req
1806. that some wonderful stunt guy...Copy !req
1807. who'd probably done it
a hundred times, did it for us.Copy !req
1808. Harker, shoot!Copy !req
1809. It is remarkable, though...Copy !req
1810. that this chase has
as much variation as it has...Copy !req
1811. because it's just all shot
in the same place.Copy !req
1812. I mean, it's... There's hardly
any set there at all.Copy !req
1813. Of course, it's a... This is a glass shot.
It's augmented by effects.Copy !req
1814. Those blue rings of fire,
I believe, were done on an optical printer.Copy !req
1815. You can tell the difference.Copy !req
1816. I mean, the other effects,
done in-camera...Copy !req
1817. are much more kind of
organically whole.Copy !req
1818. I mean, they're part of the scene,
because they are.Copy !req
1819. I don't know, I think the effect
has a slightly different feel.Copy !req
1820. Harker!Copy !req
1821. Much of these shots
are shot by Roman...Copy !req
1822. because we were, the two of us...Copy !req
1823. We had all this slew of work to do,
and all the...Copy !req
1824. You know, every shot, every close-up,
every guy on a horse and falling...Copy !req
1825. and so and so, there were just
so many shots we had to get.Copy !req
1826. And we were really
running out of time.Copy !req
1827. And I remember we were like a two-man
team here, doing these things.Copy !req
1828. And it was, as I said,
pretty much in this one stage.Copy !req
1829. Mina.Copy !req
1830. I thought of that
as a kind of jack-in-the-box effect...Copy !req
1831. when he just bursts out of the box
and it all explodes.Copy !req
1832. All that's a live mechanical effect.Copy !req
1833. And those are tricky to do,
because you really have to do them.Copy !req
1834. Or even for hitting a guy
and having him fly 14 feet.Copy !req
1835. When my time comes,
will you do the same to me?Copy !req
1836. Will you?Copy !req
1837. No.Copy !req
1838. Wait.
No! Let them go.Copy !req
1839. Let them go.
Our work is finished here.Copy !req
1840. Hers has just begun.Copy !req
1841. Quincey.Copy !req
1842. Oh, no.Copy !req
1843. We've all become God's madmen.Copy !req
1844. All of us.Copy !req
1845. And for the large, large, large part...Copy !req
1846. all these lines are out of the book.Copy !req
1847. Where is my God?Copy !req
1848. He has forsaken me.Copy !req
1849. This sequence...Copy !req
1850. which is the final scene
between Dracula and Mina...Copy !req
1851. I remember I showed...
When I was working on the film...Copy !req
1852. and I showed it
to my friend George Lucas.Copy !req
1853. And he looked, and he says,
"Well," he said, "you know," he said:Copy !req
1854. "I think Mina
ought to cut off his head."Copy !req
1855. And I said, "Wow, that's,
you know, pretty disgusting."Copy !req
1856. And he says, "Yeah,
but that's the greatest act of..."Copy !req
1857. She could give him, is to...Copy !req
1858. That, you know,
to give him the peace...Copy !req
1859. and the moment...Copy !req
1860. of once again being taken
to God's breast...Copy !req
1861. "... can only be given to him
by cutting off his head."Copy !req
1862. So I said, "Yeah, you know, there's..."Copy !req
1863. I hadn't... I mean,
I hadn't quite shot it that way.Copy !req
1864. And so I said, "Yeah, you know,
I think you're right." And so I did.Copy !req
1865. This... I shot her pushing
the stake through the heart...Copy !req
1866. That was the original version.Copy !req
1867. But George had thought
that to really be sure...Copy !req
1868. that he's never gonna
be a vampire again...Copy !req
1869. I thought it was pretty clear.Copy !req
1870. I mean, as I did it, the sparks went in,
the thing went through the heart...Copy !req
1871. Like, the stake through the heart.
But George thought, "Oh, yeah."Copy !req
1872. You should cut off his head.
She should cut off his head.Copy !req
1873. "That's the greatest act of love
she could do."Copy !req
1874. And I said, "Okay, I can see it.
If they don't get it..."Copy !req
1875. with the stake going through
the heart, we'll cut off his head."Copy !req
1876. It's a pretty startling thing to do.Copy !req
1877. And I shot it late in the game,
like, after the...Copy !req
1878. You know, the film was only
three weeks away from being released.Copy !req
1879. And such is the end.Copy !req
1880. And they go off to having,
as lovers always do...Copy !req
1881. Paolo and Francesca, Dracula
and Elisabeta, and on and on.Copy !req
1882. The end.Copy !req
1883. I never... You know,
because it's a love story...Copy !req
1884. it's kind of maybe less scary
than the typical Dracula...Copy !req
1885. where he's, like, a monster.Copy !req
1886. But, you know, my idea
was to make it with young people...Copy !req
1887. and to make it more romantic, and,
in fact, more sexy, to go, you know...Copy !req
1888. The brides of Dracula,
and the various scenes with Sadie...Copy !req
1889. and then combining eroticism...Copy !req
1890. when Mina begins to be infected
by the blood of the vampire...Copy !req
1891. that, you know, she gets to be
sort of provocatively sexy.Copy !req
1892. And in fact, she was pretty sexy
in that scene with Anthony Hopkins...Copy !req
1893. you know, where she brings him
down to her level...Copy !req
1894. and almost exalts in the fact...Copy !req
1895. that she has him stoked up.Copy !req
1896. So, you know, it was
supposed to be a more sexy version.Copy !req
1897. I don't feel it's so scary a version,
you know?Copy !req
1898. Maybe a little bit...Copy !req
1899. but, you know, I think the fact
that it has this love story...Copy !req
1900. and this love theme
tends to work against that.Copy !req
1901. You know, it's my take
on Jim Hart's script...Copy !req
1902. which is, I guess,
all a director can do.Copy !req
1903. I wasn't too happy
working on this film.Copy !req
1904. You know, I had made the decision
at that point in my life...Copy !req
1905. when I accepted what was something
I thought I would never do...Copy !req
1906. which was to make
a third Godfather film...Copy !req
1907. after really being
sort of bankrupted...Copy !req
1908. by my adventure on
One from the Heart.Copy !req
1909. But Godfather III led me to Dracula...Copy !req
1910. and it led me to being
financially solvent...Copy !req
1911. which I very wisely invested...Copy !req
1912. in the wine and food
and resort business...Copy !req
1913. and was able to achieve a final...Copy !req
1914. Hopefully final freedom
from the film industry as an industry.Copy !req
1915. And, you know, as I continue now,
as I speak to you, it's 2006...Copy !req
1916. and I am just recently 67 years old.Copy !req
1917. Or as I like to call it, 50-17.Copy !req
1918. And I decided to, you know, do
what I always felt I wanna do...Copy !req
1919. which is to be an amateur, and...Copy !req
1920. Like those great Russian composers,
you know, Borodin and Tchaikovsky...Copy !req
1921. and people who are doctors...Copy !req
1922. and professional people who just
wrote music because they loved it...Copy !req
1923. and they were amateurs.Copy !req
1924. I now am a businessman...Copy !req
1925. in the wonderful fields
of food, wine and adventure.Copy !req
1926. And if I make films, which I would
like to continue doing...Copy !req
1927. and am continuing to do...Copy !req
1928. I'll do it as my hobby.Copy !req
1929. I hope you've enjoyed these
thoughts and comments...Copy !req
1930. stories about the film.Copy !req
1931. And I've certainly enjoyed
sharing my memories, really.Copy !req
1932. and I chose my son to be
the second unit director...Copy !req
1933. knowing that he also...Copy !req
1934. you know, really loved that way
of doing it.Copy !req
1935. That he had always been
interested in magic and illusion...Copy !req
1936. and like his brother had been,
you know, to film school...Copy !req
1937. and had a lot of ability...Copy !req
1938. and partly
to follow in the tradition of...Copy !req
1939. letting a young person
work on the film...Copy !req
1940. and really have a creative input.Copy !req
1941. Also, I was protecting myself because I
knew that he would do it that way...Copy !req
1942. where a lot of the professionals would
say they would, but in the end not.Copy !req
1943. So that's how Roman came to be
the second unit director.Copy !req
1944. He really rose to the occasion,
he handled his own crew...Copy !req
1945. in a way that earned him
a lot of affection...Copy !req
1946. from the people he worked with
and he came up with beautiful stuff.Copy !req
1947. Where is my God?Copy !req
1948. He has forsaken me.Copy !req
1949. It is finished.Copy !req
1950. No.Copy !req
1951. Oh, my love.Copy !req
1952. My love.Copy !req
1953. For Dracula's final transformation...Copy !req
1954. we decided to go with...Copy !req
1955. a digital morph.Copy !req
1956. Originally we tried to do this
in another way...Copy !req
1957. with, you know, an optical fashion.Copy !req
1958. Because we always purposely avoided
using the digital technology...Copy !req
1959. but we felt that
at this point of the film...Copy !req
1960. we didn't wanna get fancy
or distract the...Copy !req
1961. So often with
the older style film tricks...Copy !req
1962. you have to distract
the viewer's eye...Copy !req
1963. and here we didn't want
to bring a lot of attention to it.Copy !req
1964. We just wanted it to happen on screen.Copy !req
1965. And the wafer mark
on Mina's forehead was...Copy !req
1966. also done optically.Copy !req
1967. You know,
at the turn of any century...Copy !req
1968. there seems to be a proliferation
of technology...Copy !req
1969. as you turn into the next century.Copy !req
1970. And it was true in 1897
and also, of course, in our time.Copy !req
1971. And in the effects field, at least...Copy !req
1972. you see digital technology
and computerized effects...Copy !req
1973. becoming the wave of the future...Copy !req
1974. and a lot of people have asked me
why we chose to use...Copy !req
1975. low-tech effects
and my response has been that...Copy !req
1976. we tried to use high-tech effects,
but high-tech for 1897.Copy !req
1977. So that was, you know...Copy !req
1978. in hopes to bring...Copy !req
1979. something to the film that evoked
the time in which it takes place.Copy !req
1980. When you make a movie...Copy !req
1981. you always try to find
a take on the subject matter...Copy !req
1982. and that take, whatever it may be...Copy !req
1983. usually becomes your discipline...Copy !req
1984. as to how you're gonna approach
all the decisions that you make.Copy !req
1985. A director is basically
a decision making machine.Copy !req
1986. And he has to give decisions
on how you are gonna do everything.Copy !req
1987. And I like to have at least a rationale
or a concept.Copy !req
1988. And my concept was to make the film...Copy !req
1989. in the spirit of the early cinema...Copy !req
1990. which was partly created
by magicians.Copy !req
1991. I think, a little bit, the Academy Award
is sort of like the Nobel Prize.Copy !req
1992. People get so crazy about getting one
and department heads get so...Copy !req
1993. you know, so obsessed with doing it
that they really in a way...Copy !req
1994. tend to not serve the common,
you know...Copy !req
1995. the common goal that...Copy !req
1996. Like the scientists are all out there
trying to win the Nobel Prize...Copy !req
1997. and so they're very competitive
with one another...Copy !req
1998. and don't end up coming up with
a cure, you know.Copy !req
1999. The same thing in the film...Copy !req
2000. is that you really can sense
when the departments...Copy !req
2001. like, have their eye on that
more than they do...Copy !req
2002. on what the movie
is really supposed to be doing.Copy !req
2003. I was very fortunate that I won a lot of
Oscars when I was young.Copy !req
2004. And so I don't have
that obsessive need...Copy !req
2005. that some folks I've met have,
you know...Copy !req
2006. that they're getting old
and they really wanna have one.Copy !req