Bright Bulb Screening Series presents a FREE SCREENING - Rare Vampire Double Feature! 8PM
DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY (2002, directed by Guy Maddin, 75 minutes, Canada)
JONATHAN (1970, directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer 97 minutes, West Germany)
DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY (2002, directed by Guy Maddin, 75 minutes, Canada)
JONATHAN (1970, directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer 97 minutes, West Germany)
Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin has carved out a unique niche since his 1988 feature debut TALES OF GIMLI HOSPITAL, creating modern films whose stories are brought to life in visuals that recall archaic silent/early talkie-era cinema. 2003's THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD with Isabella Rossellini and the autobiographical MY WINNIPEG from 2007 are among his best-known works although 2002's DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY drew its share of accolades as well.
For DRACULA, Maddin makes use of an elegant production of the vampire story mounted by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet with the striking Zhang Wei-Qiang as the pirouetting Count in what could be counted among the more faithful adaptations of Stoker's still widely-read novel. Maddin's telling underlines the themes of xenophobia and patriarchy that lie within the piece and while the director's usual goofy humor is a bit restrained his masterful, sometimes dizzying visual evocation of early cinema remains breathtaking to behold.
“... the most startlingly original and creative reading of the novel ever put to film....If it’s not the greatest adaptation of the novel, DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY remains the most fascinating.”
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View
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Oscar-nominated director Hans W. Geißendörfer's dramatic re-purposing of Stoker's novel DRACULA is a well-reviewed yet near-forgotten entry from the 1970s New German Cinema movement that gave birth to Herzog, Fassbinder and others. Among JONATHAN's greatest assets is Wim Wenders legendary superstar cinematographer Robby Müller (PARIS, TEXAS, REPO MAN, DOWN BY LAW), who brings his audacious eye to this ghoulish tale.
In JONATHAN, Dracula (played with a Hitler haircut by Paul Albert Krumm) has brought the rural landscape under his spell with his mob of followers flushing out the few human survivors for gruesome public spectacle. Jonathan Harker (hippie hunk Jürgen Jung) is sent to Dracula's castle to recruit prisoners to the revolution, with a rag-tag battalion preparing to lay siege to Dracula's lair. Like much of the New German Cinema of the time, the undigested issues of the post-Nazi age are evoked, as well as the paranoia inherent in the era's political Left.
“A fascinating mixture of blood, Gothic violence and and Fellini-esque beauty.”
N.Y. Post
N.Y. Post
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Admission is FREE