20 thoughts on “TBT: Bram Stoker’s Dracula Deep Dive

  1. Love most of the gear in this, but some of Lucy’s outfits just make me wince. Meh, it’s fabulous to look at, and Gary Oldman is on form.

    1. I had same issue, click on patreon graphic above (not hypertext link) and then “accept” terms and page will load.

    1. Are you back on frockflicks.com & maybe refreshing the page? The plugin is supposed to log you in & send you back here, tho’ it seems to not work perfectly :(

  2. The costumes are totally cray-cray but mostly pretty. The exception being the monstrosity poor Lucy is buried in.

  3. My friends and I argue about this movie. They hate it because it’s not historically accurate and I agree. BUT the subtle change in colors in the Winona Rider outfits as she falls for the Count is lovely. I even like the nod to Klimt in the final Dracula outfit. I do agree though, that Lucys burial gown is ridiculous.

  4. I love this movie! And I just can’t with how stunningly gorgeous Winona Ryder is in it!!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. This post has some impeccable timing since I just finished a commission of Mina’s green walking dress two weeks ago. It was one of the most complicated commissions I’ve ever done. Eiko Ishioko really went crazy with these designs! I loved this write up! Thank you!

  6. One of my favourite movies. Love everything about it: acting, direction, art direction, the crazy costumes (the making-of documentary is highly recommended by the way). Winona never looked so gorgeous, and I would steal some of her dresses :)

  7. I think the costumes in this are beautiful, mostly (and even the ones I don’t love, like Lucy’s wedding dress, are definitely striking and memorable), but it gets no love from me as an adaptation. It’s too bad, because I know Coppola’s intention was to make the most accurate adaptation yet, and in some ways he came closer than most, including stuff from the book that’s usually left out.

    But none of that matters if you don’t fundamentally understand the characters, and I don’t think he did them anything approaching justice. And worse, his adaptation is so influential that this is who people are convinced these characters are, sometimes projecting it back onto the book even when it’s clearly not there. Lucy’s reputation is now that she’s a shallow tart, Mina is uptight and repressed and needs Dracula to loosen her up, Dracula is a tortured romantic who just wants love, and Jonathan is a piece of cardboard. None of that is true to the book, of course, but good luck convincing anyone of it now.

    1. I completely agree!! I love the book but this adaptation is something of a travesty (albeit a beautiful one).

  8. I have LOVED LOVED LOVED this movie ever since it came out!! Even for my friends and family members who persist in not liking this movie, I make them admit that it is BEAUTIFUL whether or not they like it! I loved ALL the costumes–male and female–but especially Mina’s costume when she meets Dracula on the street and her signature red dress. Both of those scenes just make me swoon!!!!!!!! Thank you for providing a detail of Mina’s dress from the scene when she goes back to Dracula’s castle. To me, it looks like the ribbing on her sleeves echoes the patterns in Dracula’s armor from the beginning of the movie when he was “only” Vlad the Impaler. I never noticed the inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelites on Lucy’s costumes until now, but I totally see it. Thanks for pointing that out.

    Other thoughts: 1. If you ever do a second deep dive on this film, I would love to know your thoughts on Mina’s all-too-briefly shown wedding dress and on the dresses worn by Dracula’s wives. 2. I recently watched the first run of Penny Dreadful, and I could see echoes of this movie in several places. The season one scene when Vanessa Ives and Mina Murray kiss in a garden maze was totally inspired by this film. Now, I have to go back and see if their costumes in that scene were also inspired by the ones in the film. Also, I’m 97% sure that Penny Dreadful composer Abel Korzeniowski quoted from Wojciech Kilar’s Dracula score in the final season when a certain someone was being confronted.

    Thanks again for this AWESOME post!

  9. I intensely disliked this film when I was younger. I really wanted an accurate depiction of Stoker’s novel and this film insisted on adding the romance. Plus I didn’t think Oldman was attractive at all, it really needed Frank Langella (alas too old). The acting in general is silly (Ryder’s and Reeves’ bad English accents).

    However I do like the theatricality of its setting. The sets were very goth and the costumes so pretty.

    Lucy’s wedding dress was supposed to be off putting. It made her look like a baby which is eerie when she eventually turns into a vampire baby killer.

    It was the see through white gown of Lucy’s that annoyed me. I know it’s supposed to be provocative but it just looks like she had some nervous breakdown and forgot to wear petticoats.

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