“It’s not a new adaptation of Dracula Not a horror movie. It’s a wonderful love story that uses the character as a backdrop. I think it’s closer to beauty and the beast. “We can even remove his name from the title,” he surprises. Luc BessonDirector of cinematic gems such as The fifth element, Professional (Leon) also Nikita, that’s hard to die forwhen talking about his adaptation to Bram Stoker’s famous 1897 novel.
On the occasion of the premiere in Spain Dracula – Titled in its original version as Dracula: A Love Story (Dracula: A Love Story)–, Besson visited the 58th Sitges Festival to perform His twenty-second filmWhere he tells us why he’s just a vampire background Of the conspiracy.
“When I re-read the novel, I realized that it was a love story. Everyone talks about the blood and horror, but this is a man who has been waiting centuries to say goodbye to his wife and it’s very romantic. What happened to him for 400 years? What was your life like at that time? No one knows and no one tells us. I want to know that. I want to see those changes in the century. I went to Florence, to Versailles, to Germany, because I wanted to see all these places. The French director adds: “I feel that this is what attracted me to this character.”
regarding Comparisons With cinematic classics Coppola, Murnau, or Herzogor more recently with Nosferatu (By Robert Eggers) O Dracula (By Radu Gude) – A satire akin to Dracula, a very happy dead manBy Mel Brooks – Besson is very clear in his desire to escape any kind of influence.
“The film is a very personal view of the artist. It’s as if I put a model on a table and there are people around it Modigliani, Dürer, Soutine, Picasso and Dali. None of them will paint the same picture. Even though they all started from the same thing. All his works will be incredible. “Modigliani was making long necks with black eyes, Dali was making them with long legs… that’s the feeling,” Besson explains.
More than 6 hours of makeup
In the role of Vlad the Impaler, known as count Dracula, We found the perpetrator Caleb Landry Jones (Three ads on the outskirts, The dead don’t die), with which Besson has already collaborated Dogman (2023).
“We’ve been friends since we worked on this movie and he’s genius. He is always ready to take away all pain, fear, love or loss, effortlessly and with great generosity.“, Besson praises the actor who gave his all for the old version of the vampire.
“He had to wake up at 4 a.m. to be ready and shooting at noon. It was like six hours of makeup. He fell asleep many times while they worked with him. I remember him trying out costumes, makeup, and wigs a couple of weeks before we started She suddenly appeared in the studio corridors. the People were screaming because they were afraid. “Then I had to apologize to everyone,” Besson laughs when he recalls the funny anecdote.
Landry Jones accompanies the Oscar-winning actor very well Christoph Waltz (Damn bastards, Django is unrestrained), who plays a priest fighting against creatures of the night.
“Kristoff is amazing. Very professional, humble and kind. The two were having a lot of fun together. One comes from Austria, one comes from Texas, I’m from France, but everyone We are connected with art, painting and music. It was very creative to have the three of us together,” admits the director, who also praises the debutant’s work. zoe blue, Dracula’s new lover Daughter of Hollywood actress Rosanna Arquettewhom Besson met “weeks old” but did not recognize during a difficult casting process.
One of the great strengths of this version of Dracula, directed and written by Luc Besson, is also… Music by Danny Elfman (Frequent collaborator of Tim Burton), L Art direction by Patrice Garcia (common in Besson’s filmography and responsible for the film’s consistent purple color) and esp Costumes designed by Corinne Bruand (Femme fatale) and its 2,000-piece historical costumes, among a team of 940 professionals whom Besson likens to an “army” who filmed some of Finland’s most complex scenes.
“We wanted to film in France, but there is no snow due to global warming, even though Mr. Trump says there is none.. “This forced us to go to Lapland,” concludes Beeson, with a letter to the President of the United States. A new destination of Transylvania that looks completely different from the one we already knew, and where love lasts forever.
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