Filmowe adaptacje "Draculi" Brama Stokera. Od Murnaua do Coppoli

Abstract

Film adaptations of "Dracula" by Bram Stoker: from Murnau to Coppola

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) is the most important and most renowned vampire novel, which inspired entire generations of filmmakers. The vampiric count, “with figure of eternal desire - and what’s more, both male and female, homo- and heterosexual” (to quote Maria Janion), had an influence on mass imagination of readers and spectators. In the twentieth century, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Tod Browning, Werner Herzog and Francis Ford  Coppola created the most important film adaptations of the Irish writer’s novel. By analyzing these four cinematic images, we can see the evolution of the vampire: how human features were attributed to him and how his sexualization proceeded (particularly in the F.F. Coppola’s movie). Four movie interpretations of Dracula’s character - vampire-monster, vampire-dandy, suffering vampire, vampire-tragic lover - were far from the actual image of the title character from Bram Stoker’s work. There are clear differences between the hero of the novel and his movie equivalents.