Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula - Dracula and Mina’s Immortal Love Story
Analysis of Key Scenes related to the development of the romantic plot.
Scene 1: Read Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Chapter III – Jonathan Harker’s Journal - From Midnight
to 12 May.
Logos, opening credits and pre-credits sequence - View 00:00:00 - 00:05:45
Some films have “precredits” sequences, one or two scenes which whet the viewer’s interest before
the opening credits and the main title of the film is displayed.
1. What is the significance of introducing the music sequence with the logo of Columbia’s Liberty
Lady? Comment on its effect.
2. What does the opening of the film with the signs of the cross and the crescent represent?
3. What can you say about the historical narrative that coins the opening sequence? What effect
does the voice over narration in English and the conversation in Latin have on you as responder?
Who is the Romanian Knight of the Sacred Order of the Dragons? Who is his bride?
4. How does the narrative in the film stand in comparison to Dracula’s historical accounts to
Jonathan Harker? What is similar and what is different?
5. How are the crusades and Muslims represented in the film? What (if any) is the effect of this
representation on you as a Muslim viewer? Who do you think is the target audience for this?
6. Why do you think is Dracula’s relationship with Elisabetha introduced into the plot of the film?
How does the introduction of the Romantic plot shape viewer’s attitudes towards Dracula?
7. Analyse the sound track, the mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography of the Battle sequence.
8. Analyse the events, words, actions, signs and music sequence when Dracula returns home to
find Elisabetha dead till the shots of the main title of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Scene 2: Young Dracula having fed off the blood of the ship crew arrives in London. Meets Mina/
Elisabetha - 00:44:03 - 00: 55:23
1. Dracula as a vampire is able to move around in the day. Why do you think this modification
in the powers of Dracula was made? How does it change the original concept of evil
operating at night in the form of forbidden sinful activities? How does Dracula use his evil
powers in the day?
2. What is the impact of seeing Dracula, as young, on you as audience? How is his first meeting
with Mina represented? How does Coppola show intimacy, chemistry and connection
between the lovers? Identify the camera work, mise-en-scene, sound (music) and editing
used to fulfil the demands of the romantic genre.
Scene 3: Dracula and Mina’s romance: View 01: 03 : 20 – 01:09:21
1. Identify the poetic language techniques and the cinematic film techniques used to create
romance, desire and intimacy between Dracula and Mina and bewitch the audience in this
scene?
2. Narration in film may involve withholding information from ONE character in the film. How
does the ironic ignorance of Mina enable the communication of dramatic emotions such as
suspense, anticipation, nostalgia and the desire for the forbidden love of the Other?
3. How does Dracula’s significant role in the representation of the theme and plot of immortal
love facilitate an empathetic acceptance of Dracula by the audience? What is the impact of
this ideological shift?
4. What is the purpose of the sequence of shots from - 01:08:08 – 01:09:21? Who seems to be
the undesirable Other? How is this different from the novel?
Scene 4: View 01:14:35 – Climax of the Mina /Dracula relationship
1. Analyse the images below and evaluate the significance of the separation to the theme of
immortal love.
2. Compare and contrast Dracula’s expressions in shot (a) and shot (d).
3. Why do you think the shot in which Mina throws away papers from her journal into the sea
were added?
4. What does the disparity in Mina between duty and desire evoke in you as audience? In
contrast to Ellen in Nosferatu, what techniques have been used in this scene to legitimize
Mina’s point of view?
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Read Stoker’s Dracula and the section where Mina undergoes what Stoker calls the ‘Vampyres
baptism of blood’ . Chapter XXI –Dr Seward’s Diary – ‘Renfield says, “All day I waited to hear from
him “…..to the end of Chapter XXI
Scene 5: View 01:35:33 – 01:43:18
1. In what ways is Stoker’s account of Mina, through her first person narration, different from
its dramatic representation in this scene? What has been changed, modified and added?
Why?
2. Dracula changes many forms in this critical sequence in the love story. Which form
impresses you the most? What is the effect of throwing handsome and grotesque images of
Dracula upon you as audience? What do you think is the intended effect?
3. The mice have been used by both F.W. Murnau in Nosferatu and Coppola in Bram Stoker’s
Dracula in different ways? What can you say about Coppola’s rendition in comparison with
Stoker’s or Murnau’s?
4. Do you think Coppola’s sexual interpretation of this scene between Mina and Dracula is
completely invalid? Do you think Stoker’s Victorian constraints prevented him from
expressing the sexuality that Coppola’s postmodernist liberalism allows him? Or is there
more to the interpretations by both writer and director?
5. Analyze the key images from this scene given below: Identify the thematic significance and
how it is represented through mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing
techniques.
Scene 6: View 01:55:50 – 02:01:10
1. Compare the last scenes of the killing of Dracula to Stoker’s account in the novel.
What has been changed, modified and added? Why? What is the effect?
2. How is the romantic narrative introduced in the pre-credits sequence brought to a
closure in the end? Give examples from mise-en-scene, symbols and signs and use of
music and voice over.
Questions to ask:
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In film, how do the literary elements (plot, character, theme, etc.) plus the production
elements (mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound) make the narrative?
How do I feel during a certain sequence, and how does the filmmaker make me feel that
way?"
How does lighting set a mood?
How does a director create a sense of intimacy in a scene?
How is a character's loneliness emphasized visually?
How are various characters made sympathetic?
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How can the camera replace dialogue?
How is point of view manipulated?
How can sound inten sify emotion or heighten suspense?
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