Almost in time for Valentines day
my Halloween issue. I’m always one for better late than next
year so here we go. I thought it would be interesting for someone
who grew up in Transylvania to give their perspective on the Dracula
myth. My colleague, Diana Bell, from Deva Transylvania collaborated
with me on this article.
DIANA
For most people today, Transylvania is still perceived as a mysterious,
mountainous, mist-shrouded region, a kind of “never-never-land” deep in the Carpathian Mountains. Travel writers and Dracula enthusiasts
help to perpetuate this stereotype.
Once upon a time, the mysterious Dracula seemed like a figure of
Bram Stoker’s imagination. But it turns out that the inspiration
for this dark kingdom is real, found in this Romanian province.
The mist-covered mountains are real, the hidden, spooky castles
are real, the howling wolves, swooping bats, peasants making the
sign of the cross, all real.
Transylvania, part of the former Austrian Empire, means “the land over the forests” (Latin)! It borders Hungary on the Northwest, Wallachia on the South and Moldavia on the East. The area of the map with the heavy outline traces key locations which played a part in Dracula's history
Stretching for 60,000 square km, approximately one ninth of France's
territory, it is best compared to Switzerland, one and a half times
its size, but without being more populated. With plateaux good for
crops, rich grazing fields, valleys, harsh peaks, striped by the
ramifications of the Carpathians, Transylvania is wrinkled by numerous
water flows, which enrich the Tisa and the Danube. The Iron Gates
of Danube, some km towards South, closed the pass of the Balkans
on the border between the Austrian and Ottoman Empire.
This is what the ancient land of the Dacians looks like, the land
which was conquered by Traian in the first century of the Christian
era. This was followed by several centuries of independence which
the country enjoyed…Transylvania was never conquered and ruled
by Ottomans. Towards the end of the dark middle age period, Transylvania
and Hungary were annexed to Austria. But irrespective of its destiny,
it remained a common land of different people; Wallahians or Romanians,
Transylvanian Saxons, Szeckles and Hungarians, each retaining their
unique identities
The blood-sucking, undead Dracula is a legend,
a literary character, and a cinematic fiction.
There is an element of truth to the fiction, however, both from the dark but real history of Transylvanian castles and from a historical figure taken from the fifteenth century.
There had been a nobleman of Transylvania. This nobleman's name was Vlad Tepes.
Prince Vlad earned for himself the nickname "Vlad
the Impaler." Vlad was born in Sighisoara (Transylvania) but
ruled over Wallachia. He was very cruel, especially with thieves
and enemies. The only radical law applied was death trough splinter.
The condemned was introduced in the tip of a tall “sliver”
(3 meters), vertically fixed on the ground. The death was produced
by the loss of blood. Just one of the examples of his cruelty was
following a battle in 1458. A large area encompassing perhaps two
km by six km was punctuated with 10,000 impaled Turks.
We all remember that scene so graphically depicted from Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1992
Vlad the Elder (the Impaler’s father) had knelt before King
Sigismund of Luxembourg in 1431, when he was knighted to the Order
of the Dragon and made Prince of Wallachia.
The name for "dragon" was appended to his own name: Dracul.
Dracul also means "Devil" in Romanian. Thus, Vlad Tepes
came to be known as Vlad Dracul, "Son of the Devil" or
Dracula. One explanation for the literary un-dead-ness comes from
this prince who inspired Count Dracula. Vlad Dracul was so hated
that mobs tore his mortal remains apart at his death and those later
opening his coffin found it, actually empty.
Jules Verne, wrote a
novel about another famous Carpathian castle (Le Château
des Carpathes (1892), in which he wrote that only in Transylvania,
a landscape ready made for the appearance of ghosts, do the superstitions
of earlier times still live on… Jules Verne went on to relate
the tale of a brother of witches who is obeyed by vampires and fairies.
The misty mountains and dark ruined castles of Transylvania are
an ideal location to set tales of Gothic horror.
One of the more famous castles inhabited by Dracula is the Bran Castle near Brasov, replete with dungeons and torture chambers.
The actual house where Vlad Tepes was born is now Restaurant Casa Vlad Dracul. No credit cards accepted here but if you have a blood donors card you are most velcome.
Since the Bram Stoker’s publication of Dracula, the
myth of Transylvania has been reinforced through films and fiction.
There are a few movie renditions of the novel. The first, Nosferatu (1922) refers to Transylvania as “the land of phantoms.” This theme is developed further in Dracula (1931Universal
Studios) which established the paradigm for decades to come: a land
of eerie shadows, superstitious peasants and craggy mountains with
castles, enshrouded in fog, perched on a steep precipice. In this
film, a Transylvanian-Hungarian actor, Bela Lugosi, plays Count
Dracula. We’ve often heard the phrase : “he was born to
play that part”. Perhaps because of his lineage never better
applied than to Lugosi and Dracula. Yet none of the Dracula’s
in the most famous films including Max Schreck readily depict the
image of Bram Stoker’s writing. In the foreword to Nourmand
and Marsh’s Horror Poster Art (more about this book later),
Christopher Frayling notes how Bram Stoker describes Jonathan Harker’s
perception of Dracula:
“His face was a strong- a very strong- aquiline, with high
bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty
domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but
profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting
over the nose and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own
profusion. The mouth so far as I could see it under the heavy mustache,
was fixed and rather cruel looking with peculiarly sharp white teeth…The
general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.”
No matter, Hollywood did what it needed to do through the decades
to make Dracula palatable to the audience’s tastes of the time.
In Frayling’s closing comment he says “Posters may not
always bear much resemblance to the movies they are portraying but
are often the strongest and most lasting images of the film we take
with us” Focusing back on Lugosi some of the best images I
have seen are from the original spanish black and white lobby card
set from The Mark of Dracula 1935.
Another personal favorite of mine is the Sideshow 1/4 scale statue that truly captures Lugosi’s Dracula.
Getting back to the Nourmand and Marsh book Horror poster art. Along
with Graven Images this is my favorite book on horror posters. It
has just the right blend of commentary on the posters, poster artists,directors,
actors and films. You will find images of some rather rare horror
posters a few of my favorites I’ve included here. Any collector would
be remiss not to have this text in their library.
I included two posters of Cat people: On the left the poster is Italian, art by Olivetti, on the right the US one sheet by William Rose. The book comments on the two different styles of the artists. however I think they look more similiar than not, don't you?.
Transylvania has been real estate for other vampire fiction ands
film ever since. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) has
its “Transylvanian Convention” and “sweet transvestite
from transsexual Transylvania”!
In the comedy Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), the mayor wants to turn a Transylvanian town into a Dracula theme park for tourists.
Daughter of Darkness (1989) concerns a woman who travels to Transylvania in search of her lost father, who, turns out to be a vampire. Please don't confuse this title with Daughters of Darkness, unless you want to view a film about lesbian vampires.
Coppola’s
1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of my favorites. Transylvania
features prominently in this film’s fusion of the fictional
and historical Dracula. Von HeIsing one of the more recent offerings
leaves much to be desired.
In terms of actors Kinski has some admirable turns as Nosferatu in Nosferatu Phantom der Nacht in 1979 and the less noteworthy Nosferatu a Venezia 1988.Chris Lee and Peter Cushing
always fun to watch but not my favs.
Well one of the advantages of being incredibly late with this Halloween page is that I can comment on Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
Now I’m not the type to have to see a blockbuster movie the
day that it opens. Especially a three hour movie, midweek, which
for me translated to going to the 8:30 to 11:30pm showing after
a full day at work. A Sunday bargain matinee would normally be fine.
Probably not as much as PJ wanted to make this film but with such
anticipation about this film which I feel I can safely say we all
love I had to see it opening day. Oh I pined for some special promo
collectible program like one got at the premier of Ben Hur and the
like, but alas and overpriced bag of popcorn and soda would have
to do. I’m not going to dissect the film frame by frame although
I am a pathologist and very good at dissection. Overall I would
give the film a B+… Some particulars
What I particularly liked:
- Naomi Watts…The camera loves this girl just as it loved Monroe
- Island natives…just the right amount of zombiesque for me
- Nice retention and integration of dialogue and costumes (Kong
on Stage) from the original
- Wonderful CGI effects and marvelous creation of a prehistoric
feel to the island
What I disliked:
- Adrian Brody…could not suspend my disbelief enough to accept
him in this role
- Pit Scene…over done and give that fella with the tommy gun
a cigar..i’ll bet he can shoot the red star out of the paper
with five shots
- Matt paintings or whatever used to show the background shots of
NY at the films opening were incredibly flat and fake looking.
If I could change anything:
Jack Black surprised me and did a credible job as Denham…but
I might consider Gene Hackman in the role as a director who made
mediocre films and is looking for one last hurrah.Val Kilmer Substitutes for Adrian Brody.
Two other points:
- I think the film audience seeing King Kong in 1933, in terms of the special effects, were treated to something so new and different from what they were accustomed to that it was nothing short of spectacular. Our generation had pretty much already experienced “state of the art” effects with films like Jurasic Park so this wasn’t groundbreaking. Though I’m not a technician the last film I remember that made me feel like I was seeing something new was the Matrix.
- One of the most indelible scenes in the original is the scene of Kong undressing Fay W ray and then smelling his fingers. I’m not sure what the intent of the filmmakers was but it has stayed with me over the years as one of the best sexual scenes in cinema.
HALLOWEEN
Well my wife and I did attend a Halloween party. We went as
beauty and the beast.
NEXT UP
Action/ Adventure films and the museum of the moving image in Astoria
NY
