DRACULA 3D

In the village of Passbourg, there are precise rules to follow, including not wandering in the woods when night falls to avoid becoming a victim of Count Dracula, the cruel vampire who keeps the villagers in check. Tanya, a young woman who does not obey her mother's advice and prefers to go on a date with her lover Milosh, suffers the consequences. Meanwhile, Jonathan Harker arrives from London to organize Count Dracula's library, a place where there is ferment and fear due to Tanya's death, whom Harker encounters alive and eager in Dracula's castle, where she is introduced as the Count's niece. Having lost track of her husband Jonathan, Mina also arrives in Passbourg and is hosted at Lucy's house, the mayor's daughter and her old friend. But Dracula's diabolical presence soon captures Mina's spirit as well. At seventy-two years old, forty-two dedicated to cinema as a director, and nineteen and a half feature films directed. This is Dario Argento, beloved by a large number of die-hard fans and sometimes mistreated by detractors who lie in wait for every new film to mount "cases" of denigration, sometimes definitely exaggerated. That the good Argento has lost his edge over the years is a fact, just looking at his most recent "Giallo" to realize that the director of "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" has begun to visibly limp. The Film Export Group of Roberto Di Girolamo, in collaboration with Gianni Paolucci (producer of Bruno Mattei's last films) and the Spaniard Enrique Cerezo, offers Argento the chance of redemption with the offer to make a new version of "Dracula," using the technology of the moment, namely 3D. After some initial hesitation, Argento accepts, but what comes out is not a proper Dario Argento film, rather a film made to order, and this is noticeable in almost all aspects. Of the Dario Argento that we loved in "Dracula," very little or nothing remains; the work lacks personality, the desire to experiment, and that virtuosic madness that even in the bad "Giallo" emerged in a couple of scenes. The result is a film that is well-crafted in its overall presentation but anonymous and forgettable. The story, scripted by Argento himself with Antonio Tentori and Stefano Piani, follows the key points of Bram Stoker's novel but then deviates in some fundamental choices, such as pushing Jonathan Harker's character into the background, completely eliminating Lucy's marriage story and her suitors, setting the plot only in Eastern Europe, and inventing the character of Tanya, who replaces the Count's lovers. This following and betraying the original literary material at the same time reminds us of the narrative experiments of the Hammer, but we soon realize that Argento's film turns out to be more disordered, with a continuous change of the main character (Harker-Mina-Van Helsing), a choice perhaps aimed at electing Dracula himself as the protagonist, only that lacking adequate characterization, the result is that the viewer lacks a real point of reference. But the lack of a true characterization is a flaw that also affects the other characters, not because there is some error on the part of the script, rather one has the feeling that the background of each of them is taken for granted, as if the film were based on the previous cinematic incarnations of Stoker's novel and therefore the viewer already fully aware. One almost gets the impression that the film has had sequences cut (or not shot) that help explain the story and characters, thus creating this strange effect of narrative incompleteness. At the same time, however, Argento's "Dracula" must be recognized for a successful and unprecedented point of view on the bond that ties the vampire to the villagers who are subject to him. Among them, there is a pact from which every human seems to derive benefits, making the Count almost assume the aspect of a benefactor (he guarantees protection and immortality to some) or blackmailed. Argento almost seems to side with the monster, a victim of some circumstances and human greed, which makes him a character comparable to the Phantom of the Opera in his eponymous film. If on the one hand we have rather meticulous care for sets and costumes, on the other hand, there is a surprising and disarming approximation (or inability) in the realization of the visual effects. Every time computer graphics come into play, the film irreparably descends into ridicule, with raw effects and unable to integrate with the scene. The most frustrating thing is that most of these effects are entirely gratuitous and without which nothing would have changed (the total on the arrival of the train at the station with an obvious CGI background, the detail on the spider, the fly that bothers Harker, the connecting scenes with the castle mounted on a fake sunset, the transformation from wolf to man, the Giovanelli thrown away by the Count... and I could go on!), in fact, the film would have benefited. Moreover, we move from the always excellent craft effects made by Sergio Stivaletti and his team for the most gruesome scenes, to improbable flames and giant mantises created digitally with a detachment effect that irreparably undermines the grip on the viewer. Unlike Argento's recent films, this time the cast seems well-assembled and capable of holding the film together. Excellent Marta Gastini ("The Rite," "Io & Marilyn") as Mina, perfect le physique du role of Tomas Kretschmann ("The Syndrome of Stendhal;" "Hostel: Part III") to embody Dracula, as well as Rutger Hauer for the role of Van Helsing (it's a shame he enters the scene too late) and Miriam Giovanelli ("The Touched"), who has the face and physique suitable to embody the seductive Tanya. It's a shame that then there is Asia Argento giving a truly terrible acting performance, here probably at her worst ever, with wrong tones of voice, ridiculous grimaces, and lost looks who knows where. The 3D is undoubtedly one of the film's strong points, of good quality and used intelligently to create a sense of depth but also to play with the viewer when needed. In short, on the one hand, we have a "dignified" film that—visual effects aside—does justice to the 10 million budget used, on the other hand, we have an operetta made to order completed with lack of enthusiasm and lack of personality. A homework assignment done by a talented but repeating student who can't wait for the bell to ring and who is not failed only because one ends up getting attached to him.