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Guy Maddin: Dancing with Dracula

Guy Maddin may be one of Canada's best-known unknown filmmakers. From his early, improbable success with "Tales From the Gimli Hospital," the director has relied on near-extinct film techniques to convey both a heavy dose of melodrama and a sly sense of humour. Maddin now works with international stars, but his humble origins are with the Winnipeg Film Group — a filmmakers' co-op that, over 30 years, has brought global acclaim to many Manitoba moviemakers.

It's a seductive story: a mysterious foreigner, a beautiful young woman, blood and passion. No wonder Bram Stoker's Dracula has been adapted so many times. Now it's Guy Maddin's shot at the vampire. He's making a film version of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's interpretation of the classic story. But as Maddin captures the movement of the dancers, he also wants people to be aware they're watching a movie. A CBC camera follows as Maddin coaxes cinematic performances from the players. 
• Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary was produced for the CBC Television performing arts series Opening Night. It is a mostly silent film with a soundtrack by composer Gustav Mahler.
• The movie was later distributed as a feature, playing in theatres in Canada and the United States.
• The New York Times described Maddin's Dracula as his "most accessible film yet," calling it "visually sumptuous and audaciously hilarious, at once beautiful and goofy."

• Maddin took on the project "strictly from hunger," he told the New York Times. He had never before filmed dance and admitted ballet bored him. He also told the National Post he thought Dracula had been "done to death."
• He warmed to the project by rationalizing that dance was "light and movement like any other drama or comedy." He read the original novel and discovered themes never addressed in the many horror-movie versions of the story.

• The Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Mark Godden, who choreographed the ballet, adapted some of the dance's sections for film. Maddin used many of the ballet's sets and props but added a Dracula's castle of his own design.
• Former RWB dancer David Moroni, seen in this clip, came out of retirement to play the vampire-killer Dr. Van Helsing. The role had been played by a younger dancer onstage, but Maddin said only an older dancer would be convincing on film.

• Maddin told the New York Times that working with dancers meshed perfectly with his filmmaking style. "When they quit doing bourrées and pas de deux they ended up doing… silent-movie acting… but far more elegant, because dancers learn to mime with every fibre of their bodies."
• In 2002 the movie won an International Emmy for Best Arts Programming. It also won two Gemini Awards for Best Arts Program and Best Direction in a Performing Arts Program.
Medium: Television
Program: Canada Now
Broadcast Date: Aug. 31, 2001
Guest(s): Marc Godden, Guy Maddin, Vonnie Von Helmolt
Reporter: Robert Enright
Duration: 3:48

Last updated: November 19, 2012

Page consulted on November 19, 2012

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