Credits: Kevin Paul (Wikimedia user PaulLim11) / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 4.0.
With Dracula: A Love Tale, Luc Besson brings the most famous vampire in cinema back to life. A romantic, offbeat epic that swings between grand spectacle and self-parody. This Dracula film provokes gasps of admiration and howls of horror. Indeed, it’s a release nobody can ignore. However, not everyone likes it.
Luc Besson: Return Of The Prince Of Darkness
Luc Besson is back haunting theaters with a project both ambitious and risky: his take on the myth of Dracula. Premiered at the UGC des Halles, this Luc Besson film marks the major return of the director of The Big Blue, after a long period out of the media spotlight. Behind his affable exterior, the filmmaker can’t hide the ambiguity of recent years, marked by controversies.
The director offers his own cast of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a lavish, off-kilter version. With a colossal budget of €45 million, it’s the most expensive French film of 2025. He also aims to place it in the lineage of great adaptations, between Murnau and Coppola, without forgetting a few winked-at touches of deliberate kitsch.
The Myth Vampirized By Love
Here, Dracula is not just a monster: he is above all a lovesick romantic. It begins with Vlad Dracul, a 15th-century Romanian prince, played by the strange Caleb Landry Jones. However, the tragic loss of Elisabeta drives him to defy God and wait four centuries for her return. Thus, the curse becomes a timeless love story, bordering on romantic absurdity.
A Flamboyant Aesthetic At The Risk Of Ridicule
Besson’s direction openly flirts with surrealism and the baroque. The vampire prince’s castle piles on gilding, extravagant costumes, and twisted sets worthy of a gothic funfair. Additionally, Danny Elfman’s eccentric score finishes plunging the viewer into an atmosphere teetering between grandeur and farce.
A Gallery Of Colorful Characters
The international cast mixes bold choices and surprises, sometimes disconcerting:
- Caleb Landry Jones (Nitram, Dogman), an eccentric dandy, plays Dracula as a melancholic prince sometimes bordering on slapstick.
- Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained), irresistible as a priest overwhelmed by the supernatural.
- Matilda De Angelis, the radiant Italian breakout from The Undoing, brings freshness as Maria.
- Zoë Bleu, daughter of Rosanna Arquette (The Big Blue), doubles the faces of lost love, Elisabeta and Mina.
- Ewens Abid, a rising hope of French cinema, plays a surprisingly rational Jonathan Harker amid this gothic turmoil.
- Haymon Maria Buttinger gives a haughty and deliciously irritating cardinal.
- Ivan Franěk, used to austere roles (The Accursed Kings), portrays with rigor a captain overwhelmed by events.
- Guillaume de Tonquédec, a popular actor seen in Don’t Do This, Don’t Do That, adds a comic touch as Dr. Dumont, disoriented but curiously endearing.
Between Fidelity And Liberties: A Bold Choice
Besson largely respects the original text of Bram Stoker published in 1897, but dares surprising script liberties. Thus, Dracula now travels to Paris, India, and Iraq, at the risk of bewildering purists. The Dracula trailer had already announced this choice of improbable geographic wanderings.
The Vampire As The Filmmaker’s Mirror
This Dracula Luc Besson also resembles a skewed self-portrait of the director. After failures and controversies, Besson returns transformed, but still flamboyant and provocative. “This Dracula is my version,” he claims, fully owning the excesses and missteps of his adaptation.
A Film That Divides, But Marks The Year
Critics swing between fascination and irritation. Some denounce clichés and heavy-handedness, notably in the caricatural treatment of female characters or the visual excess. Yet it’s hard to deny that this film Dracula Bram Stoker in Besson’s style will remain a major event in French cinema in 2025.
A Successful Troupe Despite Sharp Fangs
With this reimagining of the Dracula myth, Besson bets on an eclectic cast with already established careers. Each actor convincingly carries a character on the brink of excess. The result is an epic where unintended humor often competes with scenes of sincere emotion, leaving an unforgettable impression, for better and worse.