Just a few months after the American filmmaker Robert Eggers released his version (Nosferatu, 2024), Luc Besson has now taken on the legendary vampire – a figure cinema has endlessly revisited and reinterpreted in line with technological advances and the obsessions of the times. By Besson’s own admission, this film represents his “artistic rebirth” after a string of setbacks: financial troubles linked to his company Europacorp, which was ultimately sold, and to his ambitious film school project, the École de la Cité.
These were compounded by several allegations of sexual assault, and a rape accusation that in 2023 resulted in the case being dismissed due to insufficient evidence. Although Dogman (2023) was meant to mark the start of “a new chapter,” it was a resounding failure (with a budget of €20 million and fewer than 300,000 viewers). So another rebirth was needed. Enter Dracula: the story of this eternally melancholic vampire, wounded but unshakable, which inevitably takes on the quality of a self-portrait.
You have 77.49% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
