“Dracula- A Love Tale” has been applauded by many for being a tale of fantasy, yearning, and pining beyond death for someone whose existence is marked by the vices of uncertainty. The movie, directed by Luc Besson, depicts an extinct love. The heart of the myth lies in Dracula and Elizabeta’s love only. The film begins with an earnest, sensual and appalling scene of him and his wife being crazy about each other, but fate seems to harbour an edge of destruction. Dracula loses his wife to the enemies who resort to killing her, making him suffer the anguish of lost love. He gains immortality for challenging god and killing the archbishop, which in turn leads him to roam around the world in search of the resurrection of his beloved. The woman turns out to be Mina, the modest fiancée of Jonathan Harker, Dracula’s diminutive broker, who recently visited the count’s castle to review his property investment and whose tiny portrait of the attractive Mina caught the count’s gloomy gaze.
However, when he reunites with her, the church is on their backs. In the end, Vlad dies sacrificing his immortality for Mina’s mortality. In the midst of his roaming in the halls of eternity, Dracula’s yearning becomes a symbol of love. He intensely longs, he yearns, and once he desecrated her grave just to feel his lover’s touch again. When Caleb Landry Jones pens these words in his haunting Transalvanian accent, “Living without love is the worst disease of all, my friend. It is like a fine, incessant rain. It gradually eats away at your bones, turning you into a formless sponge unable to stand upright, ” he echoes the medieval plight of courtly romance. It was known that being lovesick was an actual disease in the Middle Ages. Does this kind of love exist in a modern, technology-driven race? Perhaps not.
Fast-forwarding to the trends of ‘women in male-dominated fields’ or ‘men used to go to war, now they can’t even hold a conversation,’ these are all systemic trends driven by the drudgery of modern swipe-mode dating. Too many single men are inexperienced, disinterested in serious connections, and scared even to strike up a conversation with a woman, or even establish a long-term emotional commitment, according to single women who lament the pitifully small dating pool of eligible males. None of the individuals embodies the value of courtly romance, chivalry and loyalty. Dracula- A Love Tale generated a lot of buzz on Instagram, with enchanting TikTok edits, while ‘Golden Brown’ plays in the background, reimagining the long-lost form of love that may never make a comeback.
Caleb Landry Jones’ Dracula loved like Byron, yearned like Shelley and experienced his limited infinity like Keats. Can’t imagine anyone in this economy would wait for 100 years for someone, let alone one year. Even Mina lived across lifetimes with an urge that she didn’t belong in her own existence. Her true being never left ‘Elizabeta’s’ stance of yearning. However, modernity begs to differ. British Sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman, claimed that contemporary individuals are building a society where relationships, identities, and the social fabric are in constant flux of change. There is no value of permanence; everything is fluid. This phenomenon was coined as ‘Liquid Modernity.’ Dating has more of a consumerist approach, where everyone looks for the top goods on the shelf. Appearances matter, while soul-connection becomes a thing of the past. This instance can also be vividly seen in the movie when Vlad arrives at the French Court of Versailles, he can sense the vain atmosphere that gripped the age of that time. That’s where he decidedly turns everyone into a vampire, because he cannot live in a world where love becomes a commodity for sensual pleasure and vain vanity. Would he be able to find his love now in the furrows of the 21st century?
Everyone should not get hopeless. Sure, medieval fantasy love of a man like Lord Byron is beautiful, but what about Mina/Elisabeta? The movie is not from her Point of View; she is charmed by Dracula as her past lover, a love which makes her forget her own modern existence. She is perhaps ‘lovebombed’ or ‘Gaslighted’ by him. Her sexual repression is blasted off when Dracula arrives with his calm charm and evocative bloodthirstiness. Mina Murray becomes so subsumed in his pinning towards her that she forgets about her own individuality. It should be noted that, in the movie, the memories are her own, from her past life, but there can be a presupposition of ‘what if?’ Modernity focuses on intrinsic individualistic goals and values, what if Mina exercised her own right, her own desires and needs in the face of Dracula’s unfulfilled love wish. Will she choose him all the same?
Besson’s medieval tale is open to many interpretations. The above-quoted interpretations don’t mean that you should lose hope in the face of despair. Keep striving for better versions of yourself; perhaps someday you will love a person you will choose to spend your life with. This article also stands as a testament to the gospel that what is meant for you will find you across the multitudes of the cosmos.