'Dracula', the desecration of the myth according to Radu Jude

In fact, the intentions are interesting, thanks to the choice of describing the vulgarity of a world that has now ravaged the myth with popular forms of dubious taste, mixed with another reflection (Jude had previously made the excellent 'Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World' in 2023) on artificial intelligence and its most grotesque and gruesome derivations.

Jude plays with the aesthetics of ugliness, but this time risks sinking into it, due to redundant choices.

Jude puts a lot of meat on the fire in the 172 minutes of a film that suffers from a certain prolixity, although the interest in seeing how this 'cinematic madness' continues along its narrative never actually collapses.

The director's sarcasm is not in question, but it only really works in the film's only political episode (a strike against the capitalist Dracula) and in the hunt for two performers who put on a vampire skit in a sad nightclub. For the rest, the film is an unrestrained, unbalanced mishmash that ends up making the whole viewing experience really tiring and decidedly poorer in content than it could have been. Some stories are completely superfluous and unattractive, so much so that the film would have been much richer with a much shorter running time and numerous cuts during editing.

Despite the half-hearted misstep, Jude's cinema can only continue to interest and surprise, and curiosity is high to discover his new project, 'The Diary of a Chambermaid', which will be presented at the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival starting next week.

Among the new releases in theatres is the Brazilian 'Manas', the fiction feature debut for Marianna Brennand.

Set on the island of Marajó, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, the film's protagonist is Marcielle, a girl who, conditioned by her mother's words, worships her older sister, thinking she has escaped from that squalid life by finding a 'good man' on one of the barges that ply the area. As the narrative progresses, however, Tielle comes face to face with reality and realises she is trapped between two violent environments. Worried about her little sister and the bleak future that awaits her, she decides to confront the system that oppresses her family and the women of the community.

Presented in the Venice Days section of the Venice Film Festival 2024, it is a film that has deserved to find a place in our cinemas, thanks to an interesting screenplay full of decidedly deep sociological insights.

Some acerbic passages in the staging are present and sometimes the messages proposed are too didactic, but the operation is nonetheless sincere and heartfelt, as well as capable of making us empathise with the situations told.

Yet another confirmation of the extraordinary health of Brazilian cinema in recent years.