Fabulous Film & Friends
A podcast for the true cineaste. This podcast examines the impact great or memorable films have on us both personally and culturally. If you've ever bonded with someone or joined a lively discussion circle based on your love of cinema, this is the podcast for you.
Fabulous Film & Friends
Ep. 47 - Coppola v. Scorsese Round 4: Bram Stoker's Dracula v. The Last Temptation of Christ Part 1 with Alex Robertson, Roseanne Caputi & George Young
This week on Fabulous Film & Friends it’s round four of the seemingly endless Coppola v. Scorsese Film Battle, where we shift gears downward with two problematic, others might say misunderstood, passion projects in both maestros’ respective canons, as we compare Martin Scorsese’s 1988 semi-Biblical epic The Last Temptation of Christ, starring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Barry Miller, Andre Gregory, Irvin Kershner and David Bowie to Francis Ford Coppola’s take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, released in 1992 and starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Cary Elwes, Richard E. Grant, Bill Campbell and Tom Waits.
Joining me in this epic clash of blood, life, death and resurrection are my sister Roseanne Caputi, actor, photographer, and erstwhile cycle-jockey, Gordon Alex Robertson and celebrated author, producer and everyone’s favorite gadfly George Young who has just announced that his Vampire-themed novel DracuLAND is due to hit the store shelves Halloween of 2022.
With so much ground to cover here are two brief synopses:
The Last Temptation of Christ reimagines the life and impact of Jesus Christ through the lens of an unwilling, doubtful, mood swinging, weakling who has less sense of purpose than your average over-priced New York Plumber. And with all the Brooklyn accents in the film, you’d think the plumbers’ union delegation took a wrong turn at Poughkeepsi and ended up in The Holy Land.
Meanwhile Bram Stoker’s Dracula breaks up the legendary novel about the infamous Blood-sucking Count Dracula into three distinct, competing and non-complimentary films: 1) a not so erotic tale of swooning eroticism and temptation, 2) a keystone cops movie starring four bland and bumbling supporting actors who look and act exactly alike, save the one who sounds like he stepped off of a surfer turned bank robbers film and 3) a glib action movie starring an entertaining, beef-eating German vampire hunter)
Are these misunderstood gems or just flat out turkeys?
Find out!