I'm posting this mainly because reading it almost changed my opinion about this film. Almost. Because Coppola committed the same crime of inserting a love story in the script where there was none in the original material, with "Youth Without Youth", 15 years later, and the material adaptation was entirely his. So much for blaming the scriptwriter. Fondness for melodrama indeed ;) :D

And also for this bit of Keanu content : The cast is often mocked even more maliciously than Coppola. Although it is difficult to fault Oldman or Waits for their performances, Hopkins and Ryder and especially Reeves are frequently criticized. [...] As far as Ryder and Reeves go, I think they are more criticized for being Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves than for the performances they give. Neither of them are even remotely restrained, which some might find embarrassing, and I think Reeves' performance, in particular, is brilliant in the ways in which it alludes to von Wagenheim's hammy performance in the original Nosferatu.
now I admit I haven't seen any of the Nosferatu films, let alone the one mentioned above, but K's performance seemed to me closer to the novel than any of the others', which is probably why, given the way the original story is butchered, just doesn't fit in.

anyway... read the review.
And that blog is interesting too. Goes right in my bookmarks ;)

Incidentally, I've never heard any English-speaking actors speak Norwegian well, or even English with any semblance of a believable Norwegian accent. The closest so far is Earl Hyman, who played Bill Cosby's character's father Russell Huxtable in The Cosby Show tv-series. He's a longtime Ibsen fan and learned Norwegian in order to read Ibsen in his native language. Apart from him, I've never heard any English-speaking actor present a "Norwegian" accent that didn't make me cringe.

Therefore I don't really think Keanu deserves all the flak he got for his British accent in Dracula. Sure, he was bad, but not *that* bad.

Let me re-iterate. Keanu does NOT deserve all the flak where this movie is concerned with ACCENTS> Gary Oldman - I thought did a fantastic job. Winona Ryder - yeah - she tried, never got it right and it grated on my nerves that she attempted it.

As for Anthony Hopkins, HOLY CRAP, I thought he was trying to pull of an English Accent, now that you tell me it was supposed to be dutch, I am SOOO not impressed. It's like most big budget films though, it's not the accent it's how well it was acted and how convincing they were, in my honest opinion, being Keanu's BIG BREAK as an adult, he did an overwhelming good job.

and don't get me started with the mess of accents in Coppola's "Youth Without Youth". Honestly, Coppola should not touch anything Romanian related. ;):D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK9rPC6oiX0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edAcePrGvqk

I always liked 'making of' and 'behind the scenes' videos.

A few things I've noticed while watching them:

-why the heck my Real Player is 'unable to download' the videos ? Updated the thing and still doesn't work :(

- for a 'non-technical', 'I don't own a computer' guy, the young Keanu appeared a bit too fascinated with the electronic storyboard and everything ;)

- is it just me, or most of the people involved in this gothic adventure weren't too happy to be there in the first place?

- 'Francis' got one [ego] the size of San Francisco'. Ahem.

http://youtu.be/ppcwHVM3Xi0

http://youtu.be/41ftTf87RLw

Uploaded with [URL=http://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/URL]