Alain Corbière Amiens, 25th February 2010 Dear student, What better way than a letter to discuss the ethic and easthetic issues of a film, which is based on an epistolary novel ? Bram Stoker's Dracula a film by Francis Ford Coppola You will find here food for thoughts, and research. Our study starts with an introduction to the novel, its author and literary context. Then, an introduction to the film, its director, and the previous adaptions of the story. The first documents are the incipit of the novel, with a commentary, and the opening of the film, with a commentary. The second point concerns the erotic aspects of the story, with an extract from the novel, its commentary, and an extract from the screenplay, with its commentary. The third point is the encounter with the Count in England. The passage from the novel (with its commentary) is very different from the corresponding passage in the film (commented here). Fourthly, the destruction of Dracula's boxes of earth while he is in Mina's bedroom is Coppola's rearrangement of two separate passages from the novel (first passage, commentary, second passage, commentary). To what extent is Coppola's adaptation faithful to Stoker's novel ? Is the film a betrayal ? It is in any case a very personal and free interpretation of the original novel. Best regards, A. C.