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The other Carpathian Castle
18:34 Jan 22 2017
Times Read: 579








Published in 1893, in French, the novel The Carpathian Castle (in original Le Château des Carpathes - variously translated into English as The Castle of the Carpathians, and The Castle in Transylvania) appears to be one of the novel that inspired Bram Stoker to write his notorious Dracula (1987).



As in Dracula, the French novel contains an isolated and damned anti-hero of noble origins, frightened villagers, spectral apparitions and a ruined Transylvanian castle. The quest of the young men in exotic and strange reluctant castles, from both novels seem to be a pattern of the late gothic inspired horror-fantasy novels.





"In the village of Werst in the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania (then part of Austria-Hungary), some mysterious things are occurring and the villagers believe that Chort (the devil) occupies the castle. A visitor to the region, Count Franz de Télek, is intrigued by the stories and decides to go to the castle and investigate. He finds that the owner of the castle is Baron Rodolphe de Gortz, with whom he is acquainted; years earlier, they were rivals for the affections of the celebrated Italian prima donna La Stilla. The Count thought that La Stilla was dead, but he sees her image and hears her voice coming from the castle. It is later revealed that it was only a projected still image accompanying a high-quality phonograph recording." (Wiki)





On this subject, a documentary entitled "Looking for the Carpathian Castle" (In cautarea castelului din Carpati) was made by the Romanian Television (TVR). In this 50 minutes film, the SF writer Ion Hobana advanced a theory sustaining that the castle that served as an inspiration to Jules Verne was the Colt Fortress from Hateg (nowdays Romania).









The fortress belonged to the Romanian noble family of the area named Candea and was raised in the first half of the XIV century. Later, the noble family changed their religion, becoming catholic and the name was also changed for the Hungarian resonance Kendeffy.



Verne apparently never visited Transylvania, but was inspired, as he recognizes, in the beginning of his book, by the works of the traveler Elisee Reclus. The action takes place in the Retezat mountains and, in the French novel, the baron Gortz (Gorj in Rmanian), is a really interesting counterpart of count Dracula. Another similar novel was written in 1842 by Karl Adolf von Wachsmann and was entitled The Stranger in Carpathians (L’Étranger des Carpathes).









The Colt fortress is in ruins, as the local authorities have no chance of creating a funding program that could be sustained by the state of Romania. The Kendeffy family as legal heirs, didn`t took their property back yet. The sad view of the fortress and the church from the base of the mountain keep their secrets, legends and ghosts. Until a few years ago, when monks established near the place, devilish voices of persons who danced in strange lights could be heard from the valley.



The Carpathian Castle online (English):

https://archive.org/details/castleofcarpathi00vern

Valdemar Case 2
21:53 Jan 16 2017
Times Read: 594

Today I talked with one of the best photographers in Romania and my old friend from School, Radu A.

He assured me of his assistance, so I will have a good image for my movie!

Yay!!



So I almost have my team:



Cast:

M. Valdemar - the dying widow: Bendis

Mr. P. - the mesmerist: Myself

Dr. F. - the medical assistant of the experiment: Bogdan M.





Image: Radu A.

Script and editing: Myself

Drawings and poster: Valy Slayer





I only have to attract two people in the project : mr. George D. S. to create my music (and I think I will add this after finishing the editing of the material) and mr. H. who would be my directing consultant and my lines advisor and maybe he will help me distributing the movie, since he stayed a long time in US.



I will also need a very good person on special effects and makeup.

Valdemar Case 1
23:15 Jan 02 2017
Times Read: 627

I started to make a short horror movie after Poe`s Valdemar Case.

The plot is closely based on the story and also inspired by a Lovecraft tale.

A mesmerist wants to prolong the life of a dying man using hypnosis but he dies in strange circumstances. (Un)fortunately his recorded material is inherited by his nephew(me) and he finds a Romanian dying lady, Ms. Valdemar(Bendis) who accepts to be hypnotized right before her death. All the experiment is recorded on camera by a young doctor(my colleague, Bogdan) who is witness to a macabre chain of strange events.

I already have the cast and I might get some help from a fellow film director and a photographer for shooting. If the project will close to an end I hope to attract a friend of mine who will compose the music. I will do the directing and the script and the promotion of the movie. I already have a list of 20 film festivals where I might send the movie.



Unfortunately the things are moving slowly if I ignore the production progress. I barely managed to translate 3/4 of Poe`s story into Romanian. The movie will be shot into English but this translation will help my actors a lot. I also read a lot about mesmerism, hypnotism, lungs disease and near death experiences.



Wish me luck. I hope I can start shooting in the spring and end everything in the beginning of autumn 2017.