Story of My Death

The maverick Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra is known for his radical and minimal cinematic interpretations of great literature. In his acclaimed new film (which won the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival), Serra gives us a dreamy period piece that finds an aging Giacomo Casanova coming face-to-face with a new age being ushered in—as embodied in the form of Dracula. Rather than the campy results you might expect, Serra and his nonprofessional actors present a cinematic vision rich with metaphor and characters that become symbols of history in flux. (148 mins., DCP)