Of all the standard monster archetypes, the vampire is both the most popular and the most ripe for Freudian interpretation, usually representing a forbidden surrender to sexuality in a repressive society. Perhaps this is why the most successful vampire films have used Victorian England as their backdrop, while more recent attempts to "update" the myth in contemporary settings have almost entirely failed to capture an audience. The most famous vampires are based on literary works, with Bram Stoker's novel Dracula spawning several hundred adaptations from 1922's Nosferatu to Francis Ford Coppola's more literal reading 70 years later. Starring in one of the earliest Dracula movies, and continuing on through many sequels, is the actor who literally defined the character and whose name has become nearly synonymous with Dracula -- the infamous Bela Lugosi. Christopher Lee was also a favorite Dracula, slinking through many of the Hammer film versions of the myth. In Europe, meanwhile, the vampire was an ongoing fascination for exploitation filmmakers like Jean Rollin. In films like Requiem for a Vampire he perfected an almost artful vision of naked women and gory menace which rivaled the greasy Gothic feeling of Roger Corman's Poe adaptations. In the '90s, vampires have turned up everywhere, as street kids in Near Dark, and being interviewed by reporters in Interview with a Vampire. Francis Ford Coppola even attempted a surrealist, MTV-influenced re-imagining of the Dracula story, cleaving more closely to the original book. J. Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla, featuring a bisexual female vampire, has also inspired countless film adaptations, one of the best being Harry Kuemel's sensual La Rouge aux Levres (1971).