Word: frankenstein
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Helena Bonham Carter's role as Frankenstein's fiancee Elizabeth has been rewritten from Shelley's domestic angel into a well-dressed bundle of Gothic spitfire. Her courage in facing the horror of Frankenstein's unnatural creations is far greater than his own self-absorbed cowardice...
...overall ineptness of the narration and dialogue in "Frankenstein," and its strangely schizophrenic nature should not keep audiences away. The film is certainly worth seeing, since, like its monster, it is gruesome on the surface, but wants honestly to redeem itself. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is powerful enough to make even "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein an enjoyable film. And just wait till you see its beating heart...
...years ago, Mary Shelley stayed awake all night writing a story "to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart." Her Frankenstein has kept generations of readers up in the nights since, but perhaps no group more than the film makers. Kenneth Branagh's new film, "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", is yet another rebirth of the monster that has tested the pulse of our fears in versions ranging from animated cartoons to an X-rated Andy Warhol film...
Branaugh's "Frankenstein" purports to be faithful to the novel (see review below). Adopting a different approach altogether, the dark and mesmerizing "The Spirit of the Beehive" explores the effect of the 1931 "Frankenstein" on a young girl in Franco's Spain during World War II. As the girl becomes deeply involved in a fantasy of the Karloff film, the world surrounding her begins eerily to echo the film. It often resembles a dark version of "Cinema Paradiso," stressing the importance of the child's imagination in creating her personal world. The 1977 new wave classic Eraserhead subjects a version...
...original inspiration for all these celluloid Frankensteins is James Whale's 1931 film which in fact takes only minimal plot elements from Mary Shelley's novel. Karloff's monster stands out in a production which is in many ways simply a Hollywood fluff treatment of the story. This time around, the handsome Dr. Frankenstein animates a monster who terrorizes the countryside, and Frankenstein's lovely fiancee, until he is hunted down and dies in a bizarre finale sequence at a windmill...