Movie Review - Frankenstein

 Frankenstein- The Modern Prometheus

The Novel ‘Frankenstein- The Modern Prometheus’ is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. Shelley started writing this novel when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name appeared in the second edition published in Paris in 1821. Lord Byron’s suggestion of a ghost story competition to while away their Swiss holiday inspired Shelley’s Frankenstein. She named the scientist Frankenstein, getting inspired from the ‘Frankenstein castle’ in Germany.

This Novel is dark it has lot of death and murder. The major theme of the novel is ‘Danger of pursuing knowledge.’

Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein - The Modern Prometheus’ has inspired a number of films from 1910, The first adapted movie was ‘Frankenstein (1910)’ American short silent horror film produced by Edison studios and Directed by James Searle Dawley to ‘The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015)’ as a British television period crime drama series that was first aired on ITV encore. Among these, the movie which was most faithful and close to the novel is Frankenstein (1994) directed by Kenneth Branagh who stars as Victor Frankenstein, despite several differences and additions to the plot of the novel.  

Casting in the movie:

• Robert De Niro- Creature
• Kenneth Branagh - Victor Frankenstein
• Tom Hulce- Henry Clerval
• Helena Carter- Elizabeth Lavenza
• Hannah Gordon- Young Elizabeth
• Ian Holm- Alphonse Frankenstein
• John Cleese - prof. Dr. Waldman 
• Aidan Quinn - Robert Walton
• Richard Briers-  blind grandfather
• Robert Hardy - Professor Krempe
• Trevyn McDowell - Justine Moritz
• Celia Imrie - Mrs. Moritz
• Cherie Lunghi- Caroline Frankenstein
• Ryan Smith  -  William Frankenstein

Roger Pratt was the cinematographer of the film. There is awesome heavy use of circular cameras where the camera is just walking around the subjects in multiple scenes. I think it was a little overused. It makes me nauseating sometimes. 

Victor Frankenstein and Elizabeth Lavenza, both very well played characters in the film. Here, the monster is very understated, Robert DeNiro plays pretty well, He gets the good makeup and stitches. The movie is extremely fast- pace we don’t get any breathing time to connect with the main characters. The movie has a much more dramatic direction than the book did.

Similarities in the original text and movie:

Frame of movie:

The Movie ‘Frankenstein (1994)’ is closest to the narrative of Mary Shelley’s Novel in comparison to many other movie adaptations as it has preserved the narrative of the novel. Most adaptations of this novel have entirely removed the subplot of Arctic explorer Robert Walton as an listenser of Frankenstein's memories as in the novel. While in ‘The curse of Frankenstein (1957)’  narrates his story to someone unfamiliar. However, ‘Frankenstein (1994)’ does not only retain Robert but performs the same role and also in the same setting - The Arctic.

Creature:

The presentation of the creature is also significantly laid out the same as in the Novel. In the original novel the creature educates himself and becomes fluent and intellectually sophisticated and similarly in the Novel. Many other adaptations instead present the creature as unclear and stupid.

Device of writing:

The Novel is related through an epistolary narrative structure, and there are frequent references to writing--the characters write each other letters, Frankenstein keeps records of his experiments, etc. shows the characters writing or using objects associated with writing, film too gives same emphasises on writing.

When Victor was departing to study at Ingolstadt, his father presented him with a gift from his late mother-a journal. The journal itself is blank, except for his mother's inscription noting that it is Victor Frankenstein's journal and will be filled with his deeds. In the same journal Victor writes about the creation of Creature which later helps Creature to know about his existence. The emphasis on the journal as a treasured gift also establishes the importance of writing to these characters, and it is one that is echoed throughout the film. After Victor brings the creature to life, he records his disappointment in his journal. Significantly, he also notes to himself that the journal will be destroyed to keep his experiment secret. This scene affirms the importance of writing. He may have stopped writing to his family, but that doesn't mean he stopped writing.

After Victor leaves for Ingolstadt, writing is used as a gauge of his mental health. Initially, he writes to his cousin and love interest, Elizabeth, as well as the rest of his family regularly. One scene shows Elizabeth reading aloud one of his letters to the other members of the household, as Victor recounts his friend Clerval's difficulties in passing anatomy. A separate, more intimate letter is included to her in which he fantasizes about their wedding night. She refuses to share this letter with the others. This scene emphasizes the importance of writing within the context of the film.

Victor and The Creature as Doubles:

In the Novel, the creature seeks revenge on Victor for creating him and abandoning him. He pursues Victor and then kills his younger brother. Toward the end, the situations have been reversed, and Victor is pursuing the creature to take revenge for Elizabeth's murder. 

These elements are present in the film adaptation, but the film makes this connection even more apparent in its presentation of the story. The scene where this doubling is most evident is after Elizabeth's death. Earlier, Victor had agreed to create a bride for the creature but realising the consequences he decided to destroy her instead. The creature swore vengeance and promised Victor that he would also be deprived of a wedding night. These elements are all present in the book.

Difference between film and Novel:

The film removes any reference to the Safie subplot from the novel. However, the film's most obvious changes are the portrayals of the deaths of both Justine and Elizabeth. In the original novel, both die. That is one significant difference between this film adaptation and many others- many films do not portray the women dying onscreen or even rewrite the plot so that the one or both of the female characters live. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein preserves the women's deaths. However, the details of their deaths in Branagh's film are quite different from the source text.

No time is given in the movie for any time of character development while we can clearly learn about the character’s in the novel. We don’t even get time to see how Victor is digesting the things that happened to him. We cannot  get closely connected to or empathize with the movie characters. The movie is relying more on music and is really little more sometime.

Creature:

In the book the creature is 8 feet tall but the monster in the movie is about the same height as Victor Frankenstein, He is not that menacing as pictured in the Novel. We don’t get insight into the monster in the movie as much we do in a book. A scene in a movie where creature comes alive and victor realises he made a mistake. In the movie there comes an awkward scene where Victor tries to get off two legs they slip and roll and finally chains it up and is just kind of nowhere to realise what he has done and says “What have I done! What have I done!” The novel does a better job here - putting over the head of the creature holds the creature and just realises how hideous and ugly it is and there is no way that anyone would accept him in the society and he is horrified by it.

Justine’s Death:
In the Novel, Justine is accused as the murderer of Victor's brother, William. However, the death occurs after a trial and is not described by witnesses. Indeed, Victor mentions the death and moves on. In the movie, Justine's hanging is graphically portrayed. Not only is the hanging viewed by the audience, but it is essentially a mob lynching with no trial to precede her demise.

Elizabeth’s death:

Elizabeth's corpse is briefly described in the original source text, but her actual death scene in which the creature strangles her is not narrated. In the film, however, her death is explicitly portrayed and is far more graphic than her fate in the book. In the film, the creature does not kill her by strangling her; instead, he rips out her heart. He then knocks her onto the floor, causing her to slam her face against a nightstand with a candle on it. As a result, her face and hair catch on fire. All of those actions are portrayed onscreen. Afterward, Victor takes her corpse home to reanimate her, it is clearly implied that Victor beheads her. The camera lingers on him stitching her head onto Justine's corpse. After her reanimation, the scars and after effects of his surgery and the injuries she sustained from the creature's attack are clearly depicted. She then burns herself, once Victor and the creature start fighting over her. The camera again lingers as she runs through the house, engulfed in flames, before plunging to her death. In the film, it is not enough that Elizabeth dies, she must die in a particularly graphic way, not even once but twice. 

References:

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro, and Helena Bonham Carter. TriStar Pictures, 1994. DVD. 

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus. 2nd ed. Ed. Susan Wolfson. 1818. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print. 

Link to read The Novel 'Frankenstein - The Modern Prometheus' online

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