With Hallowe'en coming, I thought I would review three films appropriate for this time of year. This is the first.
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I
would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can
scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot
satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.” ~ The Creature
“There was something at work in my soul which I do not
understand.” ~ Victor Frankenstein
“Lives come and go. If we succeed, our names will live on
forever. I will be hailed as the benefactor of our species.” ~ Captain Walton
"I'm here to become a mere doctor. I'm told that has something to do with healing the sick, which is a pity, really, because I find sick people rather revolting." ~ Henry Clerval
“I’m frightened that if I tell you the truth, I’ll lose
you.” ~ Victor Frankenstein
“You’ll lose me if you don’t.” ~ Elizabeth
In 1994, Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein came to theatres, as something of a companion film
to the earlier Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The
first film had been directed by Francis Ford Coppolla with a screenplay by
James V. Hart, and both men were producers for this adaptation of Shelley’s
classic horror novel. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, who starred as the overly
ambitious scientist trying to conquer death by creating life, the film is
overwrought and operatic at times, but also faithful to the source material,
presenting a different take on the monster and the man who created him.
The film travels back and forth in time, much of it as an
extended flashback, a story told in 1794 by a depleted Victor Frankenstein
(Branagh) to Robert Walden (Aidan Quinn), a ship’s captain in the Arctic
obsessed with reaching the North Pole. He reveals his tumultuous history,
growing up as the son of the Baron Frankenstein (Ian Holm) and his wife
Caroline (Cherie Lunghi), along with the young girl they took in when he was a
child, Elizabeth, who grew to be the woman he loved (Helena Bonham Carter). The
death of his mother in childbirth becomes the great shattering blow for the young
Frankenstein. He vows that no one ever need die.
At medical school, Victor makes friends with a classmate,
Henry Clerval (Tom Hulce), challenges his professors, including Professor
Waldman (John Cleese), who harbours his own murky secrets about experiments in
life and death. Victor begins to conduct his own experiments, heedless of the
consequences, determined to cheat death by creating life. Assembling his
creation by stitching together body parts, he brings it to life, but finds it
to be a failure, renouncing the course of action he took. His creation (Robert
De Niro), however, has other ideas.
The screenplay by Frank Darabont and Steph Lady closely
adapts the novel (though Darabont himself has stated his own issues with the
finished product). It weaves together themes like madness, selfishness, obsession,
ambition, the meaning of existence, and the consequences of actions- or
disregard for consequences- all of which run deeply through Shelley’s
narrative, which is one of the reasons it resonates so deeply as a classic. Including
the framing device of Captain Walton’s presence as a bookend for the beginning
and ending of the film was something that hadn’t been done before- the
character appears in the book, but not the various movies. It gives a different
structure to the film and different nuances than earlier versions.
The story also presents the creature in a different way.
He’s been presented in films as a sad wretch or a killing machine (and
truthfully those can be seen here), but the script gives the creature depth,
showing him as a new life trying to understand his place in the world, and
driven to destruction because he’s been rejected by the world. As time goes on,
the creature shows himself to be a mixture of intelligence and puzzlement,
scarred by a horrible appearance and capable of profound thought. His
relationship with his creator is a contrast- Victor fears what he created but
also is capable of pity for him, while the creature both hates the man who
rejected him but also views him as a father.
Branagh’s directing and cinematographic style throughout the
film tends to be grand, dramatic, over the top, and frantic at times, perhaps
best expressed in the creation sequence, with rapid edits, swooping camera
shots, and Gothic set pieces. The film has an operatic quality, perhaps to the
point where we wonder if the film itself has become something of a monster of
the director’s creation. And yet the film is also rooted deeply in horror, as
it should be. Branagh effectively brings to life an eighteenth century setting
in terms of the locations chosen for filming- the Frankenstein manor feels like
quite a grand place. The same applies to the costuming and props the crew
contribute to the film, giving an authenticity to the film. Even the machinery
Frankenstein uses feels plausible for the era.
And the look of the creature, essential to the story, is
well rendered through make up and prosthetics- De Niro looks stitched together
and scarred, limping along, as his legs are uneven; he does look like a nightmare.
The film got an Oscar nomination for its makeup effects, and that’s well
deserved. The score by Branagh’s frequent collaborator Patrick Doyle matches
the mood of the film: occasionally intimate, but often Gothic, brooding, and
operatic, rising to the point of nightmarish at times.
The cast is well chosen. Ian Holm, who had worked with
Branagh before, is well cast as Baron Frankenstein, a wise and kind man, the
patriarch of his family. Cherie Lunghi plays his wife- at least until her death
early on in the story, and they make a believable, grounded couple; the viewer
might wonder what Victor might have turned out to be like had his mother lived.
Would Victor have ended up following his dark obsession without heed of the
consequences?
John Cleese, who’s known as a comedic actor, instead plays
the professor Waldman with gravity and seriousness, no trace of the wink in the
eye that you’d expect of the actor. Tom Hulce takes what could be a cliché
character and works well with it. Henry is loyal to a fault, an intelligent man
who’s something of a bumbler at times. He befriends Victor early on, stays
friends with him, and in fact acts as a voice of conscience to him. Even if
Victor isn’t heeding Henry’s warnings of the course he’s chosen- Victor listens
too often only to his obsessions- that voice is needed, and Hulce brings that
across through the film.
Aidan Quinn’s presence at the beginning and ending of the
film, providing a framework for the story, restores Shelley’s narrative flow
from the book, and his character provides a counter balance to Victor’s
obsessions. When we first meet Captain Walton, we see a man driven by ambition
to make his place in history, so much so that he’s disregarding the discontent
of his crew, all of whom are worried about being trapped in Arctic ice and
their prospects of reaching home again. After hearing Victor’s story, and
seeing with his own eyes the creature that was the result of his obsession,
Walton is able to do what Victor could not- turn back from his ambitions before
it’s too late. He’s humbled by what he sees, takes lessons to heart, and treats
the creature with sympathy, treating him as a human being, something that the
creature has rarely experienced. It’s a good touch for the character, and the
actor conveys that personal shift- from obsession to epiphany- in the right
way.
Helena Bonham Carter is well cast as Elizabeth. The
character is a mix of seriousness, spirit, and enjoying life. There is
intelligence, life, and energy in her, in a way that you might not expect out
of a woman in the 18th century (a nod to the author herself).
Carter’s performance gives Elizabeth depth and makes her complete in and of
herself. That shows itself in how she deals with Victor- the romantic bond is
certainly believable, but she is also able to give Victor enough of an
ultimatum to pull him back from the edge. And where she ends up by film’s end
shows another side of the theme of consequences to actions- her choice
demonstrates to Victor that disregarding consequences only ends in destruction.
De Niro has the strongest performance of the cast as the Creature.
He first appears as a criminal about to be executed, but spends most of the
film as what is supposed to be a monster, and yet turns out to be a mix of
terror, pathos, and ultimately humanity. The Creature comes into a world not
knowing where he belongs, finds himself driven out by society, and out into the
wilderness. Gradually his intelligence asserts itself and he learns how to read
and speak, but his fleeting encounters with humanity tend to end badly. The
audience can feel for him- and does when we see his pain, both physical and
emotional. De Niro conveys that strongly, as well as the sense that the Creature
is ashamed of his appearance. When he is finally drawn back to the life of his
creator, we see him as something of an intellectual equal to Victor, capable of
asking deeply philosophical questions- the question as to if he has a soul
certainly is something that resonates deeply. De Niro plays the role as a mix
of pity and rage, driven by revenge over his rejection by the world.
Ultimately, however, the rage is spent, and his final act is one of compassion
and humanity- which makes the character all the more compelling.
Branagh’s take on Victor matches the film itself- Gothic and
over the top at times. His best work is opposite De Niro and Carter- especially
a conversation Victor and the Creature have amid an ice field in which Victor
is trying to make amends. It’s a quiet moment in a film that’s often frantic,
and yet it’s one of the best scenes in the film, two master actors in very different
positions having a philosophical discussion. The character though is inherently
selfish- brilliant but obsessed with his goal to the point of shutting out
everything else. At a pivotal moment late in the film, he asks not “are you
okay”, but to “say my name”, a telling sign of his selfishness. Victor is so
bound in his ambitions and his experiments that he fails to take into account
the consequences of his actions- which is one of the things that makes the
character and book so compelling. It’s the pursuit of knowledge without taking
everything into consideration that continues to make it a classic. Instead
Branagh’s Victor learns the lessons far too late of what his obsessions have
cost him. It’s only after everything he’s valued has been destroyed and taken
from him that Victor understands the penalty of ambition.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein does follow the book
closely, for the most part, and strongly delves into the themes. Two centuries
plus on, the book remains a classic because it asks difficult questions,
profound questions that challenge us. In a world with cloned sheep and the
acceleration of artificial intelligence, we would be wise to heed its lessons.
This film adaptation captures the era well, featuring strong performances in a
narrative that does go over the top and completely operatic in its scope at
times, but presents the characters with depth and humanity- especially a vengeful
Creature who has far more empathy than his creator could have imagined.
