Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Forget everything you think you know about Frankenstein. Watch this film as a late example of the gothic fiction craze that started with Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto in 1764. His melodramatic thriller-chiller was the first novel to make use of the now overworked stock features of isolated mansions, hauntings, hereditary secrets, comely young women in peril, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. While the 18th-century public gobbled up the novels that followed in Walpole's footsteps, critics dismissed them as sensationalist drivel.

It took a woman author, Ann Radcliff, to gain some respect for the new genre. In Radcliff's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), she began to develop the concept of the explained supernatural, in which apparently unearthly plot twists were eventually traced back to natural causes. That, and the high-minded nature of her heroines, were looked on with favor by readers and critics alike.
A few years passed, a new century turned, and the gothic novel had grown stale enough to be parodied by such august authors as Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey, 1818). Mary Shelley took a different tack. In response to a celebrated ghost story competition proposed by Romantic poet Lord Byron, she penned a tale of obvious horror in which the true terror resides unseen within men's souls.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) as directed by Kenneth Branagh is a fairly faithful screen adaptation of the novel. It begins in 1794 (only coincidence that's the year of Udolpho's publication?) with a sea captain on a doomed voyage to find the North Pole encountering Victor Frankenstein who is pursuing the murderous creature he brought to life. The rest of the tale is narrated by Frankenstein and takes us back to the horrifying death of his mother in childbirth, his adolescent fascination with atmospheric and other scientific experiments, and his medical education at Ingoldstat University.

Throughout Frankenstein's quest to rescue mankind from inevitable death, Shelley plays with the notion of modern science marrying itself to the long-held philosophy of alchemy. These two oppositional ways of thinking dominated the scientific debates of the 18th century. Throughout the tale, Dr. Frankenstein overflows with an excess of passion, intelligence and creativity. The sensibility is the essence of baroque--it made me think of the opera seria that Tito sang. In addition to directing, Kenneth Branagh played Victor Frankenstein with a solemn, energetic frankness that made this larger-than-life character utterly believable.

I also have to say a few words about Robert De Niro as The Creature. He's never been my favorite actor, but De Niro brings such exquisite sensitivity to the role, especially in scenes where he draws near the world of men and contemplates his possible place in it, that we root for the misshapen being despite his monstrous actions.

Mary Shelley turned the gothic novel on its ear. While remaining true to the established features, she crafted a much deeper tale of morality and personal spirtuality. In case you haven't realized by now, I enjoyed the film very much. My only criticism is the overstylization of some of the sets, and that's just piffle. Highly recommended.