In addition to being one of the most important characters of the classic horror genre, Dracula, werewolf, invisible man, zombie and to a lesser extent the MummyOften confused with the name of its creator, Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his creature have transcended their literary origins and film adaptations to become a true pop icon, if not an extreme character.
Also the figure of the London writer Mary W. Shelley, the author of the novel published in 1818, has been supported by feminist movements in recent years. In this way, his ‘creature’ rose above the levels of fantasy and gothic story to become a character in popular culture that continues to greatly influence us since its first cinematic appearance, more than 200 years after its literary creation. Edison’s 13-minute short film and 92 Boris Karloff called him ‘Dr. Ever since he played him in Frankenstein.
New Prometheans
It is still significant that the 2005 biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and on which Christopher Nolan’s film is based, is titled ‘American Prometheus’, given that the full title of Shelley’s novel reads: ‘Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus’.
In Greek mythology, Prometheus’ defiance of the gods by stealing fire connects creation with the scientist who became one of the architects of the atomic bomb and wanted to give life to a corpse by defying God. The richness of Shelley’s work lies in the multiple interpretations he produces depending on each period: From the danger of going against the rules of God and man, to the chaos that poorly managed AI can cause.
Cinema was instrumental in making Frankenstein what it is today. Universal productions were important in the 1930s, and in the 1950s and 1960s they were the creation of the British company Hammer Films, starring Peter Cushing as the doctor and Christopher Lee among others. A patched human body and a missing brain were brought back to life with an electric current.
A 1994 production produced by Francis Ford Coppola and Robert De Niro, starring Kenneth Branagh as the creature. a somewhat spurious attempt to recapture old laurels. The version of the novel illustrated in 1983 by comic book writer Bernie Wrightson deserves special mention; The version that was more realistic than the monster concept with Karloff’s face and was very influential in later films.
Frankenstein in popular culture
But it is the same cinema that, through a wide variety of products, contributes greatly to elevating the character (characters that do not take into account the scientist and the monster) to the status of hero or anti-hero, depending on how you look at it, humanizing him or dehumanizing him. parodying it until it became a common and recognizable element of the popular imagination. Without wanting to be comprehensive, we can say this: that fascination film She plays the girl Ana Torrent in Víctor Erice’s ‘The Spirit of the Hive’ (1973), alongside Karloff..
Or Jim Sharman’s demystification of history through the gay musical and the festival mythology it created with ‘The Rocky horror picture show’ (1975), or, more respectfully than one might think, Sharman’s parody. In ‘Young Frankenstein’, Marty Feldman plays Igor, the changing hunchback played by Mel Brooks.
Conflicts with other cinematographic cultures are not far behind because Frankenstein, ‘Santo and the Blue Demon vs. In Doctor Frankenstein (1973) he was dealing with – in jest – masked Mexican wrestlers. and was even an opponent of a ‘kaiju’ monster in ‘Frankenstein vs.’ Baragon’ (1965), directed by Ishiro Honda, who directed the first Godzilla.
Even Andy Warhol, the most popular artist of all, sunk his teeth into ‘Meat for Frankenstein’ (1973)., was shot in 3D by his collaborator Paul Morrissey. Tim Burton did his special reading with a reanimated dog in ‘Frankenweenie’ (1984 short and 2012 feature film), and Doctor Frankenstein shared the spotlight with other key fantasy characters from the ‘Penny Dreadful’ series (Dorian Gray, Mina Harker, the werewolf). .'(2014-2016).
And Frankenstein created woman
Long before Yorgos Lanthimos, with the complicity of Emma Stone, decided to turn the creature brought back from the dead by a mad genius into a woman in ‘Poor Creatures’, cinema had already suggested this significant gender change. ‘Dr. Frankenstein’s director, James Whale, directed the 1935 masterpiece ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’. The story in which the Doctor conjures a woman to provide female companionship for his immortal creature.
Hammer’s Terence Fisher filmed the also very interesting ‘The Woman Created by Frankenstein’ (1967); In this movie, they brought back to life a young woman who committed suicide; in any case, The film raises issues of a decidedly sexual rather than feminist nature. Interesting, if not successful, was Franc Roddam’s British production ‘The Bride’ (1985); where Doctor Frankenstein, played by Sting, would create Jennifer Beals’ newly released Eva from ‘Flashdance’ to be his servant. We’re not too far from ‘Poor Creatures’.
The feminist character of the original novel was confirmed more by films about the author herself than by films adapting her work. On the one hand, there is ‘Mary Shelley’ (2017), a ‘biography’ by Saudi director Haifaa Al-Mansour, starring Elle Fanning.
The film follows verbatim articles published in the 1970s that recast Shelley’s feminist role: He is an advocate of free love and opposes most conservative society because of his ideas about emotional relationships and artHe transferred some of his frustrations about the world he lived in to ‘Frankenstein’.
One night at Villa Diodati
Similarly, there are films inspired by the famous night of 17 June 1816 at the Villa Diodati estate in Switzerland, although they are based on a choral portrait. Mary, her future husband and poet Percy B. Shelley, her half-sister Claire Clairmont, Lord Byron, and his assistant and personal physician John Polidori spent several days at the house.
On the night before summer, Byron encouraged them to write a gothic story. Byron and Shelley soon forgot about the plot, but Mary outlined her novel and Polidori outlined a story. napoleonic wars – later published as ‘Ernestus Berchtold, or the modern Oedipus’ – and the tales of the ‘Vampire’ story were considered the basis of this trend.
Ken Russell’s ‘Gothic’ (1986), Ivan Passer’s ‘Tormented Summer’ (1988) and Gonzalo Suárez’s ‘Rowing with the Wind’ (1988) evoke that creative night in various ways, both literary and focused on relationships. Love, hate or addiction between five characters. Mary Shelley is played by Natasha Richardson, Alice Krige, and Lizzy McInnerny, respectively; Elizabeth Hurley is among the least known figures in Suárez’s film; Claire Clairmont and Hugh Grant play romantic poet Lord Byron and José Luis Gómez in the same film. To Polidori.