Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Movie
German title Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Original title Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Country of production USA , Japan
original language English
Publishing year 1994
length 123 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Kenneth Branagh
script Mary Shelley (novel)
Steph Lady
Frank Darabont
production Francis Ford Coppola
James V. Hart
John Veitch
music Patrick Doyle
camera Roger Pratt
cut Andrew Marcus
occupation

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is an American film from 1994. The film opened in German cinemas on January 5, 1995.

The film sticks closely to its original Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley , which has already been filmed several times. Only the ending has been modified to a large extent and contains elements from earlier film adaptations, especially with regard to the fate of Frankenstein's fiancé Elizabeth.

action

At the end of the 18th century, the Swiss doctor and researcher Victor Frankenstein succeeded in creating an artificial creature from body parts in his laboratory in Ingolstadt . When he sees the creature in front of him, however, he has doubts about what he is doing. The next morning, the creature has disappeared from the laboratory without a trace. With a cholera epidemic raging at the same time , Frankenstein hopes the creature will fall victim to it. The creature, on the other hand, searches for its creator. It finally finds Frankenstein and ensures that the Frankenstein's nanny is lynched . Then the creature demands that Frankenstein create a bride from the corpse of the nanny. Frankenstein tries to escape with his fiancée, but the creature kills Elizabeth. Frankenstein brings Elizabeth back to life with his knowledge of death, but she commits suicide when she realizes what a horrible creature she has become. Thinking about revenge, he now pursues his creature into the eternal ice of the Arctic Ocean . There he is found by the crew of a ship, tells his story and dies. The creature also appears and mourns its "father". She refuses the offer of the ship's crew to take her away and burns herself with Frankenstein's body.

Differences to the template

The film is very similar to the book, but it has some differences:

  • The essence of Victor Frankenstein's creature in the film (played by Robert De Niro) does not resemble that described in the novel. There the being is described as yellowish and with visible veins and black hair.
  • In the film, Frankenstein brings his fiancee Elizabeth back to life. In the book this does not happen at all, Frankenstein does not even try to bring Elizabeth back because he had already recognized earlier that it would be nonsensical. This female "monster" then stands between the creator and the monster in the film because both desire her.
  • The monkey hand shown in the film, which is brought to life, does not appear in the book.
  • In the film, Frankenstein wears a beard. In the original novel, however, he is usually depicted as "shaved".
  • In the film, he uses the parts of corpses that were in a cemetery to create the creature. In the book, however, it is not explained where he gets the body or parts of the body from. The change refers to one of the first film adaptations of Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff in the role of the monster.
  • Crowd scenes play a bigger role in the film: In Ingolstadt during an epidemic, in Geneva when Justine was executed by the mob (in the book she is officially executed after a court hearing).
  • Frankenstein's friend Henry is also a medical student in the film and the two only get to know each other in Ingolstadt; in the novel, both childhood friends and Henry are more interested in philosophy and literature.
  • The people in whose vicinity the being in the film lives are a family consisting of mother, father, two children and the grandfather. The book is about the father and his two children who have to live in poverty due to adverse circumstances.
  • Elisabeth does not visit Victor in Ingolstadt in the novel.

Reviews

“While the film creates a dramatic picture of the living conditions and predispositions of the young Frankenstein in the first half, after the creation of the“ monster ”it breaks down into episodic descriptions of the dichotomy between creator and creature. The design, which is initially interesting from a stylistic point of view, stands in the way of the main character's lack of demonia and the not consistently convincing characterization of the creature as a victim.

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

The film received an Oscar nomination for best makeup in 1995 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used