This was my first time seeing the movie
Frankenstein, and it was everything that I expected--this movie has been out
for 85 years now, and spoilers and references have been around for equally as
long. One thing that really stood out to me in this movie was the clear message
that there is a fine line between life and death. There are many interactions
on screen showing Victor and the symmetry between life and death.
There are many things towards the
beginning of the film that are also reciprocated at the end to bring full
circle this concept of life and death. In the beginning of the film, Victor and
Igor go to the cemetery to gather body parts for Victor’s monster. When they
were standing behind the fence post, it looked as though their faces were
enclosed in squares, similar to that of the spinning wheel in the Windmill
tower at the end of the movie where the monster dies. We also discussed in
class that the spinning wheel is remint of a film reel. The idea of buildings
is also very important in this film because Frankenstein’s monster was created
in an abandoned windmill tower, and he also dies in a (functioning) windmill.
The abandonment of a building such as a windmill is like the architectural
death—so in a sense this was a dead building, and Victor brought it to life by
inhabiting it, by having his lab in this tower. There is a sense of a chiasmic
relationship between the monster’s life and death and location of both:
Frankenstein’s monster was brought to life in a dead windmill tower, and died
in a windmill tower that was still functioning.
The way in which
Frankenstein’s monster was brought to life and then died is also very symmetrical.
He was given life by the electricity in a storm and he died in a fire, which
are both sort of like organic catalysts. Another display of life and death was
shown in the classroom when the cadaver was wheeled in with a piece of cloth
covering the body. Oddly enough, the cloth that was draped over the cadaver had
a large hole in the center panel that should have been concealing between the
area between the legs. There is quite a long and lingering shot of this. There
is definitely an interesting shot that was takes, and I think that the white
cloth can be interpreted as a veil or line between life and death, the living
and the dead.
I think that it's great that you brought up the parallels of life and death. After viewing "Frankenstein", I considered many of the contrasting ironies such as human versus nonhuman or human versus monster. The lines separating these correspondences are often blurred in the film in terms of both Frankenstein and his monster. However, I didn't even think about the comparisons of life and death in the movie, which is probably the most obvious. The monster is neither living nor dead really. He has "returned" from the dead, and therefore fits into a category with other monstrous beings such as zombies, ghosts, etc. I would love to do more research on the history of the monster in order to delve into the ideologies behind death and the return of the dead to the living world, since it seems to be such a common returning theme, especially in the realm of horror and haunts.
ReplyDeleteI never realized that the building the monster was created in was an abandoned windmill--super interesting! You point out some great parallels between earlier parts of the movie and its final scenes. This was my first time actually watching this movie as well, and I think it's interesting how people are so familiar with the monster and the basic story of Frankenstein even though they've never actually seen the movie. I have read the novel a few times though, and I think it would be interesting to read it one more and to watch the movie immediately after finishing. I'd like to take the parallels you identify in the movie and see if there are corresponding ones in the novel.
ReplyDelete