Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Different Film Techniques

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Different Film Techniques

Compare and contrast the way in which the directors of 'Mary Shelley's

Frankenstein' (1994) and 'Frankenstein' (1931) use different film

techniques to build up atmosphere in their opening sequences:

The two films I will be addressing in this essay are Kenneth Branagh's

and James Whale's versions of 'Frankenstein', a horror novel written

by Mary Shelley in 1816, when the author was 19. The incentive for it

was provided by the famous poet, Byron, who was a friend of Mary

Shelley and suggested they write horror stories as a pastime. His was

never published. Many adaptations have been made for cinema in the 20th

century, those addressed in this essay being the most significant.

I hope to compare and contrast the opening sequence in each film,

based on the most successful aspects of their filmmaking, namely, use

of camera, sound, editing, lighting and colour and mise en scène (i.e.

setting, props, costume, body language of actors and make-up).

The first film I will be analysing will be 'Frankenstein', directed by

James Whale. It is a black and white adaptation, released in 1931,

which was a period in Hollywood's history commonly considered a

'golden age'- Hollywood was young but its films considered innovative

and impressive, and the success of this film is what launched Boris

Karloff's legendary career. When released, it was considered so

terrifying that those of weak dispositions were discouraged from

viewing it- both on posters advertising the film and in a short

prologue at the beginning of the film.

The film was shot by Universal Pictures, a powerful Hollywood studio,

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and special techniques available at the time. In James Whale's version

this is the theme of science versus religion, whereas in Kenneth

Branagh's it is the theme of the unnatural violence that the monster

is capable of. This is why I believe the two films differ so much- the

older version does not need high sound quality or subtlety- it simply

needs to show its audience the sacrilege that Dr. Frankenstein is

committing in digging up the graveyard. However, for this reason, the

newer version requires strong special effects and state of the art

sound quality- the horror is in the reality and the reality cannot be

achieved if the above look even remotely unrealistic. This is why the

atmosphere of the two sequences is so different (and therefore the

techniques used to create it, too), yet they are both so successful.