varingblaarFrankenstein by Guillermo del Toro
Spoiler warning: If you haven't seen Frankenstein, I suggest you do so before going any further. If this spoils it for you, it's not my fault.You have been warned.
This has been on my to-watch list since it landed on Netflix, but because it's a longer movie I hadn't made the time until now. I'm a big fan of Guillermo del Toro so it was important for me to be in the right mindset when I sat down to watch. I was not disappointed.
Sight and Sound
This is del Toro at his best. You can literally pause at any moment and it's a perfect picture. Lighting, composition, how people fill the frame, how the camera moves. It's all beautiful, even when grotesque. Every little details is deliberate, from wardrobe to set dressing.
Red seems to be a motif for Victor. From childhood there's a red scarf. Later when working with the cadavers the red gloves, which might be to hide blood but could also be a stylistic choice. Later he wears a red jacket, and whenever he has a visionary dream his bedding is red.
The music is fitting for this era, but also fitting of the Gothic tone of the movie. There's a melancholy creepiness throughout the movie. In parts it reminds me a bit of Edward Scissor Hands, but that might also be how the monster was portrayed...
Frankenstein's Monster
He's a big, tall, lean figure but his demeanour is vulnerable. Especially when we're just introduced. His childlike fascination with everything around him, only to be locked away in a basement never to see anything. Once he breaks out, through a traumatic experience, he gets to see the real world. When he shares berries with a deer, it's with kind, curious eyes he looks at the animal. And immediately he is again met with violence, but of a different form. He isn't violent or dangerous by nature, regardless of his strength. Our fear of "otherness" teaches him so.
Jacob Elordi is billed as "the Creature" and throughout the movie I think they call him the same. Or "it", I guess. But Elordi strikes a balance. He's clumsy, curious and kind. Then he's intimidating, brutal and unforgiving.
Baron Victor Frankenstein
Oscar Isaac is perfect for this. The obsessive way he talks about his work borders on mania. I don't remember the book particularly well, it's been decades since I read it, but I remember Victor being a spoiled brat. I quite like this more emo version of Victor. Having a troubled childhood gives his actions purpose. It also explains why his behaviour towards the Creature is so aggressive and uncaring. That's how his father taught him. It's all he knows. For all his knowledge of the human anatomy, he knows nothing of people.
Definite Rewatch Material
It feels like someone asked "If your favourite director could make any movie, what would it be?" The answer is "Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein" and that's exactly what we got. This is not my favourite movie, I don't believe in such a thing, but this is up there. I will definitely be watching this again, and if I find out someone hasn't seen it I will sit them down and watch it with them.
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