At the very beginning of Frankenstein, the first scene we see is a man stood in front of a curtain, like we see in a theatre. He then gives a warning to the viewers on what they are about to watch, he says it will terrify them. He plays a strong role in this film even though he doesn't appear in it after that as he sets the scene, he gets the audience apprehensive and on the edge of their seats even before it begins. Also the film has quite a theatrical feel to it, the set up in many scenes is very similar to one you would see in a play.
The opening credits then appear on screen with background music that is very dramatic and orchestral. The first scene is a funeral scene, the lighting is very low and the only background noise is the church bells ringing and the family sobbing. This gives a very eery feel to the film already, a graveyard is a typical horror related location to see in a film, as we associate, death, ghosts and sadness with it.
As sound in film had only been around since 1927 and Frankenstein was produced in 1931, giving it little time to evolve and improve much, the sound is sometimes a little crackly and the speech can sound a little echoey at times. There is also a lot of candles used to create atmosphere in scenes to create a dim light, leaving a lot of area dark and leaving much to the imagination as to what could be in the dark. The lighting in this film helps create a lot of atmosphere in each scene, when Henry Frankenstein and his assistant are working on creating Frankenstein, low key lighting is used. For example, in the first scene that we see them, they are digging out a body from a graveyard, the same body we have just seen being buried, the lighting is very low and it is set in the evening.
When Frankenstein was being filmed, the cameras and equipment were very heavy and difficult to maneuver, so most of the shots in this film are still. There are the occasional zooming shots and panning shots but not the huge variety we see in film today. This is interesting as the Spanish version that they filmed in the evenings included a much greater range of shots. In the scene where Henry Frankensteins fiance and friend visit his laboratory there is a long shot of the building from a low angle, making the building look daunting and evil. The mise en scene helps to create this atmosphere also, there is rain lashing down and thunder booming from the sky. Also like before there is low key lighting used and this scene is shot at night. Inside the laboratory there is lots of technical looking equipment, the room looks set up as it would be if this transformation would happen. The realistic mise en scene makes the audience believe it more, it makes them think that this could happen, therefor making the fear more intense.
They use cut aways to move the narrative on in the film, this is necessary as it is a multi strand narrative. The main story line being, Frankenstein being created, but also Henry and his fiance, will they marry? Or will Frankenstein come between them? Henry's fiance manages to persuade him that Frankenstein is coming between them and that they should marry soon.
The day of the wedding starts very cheerfully, it is daytime and lots of lighting is used. There is sounds of the church bells ringing and people laughing and cheering joyously, else where things aren't so joyous. Frankenstein escaped from the laboratory and was loose in the community. He stumbled across a young girl playing by a lake, the girl is not scared when she sees him, instead she asks him to play with her. She picks some flowers and throws them into the water, showing him how they float, he does the same only when he runs out of flowers he makes a huge mistake. He picks up the young girl and throws her into the river, he is distressed when she doesn't float and runs away leaving her to drown. This scene was such a controversial scene at the time, it was seen as too violent to be shown to the public and was taken out of the film for some time.
It then cuts back to the party in the village for the wedding, the joyful cheering turns to shock as the father of the girl carries her into the crowd and tells them she has been killed. They instantly know it was Frankenstein and set off in search for him. When they are searching for him they use low key lighting once again, also it is set at night giving the same spooky and scary atmosphere. Henry finds Frankenstein and calls for help but nobody hears him, Frankenstein beats and strangles Henry, it is fairly quiet when he is doing this, there is no screams from Henry. Frankenstein then carries Henry to the windmill, and takes him up to the top, the search party run up to the windmill, the noise becomes intense as they gather round the windmill, the hounds are yelping and the people are all shouting. Henry and Frankenstein struggle inside the windmill until Henry falls to the ground outside the windmill, he is quickly seen to. The rest of the search party then se fire to the base of the windmill and as the flames blare up, Frankenstein cry's and moans in fear. This fire scene is quite advanced for the time, pyrotechnics were not commonly used, this along with the amazing make up of Frankenstein was shockingly realistic for a film of the era.
As they did through out the film the scenes cut a lot to move the narrative on, the final scene is Henry home safe and his father toasting to the house of Frankenstein, a happy ending to a very distressing film. Frankenstein is made to look like the bad character in this film, like a monster, but Henry created him and then didn't take the blame for Frankensteins actions, I think this is a typical scenario for an early horror film. Also as the end credits roll, the actor who plays Frankenstein is only then revealed, the reason being that they didn't want the actor to be revealed before the film is watched so people would believe him to be a real monster, so they weren't just seeing an actor and this happens in most films today.
No comments:
Post a Comment