Word: frankenstein
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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ROBERT DUVALL, BULKED UP INSIDE HIS military overcoat and nearly expressionless beneath a bushy mustache, looks as much like Frankenstein's monster as Joseph Stalin in HBO's new film about the Soviet dictator. Certainly his deeds are just as monstrous, and even more unfathomable. Directed by Ivan Passer, STALIN vividly chronicles the revolutionary footsoldier's rise to power and his ruthless, increasingly paranoid reign of terror. The scenes of Stalin's 1930s' purges are especially chilling, and the film gratifyingly avoids hokey re-creations of "big" historical events like the Yalta Conference. Still, despite Duvall's intense performance...
SPARKY, A PIT BULLTERRIER WITH A sweet disposition, gets run over by a car, and Victor Frankenstein (Barret Oliver), his 10-year-old master, determines to revive him using a microwave and a toaster. FRANKENWEENIE sounds like pure Tim Burton, and it is. The 27-min. Disney comedy, made in 1984 and now released as a home video, marked the debut of the director of the Batman blockbusters. This ripe tale has intimations of Burton's Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands: the undead and a wild child sundered in suburbia. But Burton's Batmanic surrealism is plenty evident here...
Allen's filming style spoofs the German expressionist genre--similarities to Frankenstein and The Seventh Seal abound. The film is shot entirely on soundstages designed by Santo Loquasto. Narrow cobblestone streets, gaslights and footbridges enhance the gloomy atmosphere. Shimmery ponds and a fake night sky further increase the mood and the comedy. Allen establishes the tone of the picture when a mystic (Charles Cragin), who uses his sense of smell to sniff out the strangler, leads to a torch-bearing mob through the winding streets...
Lest this young Einstein sound like a young Frankenstein, Williams adds that computer graphics can help make only better-looking movies, not better ones. "Essentially, this is another form of pencil," he says. "If it's in the hands of someone who can't draw, then it can't draw...
Powers cites the "exaggerated outrage, chutzpah, in-your-face" style of many slammers. He might be talking about McIntyre, whose performances involve lots of shouting and stomping. McIntyre's poem in the semi-finals turns out to be a tale of misery from Frankenstein's monster. The crowd is mesmerized. He stops, and leaves the stage...