Word: shelleys
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...that, for him, seems to be exactly the point. The method makes this fairly clear: He has liberated himself from some of the most basic and demanding elements of film-making--story, dramatic rhythm, setting, scene structure--by co-opting the great plot of the Mary Shelley novel and faithfully copying the set design and scene sequence of the original film. He gives himself the freedom to make puns, play with sight gags, and concoct outrageously incongruent scenes--which is after all what he does best--without having to worry about the basics, which are already taken care of. This...
...ancient-sounding though perfectly intelligible sound track, astonishingly authentic-looking sets, and lots of dry ice on the ground. In a different way he shows even more respect for the book. The romantic writers were preoccupied with the relationship between artist and creation, and in her novel Mary Shelley explored the consequences of the creator's inability to accept responsibility for his creation. One only has to see Young Frankenstein with his arms around the monster, affectionately crooning, "This is a good boy...this is a mother's angel," to recognize that Brooks has overturned the greatest stereotype...
...conclude from Claire Tomalin's biography that had Mary Wollstonecraft not stoked herself up for Rights of Women, she would probably have ended up as only a historical footnote: radical editor and translator; wife of Philosopher William Godwin; mother of Mary Godwin, future wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and author of Frankenstein...
Perhaps it is too much to suppose that Mary Shelley had her mother in mind when she created the arrogant genius Dr. Frankenstein and subtitled her novel The Modern Prometheus. How much better a tribute than Father Godwin's female Werther: Mary Wollstonecraft, having stolen the fires of social equality for her sex, chained and suffering on the rock of her female biology...
Larkish Script. The bedrock of all Brooks films is frenzy; the nominal subject of Young Frankenstein-the skyhook for all the madness-is a satirical exhumation of Mary Shelley's classic. The Shelley story ought to have turned wormy by this time from virtually constant exposure. It is, however, still a powerful myth. One good measure of its resiliency is that even when Brooks is lampooning it, the story remains compelling, nearly inviolate. When Gene Wilder's Dr. Frankenstein tries to zap life into a grotesque, inanimate form, the movie goes serious despite itself. The myth is better...