Word: shelleys
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Antonin Artaud's The Concl, was written by the man who coined the "theater of cruelty" movement. And the story of The Concl, a murderous, incestuous Roman family of the late sixteenth century, is certainly cruel enough (Shelley used it when he wanted to write a blood-and-thunder Jacobean verse drama). Director Phill Hass is usually good at bright more or less esoteric Continental playwrights to English audiences, and The Concl should be a worthwhile evening. At Lehman Hall, tonight, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and next weekend...
...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...