Electrobiology

Electrobiology

Whale's Frankenstein is a beautiful film.  Every shot is marvelously composed and the camera lingers on images longer than any contemporary horror film would dare.  

The opening two minutes alone (I mean after the fun intro/warning) are better than almost everything else I've seen all year.  I've seen a lot of movies this year.  Only a small handful have been this good.

A single pan across a crowd of mourners in a cemetary ending at a fence line.  A slick cut to the faces of two men hiding and watching from behind the fence, followed by another cut back to the fence line, then a perfect pan back across the mourners, ending with the image of a solitary figure left behind to fill in the grave.  Truly perfect.

The cinematographer was Arthur Edeson.  I checked out his IMDB page and found that this wasn't his only impressive film.  I'm not sure who deserves the final credit, but the photography is to be praised. 

I don't even need to mention that the art design is magical.

And that the story has some key element that allows it to rise above; a moral calling.

Brandon, you wrote:
"I don’t want to come off as someone who doesn’t enjoy a stupid horror feature. I’m not above them and I don’t pretend to believe that every film should aspire to some higher moral calling."

I'll come across as that guy.  Because I am that guy.  We may truly disagree on this, but I don't think so.  I think that despite your protesting, you're that guy, too.  At the risk of sounding snobbish, I'll also insist that you are above both genuinely stupid movies AND the people who like them.

I can't enjoy a stupid horror feature.

I do believe that every film should aspire to some higher moral calling.  

Unlike Tarkovsky (God bless his soul), I don't think that a moral sensibility has to exclude "mere" entertainment or silly fun.  

For example, I can enjoy Raimi's exaggerated slapstick physicality as a celebration of the body's general absurdity while simultaneously benefiting from the strict moral code that the heroine fails to recognize, let alone follow.  We're all implicated in her petty sin of unkindness.  The lesson may be give a gypsy whatever she wants, especially when she begs.  It is that simple, but it's not.  From first to last, our heroine is unrepentant and self-centered and we identify with her.  Eh, I won't write anymore until I get the chance to re-view the film on DVD.

Anyhow, Frankenstein.  I'm so glad that films like this still exist and haven't been lost and forgotten.  I may have been late to join the crowd, but I'm here now and I'll join in the adoration.  Here is a beautiful film.