Yesterday, I got to see Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein at the Paris Theater, in 35mm, with GDT in attendance for a Q&A after. It was an awesome experience, which I’ll give some of my impressions below.
The Film
This is the best adaptation of Frankenstein that I’ve seen. While not 100% faithful to Shelley’s novel, I found it comes closest to matching the major plots, and structure of the book. The film is broken into three main parts, a prelude set in the Arctic, and then followed by chapters telling the story from both Victor, and the creature’s perspectives.
The opening prelude really sets the tone nicely for the film. We see our first glimpse of the creature early on, and he is terrifying. I can’t say I’ve ever felt scared seeing past iterations of the creature, but this version, with his huge lunging frame, covered in rags, and making beastly growls, honestly made me tense up. The sound mix here is quite bass-heavy, which added to the fear and dread in these sequences.
Victor’s storyline is quite sprawling, starting as a kid, and covering the events that led him to becoming the Frankenstein that we know well. Much of what we see from Victor’s perspective are the struggles and failures throughout his life. From not living up to his father’s stringent demands (a notable underlying theme of the story), to his inability to convince his colleagues of of his seemingly far-fetched notions about life and death. Even monumental achievement of creating life from death does not satisfy Victor, and I have to say, his treatment of the creature as a result, can be difficult to watch.
The portrayal of the creature will break your heart, well it did mine at least. He is characterized by so much innocence, and vulnerability, that you just want hug, and nurture him. The words monster, blight, and abomination have become snymonmous with the creature, but I don’t think fit well here. That isn’t to say he is a gentle giant. He can be very violent, but much of that darker side is a byproduct of the circumstances, and evil men in his way.
The casting, and performances in the film are really strong. I learned from the Q&A that Del Toro wrote each character with that specific actor in mind, with one major exception. He originally wrote the Creature for Andrew Garfield, but he dropped out 9 weeks before production started. His replacement was Jacob Elordi, and I can honestly say, this is the best thing that could have happened for this film. Elordi, who’s 6’5 (vs Garfield’s 5’10”) looks every bit of the part of what I envision the creature to look like. His performance is amazing, and gives the character more humanity than other past version that I’ve seen. I’d even go as far as saying he deserves some recognition come awards season.
The visuals, and production design re all top-notch too. There’s honestly too many beautifully-photographed scenes to recall, but I was particularly impressed by the scenes set in the Arctic, as well as Victor’s gothic castle, and surrounding landscape. Interiors too, are fully-detailed, with excellent lighting. This is filmmaking on a grand-scale, and benefits greatly from from seeing it on the big screen, so I strongly recommend seeking this one out in theaters, if it’s playing near you.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is now over 200 years old, and has been adapted to screen countless times. It would be impossible for this version to feel competely fresh, but I think Del Toro did an excellent job of breathing new life into the material, and adding his unique flair and touches to it. As a I learned from the Q&A, this has been a passion project for GDT for decades now, perhaps starting when he first saw Frankenstein as an 11 year old kid n Mexico. As a fan of his work, and of the man himself, it makes me happy to see his dream film become a reality.
The Q&A
This is my second time seeing Del Toro at the Paris theater. The first being for Pinnochio back in 2022 alongside co-director Mark Gustafson.. Del Toro’s passion is infectious. You can tell just how much he loves his craft, and the people he works with by the way he speaks of them. I can’t recall everything he said, but I’ll do my best to paraphrase some stuff I took notes of. Netflix / Paris Theater did film the whole thing so hopefully it’ll be posted somewhere online (or perhaps on a future Criterion release ;)).
As I mentioned above, Garflied was the originalchoice for the Creature. When that fell through 9 weeks before production started, Del Toro didn’t freak out. He said “a mircle is going to happen:”. And then said something along the lines of “and that miracle is fucking 6’7!”
He talked about seeing Boris Karloff in Frankenstein on a Sunday jokingly saying it was church, then monsters, He was 11 years old at the time, and he said 50 years later, also on a Sunday, we’re watching his movie, so it’s come full circle.
He mentions The Spirt of the Beehive, which healso saw at a very young age, and how it made a transofmration in his life. He felt like he was that little girl in the movie. It’s a very special film for him.
As I referenced earlier, he wrote his script for specific actors. He says he does this by focusing on the actor’s eyes. He looks at their eyes, and if he sees the chacter in them, he chooses them.
He talked a few different times about real art. About somethign made by humans for hunans. He never uttered the words A.I., but very much too a strong stance against it here. Saying “people finding art in an app? Fuck that” and saying art comes from paijn. Art comes from love.
He says he couldn’ make this movie when he was younger. He had to become a father, and also come to terms with his father. He referred to past films like Crimson Peak as a dress rehearsal.
He mentioned being in discussion with Ray Harrhausen, who he became friends wtih. And Harryhausen told him to show characters in repose. His favorite moments of the creature are when it’s playing with water, or just looking at leaf. You don’t show a lion attacking, you show it resting on top of hill.
He gets asked what’s Mexican about your movies? And he says “Me. I’m fucking Mexican!” He relayed a story, where Alfonso Cuaron came to him, after he was hired to direct a Harry Potter movie. Cuaron was apparently worried about his particular style not comnig through with a major mainstream film, and Del Toro told him, it’s like a crime scene, your DNA and fingerprints are going to be all over that movie.
I really had a great time, When I first got word of the event, I checked the site and it was sold out. I refreshed, and one seat opened up. It was the far end of the front row, so not the best view, but I still feel fortunate for being able to attend it. They had a table set up with posters, which you can see in the top left pic of the collage above.
