The Bride of Frankenstein and Soviet Contributions

Before the screening, I thought this week’s film, The Bride of Frankenstein, was going to just be your stereotypical cheesy horror movie. I was so wrong. At first I thought it was hilarious because of the woman’s over exaggerated screams and flamboyant reactions. Even when the man and the wife who had lost their daughter in the beginning were both drowned by the monster, I still felt like the film was cheesy and stereotypical. It was only when the monster found the old man who played music that my feelings and predictions of the film changed. The monster seemed more real once he found the music. He seemed to soften and become a whole “person” with this old man. The old man noticed him listening and invited him in. This scene was honestly so touching. We find out that the old man is blind and because of this, he is kind to the monster. Then, its right back to the comedy when the man teaches the monster to speak. “Food” “drink” “smoke” “fire” “good” “bad”. This was probably my favorite scene, or one of my favorites, in the whole movie. This brief kind scene was interrupted by the two men who were lost. One of my favorite scenes turns in to one of my least favorite scenes in the movie. The men see the monster and go after him, attack him, and in the process the old blind man’s house gets destroyed and set on fire. The worst part is when the two men take the blind man away and we never know what happens to him. After watching the film, I understand why they call it “the crown jewel of universal”.

The Soviets contributed a great deal in terms of editing films. Some would argue that Eisenstein contributed the most in the way of editing. He made juxtaposing popular and it gave films new meaning without using words to describe the situation.Eisenstein wasn’t worried about how the cutting of the film would look, but he was concerned about doing purposeful cuts to vital information. Scenes were spread out, an example being the baby carriage falling in the Odessa Steps Sequence from Battleship Potemkin. This scene is packed full of suspense because it takes several shots to get to the resolution and see that the man has either hit the baby, or the woman but you don’t know which because of the editing. The Soviets also trained artist-engineers to produce work to show the importance of new technology. They were concerned with producing work as propaganda for the new communist state. The All Union State Institute of Cinematography trained actors and technicians in Agitki. Agitki is political propaganda newsreels that were edited especially to spread propaganda and agitate the people.

“They acknowledged the powers of planes, automobiles, and locomotives, of dynamic machines, to transform time and space.” This quote interested me because, even then, they relied on technology to make movies and special effects. Even if a film is trying to be futuristic, the technology definitely dates the film.