Frankenstein: Crafting A Tale Eternal 

Written By Goldn k

Franken-ly, the creatives of the film did not come to play! 

On November 7th, Frankenstein by director Guillermo del Toro, was released on Netflix, and of course, the books being one of my favourites, I had to watch it. 

The story follows a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who is interested in bringing the dead to life—this interest stems from his grief over his mother’s death when he was a boy.

Victor would visit charnel house, graveyards, slaughterhouses, and such places to steal body parts that would become the patchwork of mismatched limbs that would be his creation. The creature is animated to life through a process that uses great amounts of electricity, sparking life in the lifeless patchwork corpse.

After playing god, Victor soon realises that bringing the monstrous creature to life was a mistake and eventually abandons his creation, leaving the creature to feel rejected when all it wanted was to be accepted. As a result, hatred consumes the creature who goes on a killing rampage as revenge on his creator. 

However, this is not a spoiler for the movie, as the movie takes a slightly different approach to the story, as the director shares his interpretation on the book.

The Frankenstein exhibition was being displayed in the Old Selfridge’s Hotel in London, which showcases the creative process from its inception to the final stage of the production of the film.

At the start of the exhibition, original copies of the first prints of the book were being displayed, including Lord Byron’s copy which was gifted by Mary Shelley, the author. 

As a child, director Guillermo del Toro was obsessed with Frankenstein when he first watched the 1931 version of the film. Growing up Catholic, he couldn’t really connect with his faith through Sunday Masses, rather he understood it through Frankenstein.

Mentioned in the exhibition as well as an interview, del Toro likens the creature to Jesus, as they both were dead and came back to life.

It is quite obvious throughout the film that Catholicism was used as inspiration (although skewed) such as the scene where Victor prays to his guardian angel and the forgiveness of the creature towards his creator. 

The exhibition shares a lot of the behind the scenes work, from the lighting to the music to the wardrobe. The wardrobe is just magnificent; you can see how the costume designer, Kate Hawley, put so much thought into the designs, with the beautiful use of different fabrics, patterns, and colors, and layering them to really fit the characters, as well as the fashion of the time and the gothic style.

“I see costume as an extension of the character” Hawley had claimed, and we can really see this through the wardrobe in the exhibition and the film itself. Moreover, luxury jewellers, Tiffany & Co. had played a part in the wardrobe, finishing the costume with a glamorous touch.

The Tiffany pieces were beautiful ,and even though they had been made decades before the film, it fit perfectly into this contemporary interpretation of the classic book. 

It was an enjoyable exhibition as you get to watch a clip of how the music was produced, and an orchestra was used to really bring depth to the scenes. There were also amazing displays of the creature in the making, where the lifeless corpse is opened as it was in the film.

I cannot confirm if these were the actual props used in the film, but it would be really interesting if it was, being so close to genius work. 

As the exhibition comes to an end, before the exit, there is some merchandise that is displayed such as jumpers, t-shirts and book (I didn’t have a closer look to see if it was a copy of Frankenstein or if it was a behind the scenes of the film kind of book) which are sold at Selfridges.

It was an enjoyable experience, learning about the creative process and I loved the film, which I cannot recommend enough. 

Goldn k
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