frankenstein 's great aunt tillie is a 1984 comedy film about frankenstein that is based in transylvania .

june wilkinson , who had a part in the film , was interviewed in the book screen sirens scream ! about her role .

the film 's music was written about in the book musique fantastique .

frankenstein ' s great aunt tillie

there are no critic reviews yet for frankenstein ' s great aunt tillie . keep checking rotten tomatoes for updates !
frankenstein ' s great aunt tillie .
videohound ' s golden movie retriever . . retrieved july 09 , 2018 from urltoken urltoken
there are no featured audience reviews yet . click the link below to see what others say about frankenstein ' s great aunt tillie !
frankenstein ' s great aunt tillie .
videohound ' s golden movie retriever . . encyclopedia . com . ( july 9 , 2018 ) . urltoken
you ' ve seen frankenstein . . . wait until you meet his great aunt tillie . . . more fun than a barrel of monkeys .
you ' ve seen frankenstein . . . wait until you meet his great aunt tillie . . . more fun than a barrel of monkeys . see more »
2004 : frankenstein made for tv film based on dean koontz ' s frankenstein .
there have been innumerable movies based on the premise of frankenstein , or the modern prometheus ( 1818 ) by mary shelley or on the play frankenstein ( 1927 ) by peggy webling , itself based on shelley ' s original . these movies are of varying interest , as indicated by the discussion below . some , like frankenstein ' s great - aunt tillie ( 1983 mexico / usa ) , have been omitted either deliberately or through ignorance ; the pool of frankenstein movies is virtually bottomless .
has ( possibly ) the worst role of his entire career ; even worse than his noxious roman emperor claudius in warrior queen ( 1985 ) . he ' s baron victor frankenstein , who shows up in the small transylvanian village of
mucklefugger ,
along with his
190 - year - old
feminist
aunt
fraulein matilda
tillie
frankenstein (
1942–1948 : universal did
monster rally
films featuring frankenstein ' s monster , dracula and the wolf - man . included would be frankenstein meets the wolf man , house of frankenstein , house of dracula and abbott and costello meet frankenstein . the films introduced glenn strange as frankenstein ' s monster .
it ' s frankensteen
: dr . frederick frankenstein meets igor for the first time .
1988 : frankenstein ( フランケンシュタイン ) is a manga adaptation of shelley ' s novel by junji ito .
quoted in spark , 157 , from mary shelley ' s introduction to the 1831 edition of frankenstein .
1985 : the bride . specifically , a remake of 1935 ' s the bride of frankenstein which incorporated the novel ' s bride - motif omitted from the 1931 film .
1991 : frankenstein : the college years , directed by tom shadyac , is another sequel - spoof in which frankenstein ' s monster is revived by college students .
donawerth , jane . frankenstein ' s daughters : women writing science fiction . syracuse : syracuse university press , 1997 .
there’s not a great deal positive to say about this final product : it’s universally thought to be one of the worst offerings of ’84 , a horror spoof about transylvania town leaders trying to repossess the frankenstein castle , just as the eponymous family happens to come back to reanimate the monster . despite an impressive cast of formerly impressive talents such as donald pleasance , yvonne furneaux , aldo ray , and zsa zsa gabor , the aging talents could not save this one . zsa zsa’s role was edited down to a few seconds of a flashback scene . for furneaux , it had been a long time since her great performance in the mummy ( 1959 ) and it shows .
eberle - sinatra , michael , ed . mary shelley ' s fictions : from
frankenstein
to
falkner
. new york : st . martin ' s press , 2000 .
23 . andy warhol ' s frankenstein ( vt carne per frankenstein ; vt the devil and dr frankenstein ; vt flesh for frankenstein ; vt the frankenstein experiment ; vt up frankenstein ; vt warhol ' s frankenstein ) italian / french movie ( 1973 ) . cc champion & 1 / bryanston . pr andrew braunsberg , carlo ponti , jean - pierre rassam , jean yanne . dir paul morrissey , antonio margheriti . screenplay morrissey . starring joe dallesandro , arno jürging , udo kier ( frankenstein ) , monique van vooren . 100 mins . colour .
frankenstein : celluloid monster at the national library of medicine website of the ( u . s . ) national institutes of health
scott , grant f .
victor ' s secret : queer gothic in lynd ward ' s illustrations to frankenstein ( 1934 ) .
word & image 28 ( april–june 2012 ) : 206–232 . urltoken
there ' s also an incredibly mind - bogglingly bad gag poking fun at the original frankenstein ( 1931 ) . when the monster (
behrendt , stephen c . , ed . approaches to teaching shelley ' s
frankenstein
. new york : mla , 1990 .
26 . frankenstein ' s castle of freaks ( vt dr frankenstein ' s castle of freaks ; vt house of freaks ; vt monsters of dr frankenstein ; vt terror castle ) italian movie ( 1973 ) . dir robert h oliver . starring rossano brazzi , sylvia koscina , edmund purdom , christiane royce . 81 mins . colour .
botting , fred . making monstrous :
frankenstein
, criticism , theory . new york : st . martin ' s , 1991 .
tillie was filmed in mexico , at the same mexico city studio as other , better , films of 1984 such as dune and conan the destroyer . the production company was s . a . filmier , a mexican firm that specialized for its three - film run in the 1980s in getting american movies made in mexico . they were responsible , in addition to tillie for quell and co . ( not to be confused with the trendy little company , whom i endorse , selling easy - on - the - eyes ways to keep your devices de - cluttered ) in 1982 , an underrated , but by that point anachronistic , western , and drug runners in 1988 , which seems to be to the miami vice - style narco - cop genre that is what tillie is to , say , serious art films , which i simply must blog about soon :
1957–1974 : hammer films in england did a string of frankenstein films starring peter cushing , including the curse of frankenstein , the revenge of frankenstein and frankenstein must be destroyed . co - starring in these films were christopher lee , hazel court , veronica carlson and simon ward . another hammer film , the horror of frankenstein , starred ralph bates as the main character , victor frankenstein .
1972 : a comedic stage adaptation , frankenstein ' s monster , was written by sally netzel and produced by the dallas theater center . [ 54 ]
baldick , chris . in frankenstein ' s shadow : myth , monstrosity , and nineteenth - century writing . oxford : oxford university press , 1987 .
smith , johanna m . , ed . frankenstein . case studies in contemporary criticism . boston : bedford / st . martin ' s , 1992 .
1965 : toho studios created the film frankenstein conquers the world or frankenstein vs . baragon , followed by war of the gargantuas .
1989 : frankenstein the panto . a pantomime script by david swan , combining elements of frankenstein , dracula , and traditional british panto .
want to share imdb ' s rating on your own site ? use the html below .
tropp , martin . mary shelley ' s monster . boston : houghton mifflin , 1976 .
the last of hammer ' s frankenstein outings sees young dr helder arrested for trying to repeat the baron ' s experiments and sent to the lunatic asylum where frankenstein was committed years ago . although officially dead , frankenstein has become the asylum ' s physician , and is also – aided by the beautiful sarah ( nicknamed the angel ) , mute since her father , the asylum ' s director , years ago tried to rape her – building a new creature from deceased inmates . discovering that frankenstein ' s hands are wounded so that he can no longer perform surgery himself , helder pitches in . the resultant monster in due course goes berserk and is ripped to gobbets by the other inmates . cushing seems bored . [ jg ]
further reading : the annotated frankenstein ( 1977 ) by leonard wolf ; it ' s alive ! : the classic cinema saga of frankenstein ( 1981 ) by gregory william mank covers the eight universal features in considerable detail and summarizes much of the remainder of the monster ' s career ; hideous progenies : dramatizations of frankenstein from mary shelley to the present ( 1990 ) by steven earl forry ; the illustrated frankenstein movie guide ( 1994 ) by stephen jones .
rauch , alan .
the monstrous body of knowledge in mary shelley ' s frankenstein
. studies in romanticism 34 . 2 ( 1995 ) : 227–53 .
douthwaite ,
the frankenstein of the french revolution
chapter 2 of the frankenstein of 1790 and other lost chapters from revolutionary france ( frankenstein of 1790 and other lost chapters from revolutionary france , 2012 ) .
hodges , devon .
frankenstein and the feminine subversion of the novel
. tulsa studies in women ' s literature 2 . 2 ( 1983 ) : 155–64 .
by taking aldiss ' s jeu d ' esprit recursive fantasy at face value , fu transforms a technofantasy into schlock . this undermines the movie ' s moralizing : the analogy between frankenstein ' s creation and the
monster
buchanan was creating is hammered home mercilessly , as is the presumed belief of scientists that they are outside all ethics . [ jg ]
in 1910 , edison studios released the first motion - picture adaptation of shelley ' s story .
brandt and frankenstein have corresponded about their researches into brain transplantation . frankenstein takes lodgings at the boarding - house run by spengler . soon he discovers both that spengler ' s fiancé holst is dealing in drugs and that brandt is in the local madhouse , one of his doctors being holst . frankenstein blackmails holst and spengler into helping him abduct brandt , murder the madhouse ' s surgeon richter , and transfer brandt ' s brain ( rendered newly sane by use of a bradawl ) into richter ' s body . richter / brandt awakes after the operation , is almost murdered by spengler , who is wilfully murdered by frankenstein . richter / brandt destroys frankenstein ( but only until 20 ) , after the baron has been grievously battered by a vengeful holst .
frankenstein discussed controversial topics and touched on religious ideas . victor frankenstein plays god when he creates a new being . frankenstein deals with christian and metaphysical themes . the importance of paradise lost and the creature ' s belief that it is
a true history
brings a religious tone to the novel . [ 52 ]
the creature has often been mistakenly called
frankenstein
. in 1908 one author said
it is strange to note how well - nigh universally the term
frankenstein
is misused , even by intelligent people , as describing some hideous monster
. [ 30 ] edith wharton ' s the reef ( 1916 ) describes an unruly child as an
infant frankenstein .
[ 31 ] david lindsay ' s
the bridal ornament
, published in the rover , 12 june 1844 , mentioned
the maker of poor frankenstein .
after the release of james whale ' s popular 1931 film frankenstein , the public at large began speaking of the creature itself as
frankenstein
. a reference to this occurs in bride of frankenstein ( 1935 ) and in several subsequent films in the series , as well as in film titles such as abbott and costello meet frankenstein .
, 2 ( december , 1976 ) , 23–25 . milton and the romantics .
frankenstein wade , phillip .
shelley and the miltonic element in mary shelley ' s
chapman , d . that not impossible she : a study of gender construction and individualism in mary shelley ' s frankenstein , uk : concept , 2011 . isbn 978 - 1480047617
lew , joseph w .
the deceptive other : mary shelley ' s critique of orientalism in frankenstein
. studies in romanticism 30 . 2 ( 1991 ) : 255–83 .
medical professor lippzigger leaves his effects , including frankenstein ' s logbook and frozen monster , to star student mark . mark and buddy jay reanimate the monster , frank . the rest of the movie concentrates on their efforts , helped by their girlfriends , to conceal frank ' s identity in the face of ambitious professor loman ' s eagerness , aided by moronic muller , to steal the fruits of lippzigger ' s research . after a poor start , this becomes enjoyable . [ jg ]
mary ' s and percy bysshe shelley ' s manuscripts for the first three - volume edition in 1818 ( written 1816–1817 ) , as well as mary shelley ' s fair copy for her publisher , are now housed in the bodleian library in oxford . the bodleian acquired the papers in 2004 , and they belong now to the abinger collection . [ 21 ] on 1 october 2008 , the bodleian published a new edition of frankenstein which contains comparisons of mary shelley ' s original text with percy shelley ' s additions and interventions alongside . the new edition is edited by charles e . robinson : the original frankenstein ( isbn 978 - 1851243969 ) . [ 22 ]
at the end of victor ' s narrative , captain walton resumes the telling of the story . a few days after the creature vanishes , the ship becomes entombed in ice and walton ' s crew insists on returning south once they are freed . in spite of a passionate speech from frankenstein , encouraging the crew to push further north , walton realises that he must relent to his men ' s demands and agrees to head for home . frankenstein dies shortly thereafter .
the titan in the greek mythology of prometheus parallels victor frankenstein . victor ' s work by creating man by new means reflects the same innovative work of the titan in creating humans .
conger , syndy m . , frederick s . frank , and gregory o ' dea , eds . iconoclastic departures : mary shelley after
frankenstein
: essays in honor of the bicentenary of mary shelley ' s birth . madison , new jersey : fairleigh dickinson university press , 1997 .
there are numerous novels retelling or continuing the story of frankenstein and his monster .
though eager to forget his family history , young frankenstein travels to transylvania on inheriting grandfather victor ' s estate . discovering his grandfather ' s laboratory and equipment , he succumbs to the family obsession and constructs a monster . after a merry melange of parodied clichés , he saves the monster from the mob by transferring part of his own genius into it . the monster marries frankenstein ' s frightful fiancée elizabeth ( who comes more and more to resemble elsa lanchester ' s portrayal of the bride in 2 ) , while frankenstein finds joy with lovely assistant inga . the various set - pieces – notably the scenes with the little girl and the blind man – represent highpoints of movie parody . the parody of 3 ' s krogh ( here called kemp ) is blissfully cruel . [ jg ]
walton discovers the creature on his ship , mourning over frankenstein ' s body . walton hears the creature ' s misguided reasons for his vengeance and expressions of remorse . frankenstein ' s death has not brought him peace . rather , his crimes have increased his misery and alienation , and his words are almost exactly identical to victor ' s own in describing himself . he vows to kill himself on his own funeral pyre so that no others will ever know of his existence . walton watches as he drifts away on an ice raft that is soon lost in darkness , never to be seen again .
a painstakingly careful recreation of shelley ' s original . although beautifully made , this tends to plod because of its fidelity – in particular , the original ' s concern with the miseries of the creature . [ jg ]
mary shelley maintained that she derived the name frankenstein from a dream - vision . despite her public claims of originality , however , a number of other sources have been suggested as shelley ' s actual inspiration . literally , in german , the name frankenstein means
stone of the franks
. the name is associated with various places in germany , such as castle frankenstein ( burg frankenstein ) in darmstadt , hesse , or castle frankenstein in frankenstein , palatinate . there is also a castle called frankenstein in bad salzungen , thuringia , and a municipality called frankenstein in saxony . until 1945 , ząbkowice śląskie , now a city in silesia , poland , was known as frankenstein in schlesien , which was the location of the 1606 gravediggers affair—yet another suggested inspiration for the writer . finally , the name is carried by the noble house of franckenstein from franconia .
) . the three inadvertently stir up a variety of problems for the townspeople , who have been free of the antics of the frankenstein family for over a hundred years . tillie saves the
cradle of compassion
orphanage and holds
era
rallies where the women protest for equal rights by holding up signs that say
no vote , no whoopee !
they spray seltzer water on cops , demand a woman get a place on municipal counsel and wear
bloomers
to piss the guys off . tillie and co . must also come up with money to pay back taxes on the castle before it is repossessed and discovers a frankenstein monster in the basement , that is brought back to life for more lame gags . the creature is big , blue , has bangs , wears suspenders and has very little to do in this movie .
an english editorial cartoonist conceives the irish fenian movement as akin to frankenstein ' s creature , in the wake of the phoenix park murders . illustration from an 1882 issue of punch [ 28 ]
1826 : henry m . milner ' s adaptation , the man and the monster ; or the fate of frankenstein opened on 3 july at the royal coburg theatre , london . [ 53 ]
knoepflmacher , u . c . and george levine , eds . the endurance of
frankenstein
: essays on mary shelley ' s novel . berkeley : university of california press , 1979 .
2012 : frankenweenie , tim burton ' s feature film remake of his 1984 short film of the same name .
a possible interpretation of the name victor derives from paradise lost by john milton , a great influence on shelley ( a quotation from paradise lost is on the opening page of frankenstein and shelley even allows the monster himself to read it ) . [ 35 ] [ 36 ] milton frequently refers to god as
the victor
in paradise lost , and shelley sees victor as playing god by creating life . in addition to this , shelley ' s portrayal of the monster owes much to the character of satan in paradise lost ; indeed , the monster says , after reading the epic poem , that he empathises with satan ' s role in the story .
frankenstein : penetrating the secrets of nature / exhibit text
( pdf ) .
9 . the curse of frankenstein uk movie ( 1957 ) . hammer / warner . pr anthony hinds ( 1922 - 2013 ) . exec pr michael carreras . dir terence fisher . mufx phil leakey . screenplay jimmy sangster . starring hazel court ( elizabeth ) , peter cushing ( victor frankenstein ) , valerie gaunt ( justine ) , paul hardtmuth ( bernstein ) , melvyn hayes ( young victor ) , noel hood ( aunt sophie ) , christopher lee ( monster ) , robert urquhart ( paul krempe ) . 83 mins . colour .
ygor and the monster have survived being killed in 3 . the pair reach the village of vasaria and the clinic of a fresh frankenstein – ludwig , wolf ' s younger brother – and his surgical colleagues kettering and bohmer . young kettering is killed by the monster . ludwig seizes on the notion that transferring kettering ' s brain into the monster will render it a force for good rather than evil . the monster would prefer the brain of cloestine , a village girl , and ygor bribes bohmer to substitute his – i . e . , ygor ' s – brain in place of kettering ' s . ygor ' s plan succeeds , but his implanted brain is rejected by the monster ' s tissues , and most of the main cast perish in his final , maddened fury .
this essay was included in the 2005 publication of fantasmagoriana , the first full english translation of the book of ' ghost stories ' that inspired the literary competition resulting in mary ' s writing of frankenstein .
2014 : i , frankenstein is a 2014 fantasy action film . the film stars aaron eckhart as adam frankenstein and bill nighy . the film is based on the graphic novel .
1935 : james whale directed the sequel bride of frankenstein , starring colin clive as the doctor , and boris karloff as the monster once more . this incorporated the novel ' s plot motif of doctor frankenstein creating a bride for the monster omitted from whale ' s earlier film . there were two more sequels , prior to the universal
monster rally
films combining multiple monsters from various movie series or film franchises .
2014 : bruce vs . frankenstein , a comedic adaptation directed by and starring bruce campbell , is loosely based on the original book and a sequel to campbell ' s own 2007 film my name is bruce .
in fact , the comedians have to cope with not only the monster but dracula ; aided by the wolf man , they thwart a plot by dracula to have costello ' s brain transplanted into the monster ' s body . [ jg ]
29 . victor frankenstein irish / swedish movie ( 1975 ) . dir calvin floyd . starring per oscarsson ( creature ) , leon vitali ( frankenstein ) . 92 mins . colour .
1910 : edison studios produced the first frankenstein film , directed by j . searle dawley .
lawson , carol ( 7 january 1981 ) . frankenstein
nearly came back to life
lauritsen , john .
the man who wrote frankenstein
. pagan press , 2007 .
yes , you ' ve never heard of it either . no , it ' s not a diamond in the rough .
11 . frankenstein ' 70 ( vt frankenstein 1970 ) us movie ( 1958 ) . allied artists . pr aubrey schenck . dir howard w koch . screenplay richard landau , g worthing yates . starring boris karloff ( frankenstein ) , mike lane ( monster ) . 83 mins . colour .
2005 : frankenstein vs . the creature from blood cove , a 90 - minute feature film homage of classic monsters and atomic age creature features , shot in black and white , and directed by william winckler . the frankenstein monster design and make - up was based on the character descriptions in mary wollstonecraft shelley ' s novel .
30 . frankenstein ' s island us movie ( 1982 ) . dir jerry warren . starring tain bodkin , steve brodie , john carradine , robert clarke , andrew duggan , laurel johnson , cameron mitchell . 91 mins . colour .
14 . furankenshutain tai baragon ( vt frankenstein conquers the world ; vt frankenstein and the giant lizard ; vt frankenstein versus the giant devil fish ) japanese / us movie ( 1965 ) . toho / american international . pr reuben bercovitch , henry saperstein , tomoyuki tanaka . dir inoshiro honda . spfx eiji tsuburaya . screenplay kaoru mabuchi . starring tadao takashima ( frankenstein ) . 95 mins . colour .
1998 : billy frankenstein is a very loose adaptation about a boy who moves into a mansion with his family and brings the frankenstein monster to life . the film was directed by fred olen ray .
clery , e . j . women ' s gothic : from clara reeve to mary shelley . plymouth : northcote house , 2000 .
1994 : mary shelley ' s frankenstein appeared in theatres , directed by and starring kenneth branagh , with robert de niro and helena bonham carter . its all - star cast also included john cleese , ian holm , and tom hulce .
1920 : the monster of frankenstein , directed by eugenio testa , starring luciano albertini and umberto guarracino .
2014 : frankenstein , a critically acclaimed original musical adaptation from south korea based on the original book .
douthwaite , julia v .
the frankenstein of the french revolution ,
chapter two of the frankenstein of 1790 and other lost chapters from revolutionary france . chicago : university of chicago press , 2012 .
michaud , nicolas , frankenstein and philosophy : the shocking truth , chicago : open court , 2013 .
the hunchback ygor was hanged for bodysnatching but , although his neck was broken , he has survived , and has been making the monster ( still alive ) kill the jurors who condemned him . henry ' s son wolf frankenstein comes to the village to inherit , and gradually discovers the situation . at last wolf kills ygor in self - defence ; the monster vengefully prepares to cast wolf ' s son peter into a boiling pool of sulphur beneath the laboratory , but is hurled into the sulphur himself . wolf and his family hand over the frankenstein estates to the villagers , and depart . the movie is stolen by lugosi ' s eagerly cackling performance as ygor . ( the character of krogh was hilariously parodied in 28 . ) with the debatable exception of 4 , this was the last of universal ' s frankenstein movies to display integrity . [ jg ]
the novel frankenstein is written in epistolary form , documenting a correspondence between captain robert walton and his sister , margaret walton saville . walton is a failed writer who sets out to explore the north pole and expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fame . during the voyage the crew spots a dog sled mastered by a gigantic figure . a few hours later , the crew rescues a nearly frozen and emaciated man named victor frankenstein . frankenstein has been in pursuit of the gigantic man observed by walton ' s crew . frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion ; he sees in walton the same over - ambitiousness and recounts a story of his life ' s miseries to walton as a warning .
2011 : frankenstein : day of the beast is an independent horror film based loosely on the original book .
bann , stephen , ed .
frankenstein
: creation and monstrosity . london : reaktion , 1994 .
1973 : andy warhol ' s frankenstein . usually , the doctor is a man whose dedication to science takes him too far , but here his interest is to rule the world by creating a new species that will obey him and do his bidding .
there are many similarities between victor and percy shelley , mary ' s husband . victor was a pen name of percy shelley ' s , as in the collection of poetry he wrote with his sister elizabeth , original poetry by victor and cazire . [ 37 ] there is speculation that one of mary shelley ' s models for victor frankenstein was percy , who at eton had
experimented with electricity and magnetism as well as with gunpowder and numerous chemical reactions
, and whose rooms at oxford were filled with scientific equipment . [ 38 ]
ryan , robert m . mary shelley ' s christian monster . university of pennsylvania , n . d . web . 22 october 2011 . urltoken
edna may wonacott - actress - star of the bells of st . mary ' s shadow of a doubt autograph signed autographed index card + 2free prints
if you’ve already done that , your item hasn’t arrived , or it’s not as described , you can report that to etsy by opening a case .
2014 : frankenstein , md , a web show by pemberly digital starring victoria , a female adaptation of victor .
radu florescu argues that mary and percy shelley visited castle frankenstein , near darmstadt , in 1814 during their return to england from their elopement to switzerland . it was at this castle that a notorious alchemist , konrad dippel , experimented with human bodies , and florescu reasons that mary suppressed mention of her visit in order to maintain her public claim of originality . [ 32 ] a literary essay by a . j . day supports florescu ' s position that mary shelley knew of and visited castle frankenstein before writing her debut novel . [ 33 ] day includes details of an alleged description of the frankenstein castle that exists in mary shelley ' s ' lost ' journals . according to jörg heléne , the ' lost journals ' , as well as florescu ' s claims , cannot be verified . [ 34 ]
1974 : young frankenstein . directed by mel brooks , this sequel - spoof has been mentioned [ 57 ] as one of the best movie comedies of any comedy genre ever made , even prompting an american film preservation program to include it on its listings . [ 58 ] it reuses many props from james whale ' s 1931 frankenstein and is shot in black - and - white with 1930s - style credits . gene wilder portrayed the descendant of dr . frankenstein , with peter boyle as the monster .
directed by george waggner , staring lionel atwill , lon chaney jr . , anne nagel , frank albertson , samuel s . hinds , and william davidson .
1915 : life without soul , the second film adaptation of mary shelley ' s novel , was released . no known copy of the film has survived .
2012 : a nightmare on lime street , fred lawless ' s comedy play starring david gest staged at the royal court theatre , liverpool . [ 61 ]
3 . son of frankenstein us movie ( 1939 ) . universal . pr rowland v lee . dir lee . spfx john p fulton . mufx jack p pierce . screenplay willis cooper . starring lionel atwill ( inspector krogh ) , donnie dunagan ( peter von frankenstein ) , josephine hutchinson ( elsa von frankenstein ) , boris karloff ( monster ) , bela lugosi ( ygor ) , basil rathbone ( baron wolf von frankenstein ) . 96 mins . b / w .
despite the reviews , frankenstein achieved an almost immediate popular success . it became widely known especially through melodramatic theatrical adaptations—mary shelley saw a production of presumption ; or the fate of frankenstein , a play by richard brinsley peake , in 1823 . a french translation appeared as early as 1821 ( frankenstein : ou le prométhée moderne , translated by jules saladin ) .
a film about james whale , director of the classic frankenstein film ( 1931 ) and sequels , using many themes from mary shelley ' s novel . written and directed by bill condon , starring ian mckellan , brendan fraser , lynn redgrave , jack betts , and rosalind ayres .
since a complete list of films based directly or indirectly on frankenstein would run into the thousands , it ' s convenient to exclude films with only a tangential relationship to the original novel : those , for instance , with only a mad scientist , a raising - from - the - dead theme , or a creature cameo . this chronological list includes most of the major feature films between 1910 and 2005 based on shelley ' s novel .
2009 : anuman interactive ( french publisher ) launches frankestein , a hidden objects game freely inspired by mary shelley’s book , on iphone and ipad . [ 60 ]
dunn , richard j .
narrative distance in frankenstein
. studies in the novel 6 ( 1974 ) : 408–17 .
veeder , william . mary shelley & frankenstein : the fate of androgyny . chicago : university of chicago press , 1986 .
in the best - known versions of the prometheus story by hesiod and aeschylus , prometheus merely brings fire to mankind . but in other versions such as several of aesop ' s fables ( see in particular fable 516 ) , sappho ( fragment 207 ) , and ovid ' s metamorphoses , prometheus is the actual creator of humanity .
1939 : son of frankenstein was another universal monster movie with boris karloff as the creature . also in the film were basil rathbone as the title character and bela lugosi as the sinister assistant ygor . karloff ended playing the frankenstein monster with this film .
orthodox science knows organ transplants impossible – but not according to professor bill frankenstein . he and assistant karlton assemble teenage body parts in the traditional way , feeding the leftovers to a tame alligator . the monster escapes and kills a woman . returning , he is persuaded by frankenstein to kill the latter ' s fiancée margaret , who has learnt too much , and a young man , so the monster may have his face . just before being dismembered for export to england , the monster breaks loose , feeds frankenstein to his own alligator and electrocutes himself .
the descendants of baron frankenstein return to the family castle to search for the family fortune that is supposed to be hidden there .
37 . frankenstein : the real story us movie ( 1992 tvm ) . turner . exec pr david wickes . dir wickes . spfx graham longhurst . mufx mark coulier . screenplay wickes . starring patrick bergin ( victor frankenstein ) , fiona gillies ( elizabeth ) , ronald leigh hunt ( alphonse , baron frankenstein ) , john mills ( de lacey ) , jacinta mulcahy ( justine ) , randy quaid ( monster ) , timothy stark ( william frankenstein ) , lambert wilson ( clerval ) . 112 mins . colour .
draft of frankenstein (
it was on a dreary night of november that i beheld my man completed . . .
)
although a mess , and enfeebled by sting ' s woodenness , tb has some merits beyond its visual opulence , notably the identification of eva not only with mary shelley but also , less obviously , with the monster – in that , to the intellectually emasculated frankenstein , she becomes another monster of his own creation . tb ' s most effective sequences , aside from its spectacular opening , come in the long ( but irrelevant ) subplot involving rinaldo and victor . [ jg ]
frankenstein ; or , the modern prometheus , is a novel written by english author mary shelley about eccentric scientist victor frankenstein , who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment . shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen , and the novel was published when she was twenty . the first edition was published anonymously in london in 1818 . shelley ' s name appears on the second edition , published in france in 1823 .
35 . frankenstein unbound ( vt roger corman ' s frankenstein unbound ) us movie ( 1990 ) . warner / mount . pr roger corman , kobi jaeger , thom mount . dir corman . vfx syd dutton , bill taylor . mufx nick dudman . spfx renato agostini . screenplay corman , f x feeney . based on frankenstein unbound ( 1973 ) by brian w aldiss . starring nick brimble ( monster ) , catherine corman ( justine moritz ) , bridget fonda ( mary shelley ) , john hurt ( joseph buchanan ) , michael hutchence ( percy bysshe shelley ) , raul julia ( victor frankenstein ) , jason patric ( byron ) , catherine rabett ( elizabeth ) . 85 mins . colour .
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the direct sequel to 9 . frankenstein , aided by hunchbacked karl – to whom he has promised a new body – has the attendant priest guillotined instead . the two flee to carlsbrück , where frankenstein practises as dr victor stein , doing much work at the poor hospital , from whose patients he collects organs and limbs . local dr kleve , recognizing him , demands to be taken on as assistant . the operation is a success , but trauma to the new karl ' s transplanted brain transforms him into a psychopathic cannibal ; also , it leads to the return of his deformity and , soon , death . as he dies he divulges frankenstein ' s true identity , and soon all carlsbrück knows . frankenstein is beaten to death by his own hospital patients ; before he dies , his brain is rescued by kleve and transplanted into a new cobbled - together body . [ jg ]
hobbler , dorthy and thomas . the monsters : mary shelley and the curse of frankenstein . back bay books ; august 20 , 2007
gigante , denise .
facing the ugly : the case of frankenstein
. elh 67 . 2 ( 2000 ) : 565–87 .
behind the camera there were some pretty interesting dramas going on , as june wilkinson ( playing “randy” ) remembers it : pleasance didn’t like gabor , though he was too polite to call her out on whatever was bothering him ; and director myron gold had conflicts with furneaux , who apparently was able able to manipulate the set so that the last scene was shot as she wanted , rather than what gold envisioned . ( the final scene was supposed to be done in the rain ) also , wilkinson remembers that aldo ray was in between some of his famous struggles with alcohol , and had been offered a role in one of 1984’s great films , dune , but that he was dropped from dune when he fell off the wagon .
in this horror spoof , after not paying his yearly taxes , dr . frankenstein is in danger of being kicked off of the family estate .
london , bette .
mary shelley , frankenstein , and the spectacle of masculinity
. pmla 108 . 2 ( 1993 ) : 256–67 .
10 . i was a teenage frankenstein ( vt teenage frankenstein uk ) us movie ( 1957 ) . american international / james h nicholson & samuel z arkoff . pr herman cohen . dir herbert l strock . mufx philip scheer . screenplay kenneth langtry . starring whit bissell ( frankenstein ) , robert burton ( karlton ) , phyllis coates ( margaret ) , gary conway ( monster ) . 72 mins . b / w , with short colour finale .
1992 : frankenstein became a turner network television film directed by david wickes , starring patrick bergin and randy quaid . john mills played the blind man .
the second edition of frankenstein was published on 11 august 1822 in two volumes ( by g . and w . b . whittaker ) following the success of the stage play presumption ; or , the fate of frankenstein by richard brinsley peake ; [ 25 ] this edition credited mary shelley as the author .
a reasonably faithful adaptation , told appropriately in flashback from the arctic , where the monster and frankenstein have their final confrontation . one significant change from convention is that , rather than build the monster from fragments of corpses , frankenstein
grows
him in a nutrient soup – in effect cloning his creation from himself , and thereafter being always empathically linked with him ( there is a jekyll and hyde subtext ) . this is a classy production enhanced by some good performances , notably quaid ' s . [ jg ]
7 . house of dracula us movie ( 1945 ) . like 6 , a dracula - frankenstein - wolf man team - up . > dracula movies .
2014 : penny dreadful ( tv series ) is a horror tv series that airs on showtime , that features doctor victor frankenstein as well as his creature .
2015 : paul mcguigan is working on a new version , with james mcavoy as dr . frankenstein and daniel radcliffe as the assistant igor . [ 56 ]
forry , steven earl . hideous progenies : dramatizations of
frankenstein
from mary shelley to the present . philadelphia : university of pennsylvania press , 1990 .
heffernan , james a . w .
looking at the monster : frankenstein and film
. critical inquiry 24 . 1 ( 1997 ) : 133–58 .
o ' flinn , paul .
production and reproduction : the case of frankenstein
. literature and history 9 . 2 ( 1983 ) : 194–213 .
weak black comedy , set in the present day . the doctor ' s wife is dead but he has kept her head alive ; he rebuilds her body using bits of passing hitch - hikers . [ jg ]
1942 : the ghost of frankenstein featured brain transplanting and a new monster , played by lon chaney jr . the film also starred evelyn ankers and bela lugosi .
1973 : the tv film frankenstein : the true story appeared on nbc . the movie starred leonard whiting , michael sarrazin , james mason , and jane seymour .
d . l . macdonald and kathleen scherf ,
a note on the text
, frankenstein , 2nd ed . , peterborough : broadview press , 1999 .
parts of the movie grate , but it is full of poignant and abiding images : henry ' s boyish exhilaration as the monster ' s hand twitches into life , the charm of shared innocence as the monster and maria play together with flowers , the advancing tide of torches as the mob ascend a nighttime hillside – all have become icons , as has the sorrowing visage of the shambling , much - wronged creature . [ jg ]
1967 : i ' m sorry the bridge is out , you ' ll have to spend the night and its sequel , frankenstein unbound ( another monster musical ) , are a pair of musical comedies written by bobby pickett and sheldon allman . the casts of both feature several classic horror characters including dr . frankenstein and his monster .
lunatic surgeon niemann and equally lunatic hunchback daniel – who hopes niemann will transplant his brain into a new body – succeed in reviving dracula , whom they harness to niemann ' s vengeful aims . later , in the cellars of the frankenstein castle , they discover the frozen bodies of the wolf man and the monster , both of whom they revive . all ends in tears . [ jg ]
this was the first hammer movie to use a semblance of pierce ' s makeup for the monster ( > 1 ) , which universal had copyrighted . there is an excellent performance from wild as the mute . [ jg ]
8 letter 3 to mrs . saville , england july 7th , 17 my dear s . . . . . . urs itself out thus . but must finish . heaven bless my beloved sister ! r . w . 9
17 . jesse james meets frankenstein ' s daughter us movie ( 1966 ) . circle / embassy . pr carroll case . dir william beaudine . spfx cinema research corp . screenplay carl hittleman . starring rayford barnes , cal bolder , jim davis , estelita , william fawcett , steven geray , john lupton , narda onyx , nestor paiva ( movie lacks proper credits ) . 82 mins . colour .
part of frankenstein ' s rejection of his creation is the fact that he does not give it a name , which gives it a lack of identity . instead it is referred to by words such as
monster
,
creature
,
demon
,
devil
,
fiend
,
wretch
, and
it
. when frankenstein converses with the creature in chapter 10 , he addresses it as
vile insect
,
abhorred monster
,
fiend
,
wretched devil
, and
abhorred devil
.
1 . frankenstein us movie ( 1931 ) . universal / carl laemmle . pr carl laemmle jr . dir james whale . spfx kenneth strickfaden . mufx jack p pierce . screenplay john l balderston , francis edwards faragoh , robert florey , garrett fort . based on webling ' s play . starring john boles ( victor moritz ) , mae clarke ( elizabeth ) , colin clive ( henry frankenstein ) , dwight frye ( fritz ) , marilyn harris ( maria ) , boris karloff ( monster ) , edward van sloan ( waldman ) . 71 mins . b / w .
the story is prefaced by a scene in which byron and shelley persuade mary to continue her story . elsa lanchester ' s dual portrayal of mary and the bride is noteworthy . the movie is sequelled by 31 . [ jg ]
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f : tts is largely black comedy ( > humour ) , with mccallum especially revealing a brilliant comedic streak . there is intriguing ambiguity as to the identity of the creature : is he victor ' s alter ego , his physique decaying like the picture of dorian gray while his creator ' s moral integrity does likewise ; or is he a manifestation of clerval ? this reworking is thoughtful , handsome and often , amid the humour or horror , moving . [ jg ]
4 . the ghost of frankenstein us movie ( 1942 ) . universal . pr george waggner . dir erle c kenton . mufx jack p pierce . screenplay w scott darling . starring evelyn ankers ( elsa frankenstein ) , lionel atwill ( dr theodor bohmer ) , ralph bellamy ( erik ernst ) , lon chaney jr ( monster ) , janet ann gallow ( cloestine ) , sir cedric hardwicke ( dr ludwig frankenstein ) , bela lugosi ( ygor ) , barton yarborough ( dr kettering ) . 67 mins . b / w .
1973 : frankenstein : the true story has the monster be originally very handsome but become progressively uglier as the story progresses . it incorporates many elements from the hammer horror series .
1986 : gothic , directed by ken russell , is the story of the night that mary shelley gave birth to frankenstein . starring gabriel byrne , julian sands , natasha richardson .
freedman , carl .
hail mary : on the author of frankenstein and the origins of science fiction
. science fiction studies 29 . 2 ( 2002 ) : 253–64 .
1990 : frankenstein unbound . combines a time - travel story with the story of shelley ' s novel . scientist joe buchanan accidentally creates a time - rift which takes him back to the events of the novel . filmed as a low - budget independent film in 1990 , based on a novel published in 1973 by brian aldiss . this novel bears no relation to the 1967 stage musical with the same name listed above .
psychopathic victor murders his father so that he can go to university in vienna . there he impregnates the dean ' s daughter , and flees for home with friend wilhelm ; en route they save elisabeth and her father , the professor , from highwaymen , one of whom victor kills and beheads , taking the head for experimentation . their first successful revivification is of the professor ' s pet tortoise gustave . victor has a graverobber steal human parts ; when wilhelm threatens exposure , victor murders him . professor heiss is murdered for his brain , but his death bankrupts elisabeth ; she comes to schloss frankenstein – which maddens housekeeper / bedmate alys , who knows much of the truth . victor next murders the graverobber , but not before the latter has accidentally damaged the professor ' s brain ; the animated monster , immensely strong , is thus psychopathic . the body - count rises until at last the monster is inadvertently destroyed by a meddlesome child .
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tcof oozes b - movie , but its huge success spurred the long hammer frankenstein series . added interest lies in its introducing a baron who is murderous rather than merely unwise . [ jg ]
28 . young frankenstein us movie ( 1974 ) . gruskoff / venture / crossbow / jouer / 20th century - fox . pr michael gruskoff . dir mel brooks . screenplay brooks , gene wilder . novelization young frankenstein * ( 1974 ) by gilbert pearlman . starring peter boyle ( monster ) , marty feldman ( igor ) , teri garr ( inga ) , gene hackman ( blind man ) , madeline kahn ( elizabeth ) , cloris leachman ( frau blücher ) , kenneth mars ( inspector kemp ) , wilder ( dr frederick frankenstein ) . 108 mins . b / w .
1931 : universal studios ' frankenstein , directed by james whale , starring colin clive , mae clarke , john boles , edward van sloan , dwight frye , and boris karloff as the monster .
2011 : the national theatre , london presented a stage version of frankenstein , which ran until 2 may 2011 . the play was written by nick dear and directed by danny boyle . jonny lee miller and benedict cumberbatch alternate the roles of frankenstein and the creature . the national theatre broadcast live performances of the play worldwide ( at 13 : 00 and 19 : 30 ) on 17 march .
frankenstein has been both well received and disregarded since its anonymous publication in 1818 . critical reviews of that time demonstrate these two views . the belle assemblee described the novel as
very bold fiction
( 139 ) . the quarterly review stated that
the author has the power of both conception and language
( 185 ) . sir walter scott , writing in blackwood ' s edinburgh magazine congratulated
the author ' s original genius and happy power of expression
( 620 ) , although he is less convinced about the way in which the monster gains knowledge about the world and language . [ 47 ] the edinburgh magazine and literary miscellany hoped to see
more productions from this author
( 253 ) .
on 22 february 1815 , mary shelley delivered a two - month premature baby and the baby died two weeks later . percy did not care about the condition of this premature infant and left with claire , mary ' s stepsister , for a lurid affair . [ 40 ] when victor saw the creature come to life he fled the apartment , though the newborn creature approached him , as a child would a parent . the question of victor ' s responsibility to the creature is one of the main themes of the book .
chaney took over from karloff as the monster for this movie ; karloff never played the part again ( although he did appear in 6 and , as frankenstein , in 11 ) . [ jg ]


wings ( russian : крылья , tr . krylya ) is a 1966 soviet black and white drama film directed by ukrainian filmmaker larisa shepitko , her first feature film made after graduating from the all-russian state institute for cinematography .

in 1979 , the little known director , screenwriter and actress died in a car accident , leaving behind only a small artistic output of four films .

wings ( 1966 film )

wings is a 1966 film from the soviet union , directed by larisa shepitko .
maya bulgakova in wings ( 1966 ) , one of two films by larisa shepitko now available on dvd .
a south wing was added in 1966 and a north wing in 1971 . gunnar birkerts designed the wings in a contrasting modernist style .
not to be confused with the 1927 film wings , about world war i fighter pilots .
detail from daisies [ selmikrásky ] ( czechoslovakia , 1966 ) , directed by vera chytilová .
chytilová , “chytilová parmi les marguerites , ” interview with adriane aprà , cahiers du cinema 174 ( 1966 ) : 14 .
wings is a lackluster attempt at something that could have been a wonderful piece of art .
votes for krylya ( 1966 ) : the greatest films of all time 2012 ,
sight & sound . retrieved : 1 february 2014 .
wings is about someone who , as a female ex - fighter pilot and stalinist , feels displaced during peacetime .
and there’s another reason for the jungle book’s totemic status within the disney canon . disney died before the film was completed , in december 1966 . the studio closed for a day – just the one – before production continued apace .
rosenbaum , jonathan .
review : wings .
chicago reader , 1 september 1996 . retrieved : 31 december 2013 .
bingham , adam .
no angels : larisa shepitko ' s wings .
senses of cinema , cinémathèque annotations on film , issue 53 , december 2009 . retrieved : 31 december 2013 .
ultimately , wings of desire is a visionary film about vision : the act of watching , with all its fascinations and limitations . here , then , are some of the visual strategies at play .
the film isn ' t terrible , neither is it bad in any way—the film is rather mediocre . of all the content in the film , there is scarcely anything tying it all together . the true flaw with the film : due to its lack of a cohesive tie , the film ' s messages and emotions result in nothing .
wings was released on dvd by the criterion collection in 2008 through its eclipse series as part of a box set together with the ascent .
academy award - winning filmmaker howard hawks directed only angels have wings , sergeant york , scarface , bringing up baby and gentlemen prefer blondes .
wings is a great effort on part of shepitko but pales in comparison to her masterpiece and final film with the ascent . i do feel with seeing the latter aforementioned film first it impacted my expectations of the previous . while it may have lacked the emotional connection and devastating power of…
sterritt , david . review : krylya aka wings .
tcm : turner classic movies , 1 february 2014 . retrieved : 26 december 2016 .
wings was released on dvd by the criterion collection in 2008 through its eclipse series as part of a box set together with the ascent . [ 2 ]
this is in keeping with chytilová’s statements to a french film critic several years earlier . in a 1966 interview , chytilová described daisies as a “philosophical documentary in the form of a farce , ” a “bizarre comedy with strands of satire and sarcasm with regard to the two heroines , ” whom she defined as
film critic paul schrader , as well as director ben wheatley , chose wings as one of their top 10 favorite criterion releases . critic jonathan rosenbaum has called it a
lovely and nuanced character study ,
an analysis repeated by critic michael koresky ' s description of the film as a
penetrating character study .
wings tells a poetic and subtle tale , not trying to force any major themes or motifs , but rather lets itself play out to the lonely tedium that is life .
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
film critic paul schrader , as well as director ben wheatley , chose wings as one of their top 10 favorite criterion releases . [ 3 ] critic jonathan rosenbaum has called it a
lovely and nuanced character study ,
[ 4 ] an analysis repeated by critic michael koresky ' s description of the film as a
penetrating character study .
[ 5 ]
as the film’s english title makes plain , desire is the driving force behind both the film and its angel protagonist damiel’s fervent longing to leave behind immortality and become human . as this wish percolates and he meets marion ( solveig dommartin ) , the wistful circus performer with whom he falls head over wings in love , alekan’s exquisite monochrome gradually gives way to vibrant colour .
the problem with wings is that it mistakes vapidity for subtle poetic gold . the film does not have a lot contained within its runtime , most of it entails various menial excursions of work or brief human interactions , yet the content is heralded as something more than it actually is .
given its central characters , wings of desire is an exceptionally watchful film , both clinical and voyeuristic . wenders’ unseen angels are basically unable to engage human beings directly . and yet , the very act of quietly watching over them , able to hear their innermost thoughts and desires , and occasionally even offer some kind of palliative aid , is one of the film’s most touching aspects .
founded in 1999 , senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional , high quality film - related content on the internet .
it ' s not an unusual story that soldiers find themselves feeling lost and displaced after war , unsure what their function is . but wings tells this story so well , so subtly . the memory…
feature film debut of shepitko , who had just graduated from soviet film school . one of only four feature films made by shepitko before her tragic death in a car accident at the age of 41 .
this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are . see what’s now showing
( this film is perhaps best seen after one of the others , like a “chaser . ” )
michael koresky is the editorial director of the film society of lincoln center in new york ; a cofounder and editor of the online film magazine reverse shot ; and a frequent contributor to film comment and the criterion collection . he is also the author of terence davies ( university of illinois press , 2014 ) .
it’s been voted the second best film of the 1980s , but what makes wim wenders’ fantasy about two angels observing life in berlin still so resonant today ? these five extracts give a clue to the film’s enduring richness .
wings is the story of two men who have gone to war and the girl they both leave behind . director william a . wellman makes one of his most humanistic statements as he explores the devastating results of war .
the first half of wings is lukewarm . you do not get a complete impression of what it is maya bulgakova really achieved and what it meant , and the dialogue often devolves into on - the - nose commentary about the stalinist regime .
by the early 1960s , hawks started to slow down professionally . his earlier work began to receive some critical attention and was featured in a career retrospective at new york city & apos ; s museum of modern art . while others were looking back on his accomplishments , hawks continued to work , making a handful of films , most of which starred wayne . they worked together on the african adventure film hatari ! ( 1962 ) and the western el dorado ( 1966 ) with robert mitchum . for his final film , hawks directed wayne in the western adventure rio lobo ( 1970 ) .
an experimental film poem in celebration of life and visions . techniques include live action , animation , montage and found images .
i begin by sketching the debate between chytilová and the government detractors whose severe disapproval kept this bril - liant , singular director from film production for six years . work - ing within the constraints of state - supervised film production in the czech new wave of the 1960s , chytilová fashioned a “prop - erly revolutionary” critique of the insipid bourgeois existence of the fashion model , a theme that she had pursued in a prior film . despite chytilová’s insistence that the film be seen as a moral alle - gory critical of its heroines , socialist censors took issue with the film’s depiction ( and seeming celebration ) of dissipated youth .
this cannes success and prominence angered the authorities , and the film was pulled from its planned role in the moscow film festival of that year . the film’s commercial paris opening was even put into doubt before its western distributor asserted his commercial rights . andrei roublev ’s success and attention in paris and elsewhere further delayed its domestic release . see johnson and petrie , p . 81 .
bliss ( felicidad ) cua lim is an assistant professor in the film studies program at the university of california , irvine . her work on film has appeared in positions : east asia cultures critique , the velvet light trap , asian cinema , the journal of english studies and comparative literature , philippine critical forum , and the anthology geopolitics of the visible : essays on philippine film cultures . her research interests include film theory and genre studies , fantastic cinema and the philosophy of history , postcolonialism , feminist , and philippine and chinese cinemas .
a speech by deputy pruzinec delivered in the national assembly on may 17 , 1967 concerning the film “daisies” by vera chytilová , urltoken daisies .
these two harsh but hauntingly beautiful fables — “wings , ” released in 1966 , and “the ascent , ” from 1977 — are the best - known films of the soviet - era director larisa shepitko . they have now been released in a boxed set from eclipse , the no - frills label of the criterion collection . these are extraordinary works , rich in moral complexities and spiritual underpinnings , filmed with a blend of brutal realism and a lyricism that at crucial moments passes into pure abstraction . they belong to a period in soviet filmmaking that would come to be forgotten as the empire collapsed : a moment when creative expression was tolerated , and even subsidized , by a totalitarian government .
dvd verdict wrote that the
most astonishing thing about wings is how young shepitko was when she directed it . it feels like the work of an older director , one who would understand what it ' s like to live in the shadow of your younger self
and that much of the film ' s
success leans on the performance of bulgakova , and she does deliver a phenomenal performance . on a whole , the film doesn ' t stand out in terms of its storytelling or cinematography , but as a sensitive human portrait , it truly is remarkable ,
and critic dennis schwartz called it a
brilliantly conceived work of art .
in sight & sound ' s 2012 surveys of the greatest films ever made , two critics ( sergio grmek germani and erica gregor ) and two directors ( carol morley and vlado škafar ) voted for wings .
hamish ford is a lecturer in film , media and cultural studies at the university of newcastle , and a regular contributor to senses of cinema .
linda williams , figures of desire : a theory and analysis of surrealist film ( urbana : university of illinois press , 1981 ) , 11–12 .
in this portrait of a world askew , filmmaker mccabe composes an apocalyptic lullaby , a landscape film meditating on the end of the world and subtly the end of film as a medium . incorporating timelapse cinematography shot at the salton sea , big sur and joshua tree , the film provides a canvas of empty and beautiful spaces with narration about the benefits of radiation with a plea to the viewer to preserve the message for the future .
andrei roublev ’s treatment of art , as first staged in the prologue and gradually , variously moulded throughout the ensuing film , is certainly more heroic than that found in the other more recognisably “modern” films of 1966 , and their treatment of art and authorship ( particularly a film like blowup ) . in many ways , such a comparison is unfair , and makes tarkovsky look like a decidedly religious and conservative proselytiser of pre - modern ideas about artistic worth and cultural purpose . but any simple comparison overlooks important historical , political and cultural contexts . such a view also reinforces a rather self - satisfied , sceptical western attitude that insists that we know how one should think about such matters . but tarkovsky’s mysterious , quintessentially romantic address is at its heart a meditation on what the artist , or “author” , is , and how ( s / ) he reacts and seeks to turn reality into art . idiosyncratically heroic it might be , but the film keeps asking questions familiar to more sceptical ( and post - ) modern minds and films as well ( for example , via much darker treatment in ingmar bergman’s persona , 1966 ) : is art relevant to contemporary life , or is it merely a self - indulgent and ideological deification of the individual subject ?
i quote skvorecky’s views on the film at some length because his illuminating commentary recognizes that daisies’s “mischievous” tone is both constrained and produced by the real - ities of the nationalized czech film industry of the 1960s . he is the only commentator on daisies to engage with two key issues that most others miss : the ironic quality of the film and the overdetermined and possibly strategic nature of chytilová’s pro - fessed intentions regarding daisies . he writes :
against this are juxtaposed nadezhda’s remembrances of things past . shepitko reinforces a sense of fracture by introducing successive acts of the drama through aerial shots soaring through clouds . these majestic flights of remembered freedom contrast markedly with the tight compositions of the myriad drab interiors that nadezhda often finds herself within . ultimately , away from the immediate setting of war , this tension within the protagonist of wings can more aptly be taken as a potent symbol of her nation ( as a figure caught between looking back and moving forward , and who is placed , in 1966 , at the forefront of exaggerated displays of visibility on the world stage that edged the soviet union ever closer to another war ) . this is understated and implicit in shepitko’s deceptively straightforward drama , but it goes some way to conveying the film’s rich layers of meaning , a sense of its own interior life .
the artist in a nationalized film industry wages a constant struggle with his first viewer and producer in one person , the political establishment . . . .
dvd verdict wrote that the
most astonishing thing about wings is how young shepitko was when she directed it . it feels like the work of an older director , one who would understand what it ' s like to live in the shadow of your younger self
and that much of the film ' s
success leans on the performance of bulgakova , and she does deliver a phenomenal performance . on a whole , the film doesn ' t stand out in terms of its storytelling or cinematography , but as a sensitive human portrait , it truly is remarkable ,
[ 9 ] and critic dennis schwartz called it a
brilliantly conceived work of art .
[ 10 ] in sight & sound ' s 2012 surveys of the greatest films ever made , two critics ( sergio grmek germani and erica gregor ) and two directors ( carol morley and vlado škafar ) voted for wings . [ 11 ]
few modern films have made the transition to classic status as quickly as wim wenders’ wings of desire ( 1987 ) . his tale of a guardian angel in a still - wall - divided berlin who falls in love with – and to earth for – a melancholy trapeze artist is a canny merging of cerebral formal experimentalism and unabashed popular romanticism . it swept up highbrow critics alongside a much larger mainstream audience than was typical for ‘challenging’ foreign - language cinema of the day . leading us film magazine premiere’s 1980s wrap - up poll voted it second only to raging bull ( 1980 ) as film of the decade .
while consumption and destruction are the elements of the film most often remarked by film reviewers , in the final por - tion of my discussion i focus instead on daisies’s thematic and for - mal preoccupation with collage and fragmentation in relation to an ironizing of gender performances . chytilová has stated that the film’s theme — an ethical critique of its destructive protago - nists — was inextricable from its form : “the form of the film was really derived from the conceptual basis of the film . because the concept of the film was destruction , the form became destructive as well . ”5 the “destructive form” that daisies employs , with breath - taking results , is collage , a result of cinematographer jaroslav kucera’s experiments with this technique . daisies’s surrealist motifs of montage and collage are epitomized in striking images of the heroines’ bodies splintered and recomposed . these formal strategies suggest an appropriation of surrealist tenets — incon - gruity and surprise , the denial of mimetic representation , and the revelatory power of fragmentation—by a czech feminist film - maker . though collage as a formal strategy was meant to support the film’s cautionary warning against vacuity , it also serves to unmask gender attributes as naturalized masquerade . the for - mal devices of fragmentation ( in sound , image , and spatio - tem - porality ) , as well as the narrative depiction of cutting and dis - memberment , underscore the film’s allegorical presentation of the heroines as transgressive assemblages of gender attributes .
the movie’s back story is itself fascinating : it’s the latest of several remakes of a 1966 film that has long been lost . set in seattle , it stars ms . tang as a prison inmate on a furlough who falls in love with a korean gigolo , played by hyun bin . it was the highest - grossing korean film in china on release in 2012 , and it’s a surprisingly low - key work , with an excellent albeit very quiet performance by ms . tang . i also checked out “so i married an anti - fan” ( 2016 ) , whose boy - meets - girl , hate - love - hate - love plotline will be familiar to hallmark movie fans , but it builds up interest through its peppy depiction of asian fan culture .
wings is the debut feature of director , larisa shepitko , a contemporary of tarkvosky and parajanov but who only produced four films before her untimely death at the age of 42 . the film tells the story of a former fighter pilot , nadezhda petrovna , who now works as a headmistress at a provincial school . yet her life is incomplete , her daughter is leaving to be married , nadezhda herself is in a passionless relationship and she longs for the past she once had .
artists contending with political repression have frequently made use of the artfulness of allegory . the strictures of nationalized filmmaking were also paradoxically productive , inspiring “an oblique , coded film culture” that “could tell quiet , often painful truths , ” qualities that a film industry subjected to the vicissitudes of the marketplace could never have sustained . 25
“wings” begins with a seemingly prosaic sequence in which nadezhda is measured for a conservative new suit that reflects her status as a member of the soviet bureaucracy . by breaking the action into isolated close - ups — an arm , a shoulder — as the tailor dryly recites his measurements , shepitko makes it clear that nadezhda is being fitted with a straitjacket , a garment that will leave her no room to spread the wings that war had given her . repeatedly , nadezhda looks up from her desk to examine a sky covered in milky clouds , a beckoning whiteness that finds its abstract counterpart in the snow - covered fields of “the ascent . ”
howard hawks was born on may 30 , 1896 , in goshen , indiana . his first script , tiger love , was produced in 1924 . he made his directorial debut in 1926 , with the road to glory . hawks directed only angels have wings in 1939 and sergeant york in 1941 . the last film he directed was rio lobo , released in 1970 . four years later , hawks won an honorary academy award . he died on december 26 , 1977 , in palm springs , california .
as director vera chytilová put it , “each of my films has met a cer - tain resistance on the part of authority . ”1 daisies [ sedmikrásky ] ( czechoslovakia , 1966 ) was no exception . denounced by state deputies in czechoslovakia for “hav [ ing ] nothing in common with our republic , socialism , and the ideals of communism , ”2 daisies was initially banned and only eventually allowed public screening , and chytilová herself was barred from filmmaking from 1969 to 1975 .
there has been a lot of conjecture about what it was that the soviet authorities found so objectionable in the film . vita t . johnson and graham petrie suggest that the first official complaints in 1966 singled - out the film’s “excessive violence” , “naturalism” , and “anti - historical and anti - russian , cruel and harmful” qualities ( 8 ) . but once the film was finally released , five years later , any negative reaction was just as likely to concern rather more prosaic issues , equivalent versions of which are familiar in many other national contexts . there were huge expectations upon its eventual release for this historical epic about the country’s most famous icon painter , but in failing to “live up to genre expectation for an audience nurtured on patriotic epics glorifying russia , it questioned such films’ underlying cultural myths of russia’s historical greatness” ( 9 ) but , more broadly , what proved problematic for the film in the brezhnev - era soviet union was also a key factor in tarkovsky’s ultimate ascension – after his death and in post - communist russia – to the status of the greatest post - war soviet film artist . he has been subsequently seen as the filmmaker who mined the deepest , most mystical veins of russian cultural identity , moving beyond the vicissitudes of modern history and politics . in the post - communist period , tarkovsky’s reputation has only expanded and globalised .
requests for even more cuts followed . tarkovsky refused . subsequently , the film was discussed extensively at the highest levels of the soviet film bureaucracy ( at mosfilm and goskino ) and of the communist party itself . the resulting stalemate meant that the film was effectively shelved until it was requested for the screening at the 1969 cannes film festival ( 5 ) . after more stonewalling by the soviet authorities , andrei roublev was eventually screened at cannes out - of - competition ( at 4 am . ) , and was subsequently awarded the international critics’ prize ( 6 ) . the film was not released in the ussr until 1971 , when it became a huge success ( despite tarkovsky’s complaints about the lack of publicity and press coverage ) , partially as a result of being recognised as the most famous shelved film of its era . finally , following tarkovsky’s death , in 1988 the original 205 - minute version was released in the ussr as , once again , the passion according to andrei , receiving a rapturous critical and audience response ( 7 ) .
a masterwork and a great debut . a moving film about nostalgia , changing times / eras , middle age , womanhood , generational and class disputes , and moving from the past . i need to see more of larisa shepitko ' s work . i ' ve only seen one film by her and i can already tell she is a master .
1966 was indeed something of a high - water mark for world cinema : persona ( ingmar bergman , sweden ) , 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle ( two or three things i know about her , jean - luc godard , france ) , blowup ( michelangelo antonioni , britain / italy / usa ) , szegénylegények ( the round - up , miklós jancsó , hungary ) , sedmikrásky ( daisies , vera chytilová , czechoslovakia ) , and even erogotoshi - tachi yori : jinruigaku nyûmon ( the pornographers , shohei imamura , japan ) , all emerged in that year . such films are frequently “self - reflexive” essays / meditations on the vexed issues surrounding the relationship between authorship or art and present - day modernity . in screening modernism : european art cinema , 1950 - 1980 , university of chicago press , chicago , 2007 , pp . 338 - 348 , andrás bálint kovács tellingly devotes a chapter to andrei roublev , persona and blow up as the key films of 1966 .
daisies’s avowed critique of its overindulgent heroines notwithstanding , the film was , for a time , prevented from exhibi - tion due to official outcry over the “wastage of food . ” deputy pruzinec , a member of the national assembly , attacked daisies’s depiction of food orgies “at a time when our farmers with great difficulties are trying to overcome the problems of our agricul - tural production . ”18 many czechs at the time considered this to be an “unbelievable” interpretation of the film . public support for the film finally convinced the government to allow its screening , but the entire debacle gives the point to the postdedication of daisies : “this film is dedicated to all those soured by the sight of trampled down lettuce — only ! ”19
a beautiful prescient film . in a world where the most basic animal material needs are fulfilled the human questions and needs are left wanting in a rigid hierarchical society based on capital accumulation .
this study has pursued several lines of inquiry in relation to daisies . given the strictures of the nationalized czech film indus - try of the 1960s , chytilová claimed that the film worked as a dis - guised denunciation of its heroines , two nonpositive , unethical , and self - absorbed young women who meet with a just , if terrible , end . yet this declared didacticism is not all that meets the eye : daisies affords an alternative view , one that upholds , with great rel - ish , the defiant unruliness of the heroines the film purports to disparage . this ironic undercurrent in the film , whose potential for radical critique so alarmed socialist censors , is precisely the reading i have attempted to elaborate and redeem . i have argued that the doubleness of daisies is owing to its allegorical structure ; crucially , the use of dolls as allegorical ciphers for superficial and rapacious materialism opens the path to another reading of the film in terms of satirical feminist humor . at the heart of the film’s joke on blinkered masculinity are those stratagems whereby the perceived resemblance between women and dolls is exploited to ruthless effect by the two maries .
contemporary western screenings of the film are often accompanied by exclusively feminine laughter . equally , male viewers frequently feel an antipathy toward the film’s “heroines . ” this division no doubt relates partly to the fact that the film is on target and partly to a sense of humor that is sometimes only “seen” by one - half of the audience . also , the girls fail to conform to the stereotypes expected by a male audience . . . . socialism in czechoslovakia tended to institutionalize existing inequalities between the sexes , and daisies certainly constitutes an attack on some identifiable targets . 34
a lovely and nuanced character study of a once famous world war ii fighter pilot named nadezhda petrovna ( maya bulgakova ) who becomes a provincial schoolmistress , raising her adopted daughter as a single mother . larissa shepitko ' s 1966 black - and - white feature is stately and reflective in a way that reminds me of some of the late films of john ford ; its commentary on the pervasive effect of stalinism on postwar russia is multilayered and provocative . written by natalia ryazantseva and valentin yezhov . in russian with subtitles . 90 min .
wenders brought legendary cinematographer henri alekan – responsible for the haunting gothic chiaroscuro in jean cocteau’s 1946 la belle et la bête – out of retirement to shoot wings of desire ( and named the film’s circus in his honour ) . alekan famously used a silk stocking as a filter for his textured , sepia - tinged black - and - white imagery , depicting the angels’ muted vision of the world . ironically , his rich , creamy monochrome might appear too gorgeously tactile for the angels’ non - sensory world , but its silent - cinema feel helps instantly convey their timeless existence .
a eerie parallel between film and reality with its director larisa shepitko is how at age 41 , the protagonist nadezhda comes to terms with the disenchantment of a monotonous life she lives in post - war russia with loss of spirit and being virtually dead on the inside . shepitko died prematurely at age 41 ending a short but superb film career before it had the chance to blossom into supreme greatness .
daisies’s distant and disparaging view of its mannequinlike hero - ines is reminiscent of the narrative of the “reformed fashion model” chytilová pursued in ceiling ( 1961 ) , her graduation film from famu ( filmová a televizní fakulta amu ) , the state film school located in prague . like that earlier film , daisies is a parable about the ills of bourgeois acquisitiveness and materialism ( symbolized by the two maries’ obsessive and ultimately destruc - tive consumption ) . this properly “revolutionary” narrative was present at the level of the screenplay in ceiling , though czech film critic joseph skvorecky notes that even in that early film chytilová’s avant - garde innovations undermined the script’s moralistic core : “although the schematic morality remained , the director blunted it by completely shifting the emphasis to form . ”13 skvorecky found ceiling’s emphasis on “rosseauvian communion” deplorably didactic , exemplifying the “then fash - ionable ‘return to the people for cathartic purposes , ’ ”14 and con - sidered chytilová’s clear allusion to ceiling in daisies to be unmis - takably ironic in tone .
“i’m going to eat in restaurants every day . ” get it , girl . a stitching of numerous poetic moments and phrases on faded significance and identity . that sounds depressing , except this one has fun moments like a russian doll play , a confused meeting of a daughter’s husband to be , and two women twirling each other in an empty bar . in wings , there’s such warmness added to such sadness .
contested intentions , or “a philosophical documentary in the form of a farce” antonin j . liehm describes the predicament of the filmmaker in czechoslovakia’s state - controlled film industry during the period of the czech new wave :
this is a film directed by larisa shepitko - - a woman whose life was cut very short at age 41 . because russian movies are generally pretty tough to come by here in the us and because her career was short , there aren ' t a lot of opportunities to see her films .
wings
is a very slow - moving film . this isn ' t necessarily a criticism - - just a comment on the style . instead of telling the viewer a lot about the lady who is the subject of the film , you slowly begin to learn more about her as she appears to be in the throes of an existential crisis . nadezhda petrovna is a woman in her early 40s , though she appears much older . she is the principal of a high school but seems vaguely dissatisfied with her job and personal life . watching her , she seems rather sexless and emotionally stunted - - and a bit lost . as the film unfolds , you learn through brief flashback scenes that she was a pilot during wwii and apparently since then , she has been in a bit of a fog . and , the only time she smiles or seems at ease is when in an airplane . throughout nearly all of the film , petrovna walks about in a rather tentative and slow - motion manner - - and it may take some getting used to in order to enjoy the film . perhaps ' enjoy ' is not the right word , as this isn ' t meant to be enjoyed but more appreciated for the character study that it is . visually and especially musically , this is a very , very good film - - very evocative but slow and with a rather vague ending that might disappoint many . i give it a 7 , as it is a quality production - - but not one that i ' d heartily endorse . by the way , while this is not a funny film and won ' t elicit a lot of laughs , i did love seeing the school play where a few of the kids were dressed like nesting dolls ( matryoshka dolls ) . this was pretty cute .
hames’s account resembles my personal experience of viewing this film . at the screening where i first encountered daisies , a con - cerned male viewer expressed his objections to the film’s protago - nists , whom he characterized as “annoyingly babyish , infantile girls . ” even then i felt that his understandable reading of the film—as confirming misogynist stereotypes about women as vain , frivolous creatures—merely skimmed the surface of a nuanced text whose objectionable heroines are paradoxically a source of glee for many women . in later screenings and conversa - tions with others about this film , i began to recognize the con - tours of a particular feminist reception of daisies . this reception , only one of many possible feminist readings , is characterized by delight in the diabolical heroines’ capacity to controvert gender expectations even when they appear to uphold them and by a double - tiered , allegorical reading of the film that allows the monstrosity of these unruly girls to come across as powerfully women - positive . it was this first glimpse of daisies’s radical disin - genuousness regarding gender performance that prompted my examination of allegory’s entanglement with feminist reception .
andrei tarkovsky’s epic film about andrei roublev , russia’s most famous icon painter , is a remarkable , deeply reflexive examination of the artist’s role in his particular social - historical reality . it is also concerned with the split that occurs between an artist’s elevated desire to create an art of clear , transcendent beauty and one that is responsive to the immediate world as it is : characterised by violence and suffering . although tarkovsky’s film is suffused with an idiosyncratically heroic vision of the artist , its insistence on an art informed by the world as it is rather than as we might like it to be , informs and problematises its content , immediate context and reception . its titular character , the young monk roublev , renounces his art in the face of its apparent irrelevance to reality , and then wanders through the film / world in often - silent observation . the film itself presented a very different vision of heroism and history than the one desired by soviet film and state authorities of the time . it also confounded the expectations of audiences awaiting an exotic widescreen epic about a famous russian artist from the middle ages .
of all the dazzlingly talented filmmakers to emerge from the soviet union , larisa shepitko has remained one of the least widely known . while many of her film school contemporaries , including andrei tarkovsky , sergei parajanov , and her eventual h…
ana lily amirpour is an iranian - american director , writer , producer , and actor best known for her award - winning debut film , the persian - language vampire western a girl walks home alone at night ( 2014 ) .
a loving film tribute to russian filmmaker larisa shepitko , who died tragically in a car accident in 1979 at the age of 40 . this documentary by her husband , elem klimov , includes excerpts . . . see full summary »
the first time is an abrupt cut as she swings on her trapeze ( wearing , naturally , angel wings ) ; the second , more tender and deliberate shift comes just after she confesses her innermost feelings in damiel’s presence . as damiel departs , the image slowly shifts into colour : foreshadowing the union to come in the real world . for a film so intent on conjuring and then conquering a state of timelessness , this disruption of the image is the ultimate signifier that life and love within time are the only true reality . seeing blood as red . tasting coffee . feeling the cold . for wenders and his characters , the realm of the senses is the one that truly makes sense .
andrei roublev couldn’t have been made anywhere else or at any other time . by the time it was completed its moment had passed . the liberalisation of the cultural sphere in the ussr during the period of nikita khrushchev’s leadership , commonly known as “the thaw” , and which enabled the making and release of tarkovsky’s celebrated first feature , ivanovo detstvo ( ivan’s childhood ) , in 1962 , was the context in which andrei roublev was first approved and budgeted . by 1966 much had changed ( khrushchev himself had been deposed in 1964 ) . and yet following a moscow screening of the film for various critics and “officials” , it was declared a “significant work of art” and provisionally garnered the necessary approval for release . however , tarkovsky’s film was also denied the all - important certificate necessary for a proper release ( 3 ) . soon substantial cuts were requested . desperate to get his film seen by the public , tarkovsky acquiesced , ultimately shortening it to a length of 186 minutes . this version then screened at the prestigious dom kino , garnering both ecstatic responses and further criticism . that this version is the one most commonly seen today is partly a result of tarkovsky’s later claims that it was his preferred cut . although many critics have subsequently treated the second official cut as definitive , tarkovsky’s declaration needs to be seen in its personal and historical context ( 4 ) .
don’t forget that the film’s original title is der himmel über berlin – the sky or heavens over berlin – and that the project began as an investigation into germany’s then - divided city . indeed , its angels were only brought in as an inspired afterthought . perhaps acknowledging the tradition of early ‘city symphony’ silent films like dziga vertov’s man with a movie camera ( 1929 ) or even walter ruttmann’s berlin , symphony of a city ( 1927 ) , wings of desire is also in part a wonderful time capsule of wintry , pre - unification berlin . its roving aerial camerawork and ground - level tracking wide shots highlight the city’s desolate no - man’s - land expanses bound by the ever - present wall .
for her first feature after graduating from the all - russian state institute for cinematography ( vgik ) , larisa shepitko trained her lens on the fascinating russian character actress maya bulgakova , who gives a marvelous performance as a once heroic russian fighter pilot now living a quiet , disappointingly ordinary life as a school principal . subtly portraying one woman’s desperation with elegant , spare camera work and casual , fluid storytelling , shepitko , with wings , announced herself as an important new voice in soviet cinema .
the career of larisa shepitko , an icon of sixties and seventies soviet cinema , was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car crash at age forty , just as she was emerging on the international scene . the body of work she left behind , though small , is masterful , and her genius for visually evoking characters’ interior worlds is never more striking than in her two greatest works : wings , an intimate yet exhilarating portrait of a female fighter pilot turned provincial headmistress , and the ascent , a gripping , tragic wartime parable of betrayal and martyrdom . a true artist who had deftly used the soviet film industry to make statements both personal and universal , shepitko remains one of the greatest unsung filmmakers of all time .
get ready to take notes : the centerpiece of sight & sound’s october issue is an annotated list of 100 overlooked films by women . in an article titled “the female gaze , ” the magazine’s editors write , “we aim to challenge official film hi…
larisa shepitko directed only four features in her short career ( the other two are “heat , ” her 1963 diploma film , and the 1971 “you and i , ” her only color film ) . in 1979 , while searching for locations for a new feature she and four members of her crew were killed in a car accident . the film , based on valentin rasputin’s 1976 novel “farewell to matyora , ” was finished by klimov in 1981 and promptly shelved . its story of a siberian village , drowned by a new dam in the name of progress , its peasant population shipped off to a soulless housing project , ends with a group of figures fading into a white mist . ( eclipse , $ 29 . 95 , not rated )
the film does offer , nevertheless , a kind of thematic heroism , but of a kind unfamiliar to both hollywood and soviet models of the time . this is especially clear in light of brezhnev - era repression and the ussr’s overall attitude ( at least from stalin onwards ) towards artistic freedom . but this heroism is also troubling , at least in retrospect , accounting for a key part of the film’s role and reputation as a misty talisman for the reactionary russian orthodox resurgence of the last two decades .
the final half , though , is all the more effective for its simplicity . maya becomes a fully - realised and very sympathetic character . the film ' s climax is marvellously done , and evokes some unexpected emotions as its themes finally culminate at once .
on the czech new wave and the nationalized film industry in czechoslovakia , see peter hames , the czechoslovak new wave ( berkeley : university of california press , 1985 ) and bjorn ingvoldstad , after the velvet revolution : an industrial survey of the czech and slovak film industries in the cold war era , urltoken , which summarizes the effects of the 1945 nationalization of the czech film industry . the czech new wave refers to “the emergence of a group of talented young filmmakers” during “the political thaw of de - stalinization” in the 1960s . this era came to an end in august 1968 when the “liberal vision of ‘socialism with a human face’ ” espoused by president alexander dubcek was “shattered by direct soviet military intervention . ” some of the directors associated with the czech new wave left for the west ( milos forman and jan nemec ) , but others , like chytilová , remained in czechoslovakia “despite being barred from working in film for several years” ; moreover , “many new wave films were ‘banned forever’ by subsequent government decree” ( ingvoldstad ) .
i am entirely in agreement with skvorecky that daisies must be seen in an ambivalent and tacitly adversarial relation to the dic - tates of state - supervised film production . seen in this light , it becomes possible for him to suggest that daisies’s credit sequence , whose footage of explosions and air strikes links the heroines’ consumption to social destruction , 16 might be a knowing attempt to avert criticism . given the atmosphere of intense censorship surrounding the productions of the czech new wave , skvorecky’s remarks suggest that the film , as well as the discourse of authorial intent surrounding it , are not straight communicative perform - ances . this might help explain why chytilová , on whose vehe - ment feminism film reviewers and scholars constantly remark , repeatedly articulates the philosophical critiques at work in daisies but remains surprisingly silent about the feminist content so often detected in the work . 17 in stressing the overdetermined nature of daisies’s regard for its heroines , it is not even necessary to impute conscious calculation or canniness to the filmmakers , as skvorecky does . the nationalized , state - controlled film indus - try simultaneously provided conditions of possibility and exerted productive constraints upon daisies and its director ; given that the film was censured for seeming to endorse its unruly heroines , maintaining the converse is an understandable and expected line of defense .
the dia ' s historic auditorium , the detroit film theatre , is unlike anywhere else in metro detroit , with state - of - the - art projection , luxurious seats , and original décor from 1927 . the dft is perfect for large meetings and conferences .
originally from philadelphia , kate mccabe now makes her home near joshua tree , california where she founded the art collective kidnap yourself . she is a graduate of the university of the arts and she obtained her mfa in experimental animation from the california institute of the arts under the innovative jules engel . she is an award winning independent filmmaker who has shown films globally since 1995 in both film festivals and galleries . sabbia , her first feature film , a visual album for brant bjork , is distributed internationally . her current work includes paintings , photography , short fiction , and art books , her most recent being a sketch comic book called “mojave weather diaries . ” kate has taught film as a visiting artist at calarts and uc san diego and works as the archivist for filmmaker pat o’neill .
longtime friends , hawks and faulkner worked on a number of films together over the years . their next project was the film noir thriller the big sleep ( 1946 ) with bogart and bacall . based on the raymond chandler novel , the film is considered to be one of the great classics of its genre . two years later , hawks made one of his most famous westerns with john wayne . red river ( 1948 ) starred wayne as a cattleman who must grapple with his difficult relationship with his adopted son played by montgomery clift .
“when i work with film i play with light and time , rhythm and shadow . i started to shoot milk and honey and i knew i had begun to capture moments that could transport the viewer between worlds of light and shadow to a place of tangible nostalgia .
making the leap to sound , hawks directed his first talking picture , the dawn patrol , in 1930 . the wwi drama starred douglas fairbanks jr . and featured many exciting aerial fight scenes . switching genres , he tackled the gangster saga scarface with paul muni , george raft , and boris karloff . the violent tale was caught up in a censorship battle waged by the producer howard hughes against the film industry & apos ; s production code administration . finally released in 1932 , the film was a big hit and paved the way for more such crime dramas .
in the 205 - minute version of the film we see the complete arcs of these sublime shots . in the “short” version we sometimes only see the first and last minute , the unique continuity of these quintessential “time - images” ( to use gilles deleuze’s famous phrase ) is curtailed .
the crux of my argument is this : daisies can be read multi - valently as enabling both a critique of the heroines’ excesses ( cor - responding to the state - approved screenplay and chytilová’s declared intentions ) and a latent feminist delight in the hero - ines’ ability to effect reversals in the patriarchal order . this study espouses a counterreading of daisies that corresponds neither to the director’s account nor to the censors’ ill - considered objec - tions to the film . while my allegorical reading of the film might be at variance with declared authorial intent , it remains apprecia - tive of that strong chord of defiance in daisies that government officials were quick to impugn and chytilová eager to gainsay . my counterreading of the film discerns , beneath daisies’s apparent condemnation of its heroines , a feminist allegory in which the doll metaphor is retooled as a celebration of female recalcitrance .