Il mostro è in tavola... barone Frankenstein
Cinematography:
Luigi KuveillerComposer:
Claudio GizziCast:
Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren, Udo Kier, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Cristina Gaioni, Liù Bosisio, Rosita Torosh, Nicoletta Elmi, Carla Mancini, Arno JürgingVOD (1)
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Underground maverick and Andy Warhol collaborator Paul Morrissey reimagines Mary Shelley’s modern myth, infusing it with satiric wit and sexuality in this outré, baroquely stylized cult sensation. His take on the tale of the mad Baron Frankenstein (the one and only Udo Kier) and the perverse creative urges that lead him to deranged experiments with dead bodies in order to create a master race is a riot of kinky transgression and subversive social commentary that took horror cinema in bold new directions by fusing exploitation thrills with an ironic, postmodern reflexivity. (Criterion)
(more)Reviews (3)
This is the only film in our constellation in which you will see Udo Kier in a laboratory, delightfully having sex with a dead girl pieced together from parts of various bodies, while digging around the insides of her ripped-open abdomen and admonishing his assistant not to look at him like a pervert and delivering the philosophical post-coitus addendum “To know death, you have to fuck life”. Produced by Andy Warhol (!), the controversial Flesh for Frankenstein has a horror-movie theme, but there is no sign of horror here. It’s only explicitly gory, but in a highly artificial way that today comes across as rather comical. And over-the-top actors and their strained placement in the scene are almost theatrically unnatural. In one scene, two conversing characters even stand side by side, facing the camera. That said, the plot, with supporting characters like the sex-crazed MILF wife and her lover and the children who secretly observe all of the impropriety happening in Frankenstein’s castle, is well thought out, even with the haughty aristocratic tone that runs through the whole story (the well-filmed dinners at the long castle table). But the overall directorial execution... It’s almost Ed Woodian in places.
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Sleazy trash.
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Andy Warhol's Frankenstein is essentially a trash film, and I understand that it won't appeal to everyone, but the portrayal of the mad scientist, who is perverse, similar to his assistant, revitalizes this story and gives it a slightly different dimension than what is usual in the "Frankenstein" concept. This is no small thing from such a film, and it is very explicit, both in its violence and its nudity.
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