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“Frankenstein” (1931) at FACT Liverpool 23/01/2013

This seemed a good opener for my first posting on this blog, in which I plan on airing my musings over the various musical, theatrical and vaguely artistic diversions that I enjoy in Liverpool and, occasionally, elsewhere.

FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) at Ropewalks Square on Wood Street is a hub of activity containing galleries, exhibition spaces bars and a cafe, as well as a cinema with the X factor. Tucked away behind the bohemian bustle of Liverpool’s Bold Street, it is a hidden gem that is much loved by all that have strayed its way, and if you go there once you’re bound to be back soon.

Currently exhibiting is “Winter Sparks”, a collection of installations that highlight the links between art and science, including a darkened room in which Tesla Coils produce dancing electrical discharges reminiscent of something that belongs in a mad professor’s workshop. Appropriate, then, that among the screenings arranged to accompany the exhibit was the 1931 classic “Frankenstein” in which effects designer Kenneth Strickfaden allegedly used Tesla Coils made by the very Nikola Tesla himself.

The film itself, being such a classic, needs very little explanation but no matter how many times you’ve watched it on TV there is nothing to compare with sharing the experience with an audience, projected on a big screen. For this single showing FACT had arranged to use a digital copy of the film restored for the Universal Centenary release, and thus we got to see it in splendid clarity complete with scenes originally cut by the censor and only recently reinstated. The Monster throwing a little girl into a lake was considered too shocking for a 1931 audience, and Henry Frankenstein declaring that now he knew “...how it feels to be God” was equally beyond the pale. Parts of the film do come across in the 21^st Century as unbearably quaint and a little comical, but it has lost none of its style and charm and it was a joy to sit and look up at it on the screen as it was intended.

To set the film in context Dr Sally Sheard, Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine at Liverpool University, gave an introductory talk about the state of British Medicine at the time when Mary Shelley penned the original story, demonstrating that some of the fictional concepts were not so far from being science fact even in 1818.

FACT has three main cinema screens as well as its gallery spaces (seating 254, 136 and 104 people respectively) and a fourth screening room, “The Box”, which offers the more informal seating arrangement of rows of sofas, and it was in this space that we saw Frankenstein.

If you haven’t been to FACT it is well worth popping in for a coffee and a look at what’s on offer. Exhibitions change regularly and screenings range from mainstream cinema, through classic or limited release pictures to live and recorded relays from theatres and opera houses, as well as works showing as part of an exhibit.

Winter Sparks continues until 24th February 2013.