SESSION 2: 

FOLLOW UP : watch this video published May 22 2012 & produced by Ridley Scott (director of Blade Runner, the Gladiator, Prometheus to mention just a few) PROPHETS OF SCIENCE FICTION.  

• Time required: 50 minutes
• Do the activities  in the worksheet you’ll receive as a PDF via mail.

After all this work and effort you deserve a treat & a laugh: a clip from the the 1974 comically brilliant movie Frankenstein Junior. It’s a pun on the world “werewolf“ (lupo-mannaro) & Where wolf? LOL Nella traduzione italiana il gioco di parole è andato perso 🙁

It’s about time to start our module on the great female writer, Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein and wife of the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

This Zaption video I made is about her troubled life we’ll deal with in class. Click link to the video and write your SURNAME  before starting. Mary Shelley: A life about Death.

10 TopNotes about the novel. Interesting video to revise its main features.

From the National Library of Medicine (thanks to EdTech teacher)  this exhibition FRANKENSTEIN PENETRATING THE SECRETS OF NATURE looks at the world from which Mary Shelley came, how popular culture has embraced the Frankenstein story, and at how Shelley’s creation continues to illuminate the blurred, uncertain boundaries of what we consider “acceptable” science.

The second video is a Summary of the novel you have already read 🙂 Just to revise it in a visual form before reading an extract together.

I’m also embedding a very interesting Frankenstein Google Literary Trip, so that you can visualize the places of the novel. It was meant for a teacher so you needn’t focus on all information, just select the relevant one. It lasts 6m‘. You can also see here the map made last year by two students. Francesca’s and Cristian’s version. 

Frankenstein from GoogleLitTrips on Vimeo.

FRANKENSTEIN IN MOVIES: It’s alive!!

The following videoclip is taken from “Frankenstein the 1931 classic showing the trials and tribulations of the man and his monster, directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff and Colin Clive.

The second video is taken from Kenneth Branagh’s movie Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994 ) and it’s the scene of  The CREATION OF THE MONSTER.  Sticking close to the original novel, Kenneth Branagh guides us through the story of Frankenstein’s quest for knowledge and his creature’s search for his “father”. Director: Kenneth Branagh/Release Date: 4 November 1994starring  Robert de Niro, Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter.

• Assignment 1 After watching the clip answer the following questions IN YOUR NOTEBOOK.

1. What leads to the creation of the monster?
2. What does Dr.Frankenstein look like? How does he feel before and after the creation?
3. What does he say DURING and AFTER the creation?
4. Does the soundtrack contribute to the atmosphere of the scene?

You can (it’s optional) also have a look at this presentation I found while surfing the net . It’s incredible how many things you come across … by pure chance!

Here’s the funny website you are already familiar with: Frankenstein in 60 seconds. I find the girl’s voice unbearable but you may like her. It’s a way of making  literature very easy and understandable to everybody. As I see it it’s a way of trivializing great masterpieces, not my cup of tea 😉

Assignment 2  Leave your comment below answering to the following:

• Which of the 2 monsters you have seen do you find more impressive and why?