The thing with any biopic is that the longer the stretch of time between now and when the subject was alive, the more likely creative liberties will be taken.
Is ‘Mary Shelley' (2017 dir. Haifaa al-Mansour) an accurate representation of the life of the titled person? No. Do I want or need it to be? Absolutely not.
What I think this film does is capture the right tone, and highlights the right areas that might have been big areas of contention for Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (nee Godwin). Daughter of two prominent literary and politically aligned figures, those were four really big shoes for two small feet to fill.
What surprised me with this film, was how much I had not considered about how events in her life might have made her feel. This seems so obvious, doesn't it? But when you are taught ‘Frankenstein' at college, or university, there is a diluting of character of the author; you're given the basic facts, rather than the deep-dive.
This is a pretty normal way to approach the study of most texts, but ‘Frankenstein' isn't most texts, and nothing about Mary Shelley's life was “pretty normal”.
Although my lecturer made a real effort to encourage us to look at Shelley's work in context, it was more like a generally considered thing. Like, how would the key political movements of the day have effected her outlook, how did her parents upbringing give her such a unique perspective blah blah blah. And much less on how such a young girl was groomed by an older gentleman (a “married” older gentleman) to live by his “modern” libertine ways and risk everything and for what reward?
Admittedly, her life experiences at such a young age gave her the foundation needed for ‘Frankenstein’, and I really loved how this film highlights the negative influences of certain characters in her life, and how it led to such literary brilliance.
I loved this film, and I went in very cautiously. It could have easily become a tepid romance with a Gothic setting, but instead it celebrated everything that made Mary Shelley the fierce force she was.
Is it Dark Academia? Well, no. Not directly. Is it something someone in a Dark Academia novel might become obsessed with? Oh, without a doubt. Actually, please give me the Mary Shelley obsessed Dark Academia book (‘The Mary Shelley Club’ is not it. We already did an episode on that one).
So many thoughts and feelings on this film.
Have you seen it? What do you think?
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