Historic Film Evening for Frankenreads and Bodø Filmklubb

Last night marked a historic event for the Nord University English Department and Bodø filmklubb. We teamed up for a screening of two Frankenfilms at Bodø’s stunning Stormen Library, and we had a record-breaking gallery audience of 50, composed of film fans, scholars, and university and high school students. We were delighted to be able to share this moment with so many friends – half of the fun of watching horror films is watching them with a crowd.

Dr. Jamie Callison opened the evening with some illuminating notes on the first film, James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931), the all-time horror classic featuring Boris Karloff as a surprisingly humane monster trapped in a body and world he can’t understand. In Dr. Callison’s view, the on-screen horror speaks to events both before and after the film’s debut, making the film both historically valuable and chronologically prescient.

After a short break, Bodø filmklubb’s leader, Michael Baumann, had a little surprise in store for us. He introduced a second film, Frankenweenie (1984), which is a live-action short that predates the later stop-motion animated version by 28 years, but tells the same tale of a boy, Victor Frankenstein, who uses galvanistic forces to reanimate his beloved dog, Sparky. In this film, all of writer and director Tim Burton’s trademarks are present: the Gothic landscapes, the dry humor, the loving critique of suburban life. What struck us as we watched it as a double feature with Frankenstein (1931), however, was how Burton plays with the iconography of Whale’s masterpiece to both update it and to celebrate its place in the Hollywood canon. This was such a discovery for most of us present, and well worth the time.

We hope that Frankenreads will be the first of many collaborations between Bodø Filmklubb and the English Department, and I think our students would readily agree with that. Here are a couple pictures from the evening. The event was also featured in Bodø Nu newspaper, but it is behind a paywall. As soon as we are able, we will update this post with a full version.

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