As the ‘Mad Science’ film program unfolds at the Australian Cinémathèque, GOMA until Sunday 23 June 2024, curatorial volunteer Talor Marshall highlights a few ways in which science fiction embraces theatrical and melodramatic elements to heighten the madness of the science on-screen.
RELATED: On-screen scientists we’re absolutely mad about
Often portraying outsiders, the following four films feature scientists, monsters, and machines whose cinematic dramatisation highlights taboo subjects and societal misunderstandings. Told with dramatic flair, these films bring a dash of melodrama through their expressive, playful, and outlandish sensibilities. Let the fun begin!
Get tickets to Mad Science
or see what’s screening
Australian Cinémathèque, GOMA
3 May – 23 June 2024
#1
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) PG
A classic of the genre, James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is arguably the director at his most expressive and is the memorable sequel of Frankenstein (1931), birthed from a line in Mary Shelley’s novel in which the monster asks for a mate.
A delirious mix of Freudian anxieties surrounding the female body coupled with queer sensibilities, the film features memorable costumes by designer Vera West. Paired with the heightened physical performance of Elsa Lanchester as the monster’s bride, and Boris Karloff as the Monster, West’s now iconic costumes — and the bride’s fabulous updo — compliment Whale’s gothic aesthetic and theatrical direction.
2.45pm, Sunday 2 June & 1.00pm, Sunday 23 June 2024
Bride of Frankenstein will screen from an archival 35mm print.
#2
The Devil Bat (1940) 15+
Featuring a performance by legendary horror actor Bela Lugosi, best known for his portrayal of Count Dracula in Dracula (1931) and Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Devil Bat (1940) is a low-budget thriller which brings together a mad scientist and his murderous bat. A deliciously over the top pharmaceutical revenge tale, the maniacal Dr. Paul Carruthers (Lugosi) directs the killing power of his winged assailant through scent: each bat victim has applied an aftershave specially brewed by the mad scientist to mark his targets.
Classically trained actor Bela Lugosi brings to the screen his own sinister-yet-comical flair, aided by large goggles and a menacing grin, making for one of the actor’s most melodramatic on-screen performances. The bat’s histrionic shriek and lo-fi puppetry charm is the perfect B-grade compliment to this hugely enjoyable thriller.
7.30pm, Wednesday 12 June & 2.45pm, Sun 23 June 2024
#3
Andy Warhol’s Flesh for Frankenstein (1974) R18+
Andy Warhol’s Flesh for Frankenstein (1974), directed by Paul Morrissey, is a subversive satire in which Udo Kier’s Baron von Frankenstein pursues a fascination for flesh. The film leans heavily into visual spectacle and embraces an unusual baroque stylisation of the doctor’s medical experiments.
A frequent collaborator with Andy Warhol, Morrissey was able to garner additional attention for the film thanks to Warhol lending his name to the production. Morrissey dials up the gothic and borrows from Giallo sensibilities to deliver a transgressive take on the traditional Frankenstein blueprint. Udo Kier’s startlingly good looks are a striking counterpoint to his questionable ethics and maniacal pursuit of creating life.
6.00pm, Friday 7 June & 3.15pm, Saturday 22 June 2024
Andy Warhol’s Flesh for Frankenstein will screen from a 4K restoration.
#4
From Beyond (1986) MA15+
From Beyond (1986) reunites director Stuart Gordon and producer by Brian Yuzna, the creative team behind Re-Animator (1985) (also screening in ‘Mad Science’ at 6.00pm Friday 21 June), in Lovecraftian dread. In their second collaborative effort, a mad scientist and his assistant have created the Resonator: a machine that allows those within its range to perceive a reality from another dimension. However, when their experiment succeeds, they are attacked by horrifying life forms from the beyond.
Starring legendary horror icons Jefferey Combs, Ken Foree and Barbara Crampton, these recognisable veteran genre-actors bring a satirised zeal to the film. Glowing with pink-tinged, special effects, the film’s narrative of scientific experimentation gone wrong is an outlandish sci-fi romp that will delight fans of 1980s horror.
8.05pm, Wednesday 19 June & 8.00pm, Friday 21 June 2024
#5 Our wild card
Live Music & Film: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920) All Ages
Dabbling in laboratory experiments to interrogate his theory that all humans contain a duality of good and evil, the accomplished Dr Jekyll inadvertently calls forth his own depraved and dangerous nature: the alter ego Mr Hyde. John Barrymore playing the titular role is masterful in his miraculously eerie transformation between both personalities: in turn a distinguished doctor who charitably runs a clinic for the poor and Mr Hyde, a vicious and violent criminal.
Get tickets to Live Music & Film: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The Wurlitzer Organ is the perfect pairing for this creepy classic. A new live score will be performed on the Gallery’s much loved 1929 Wurlitzer Style 260 Opus 2040 Pipe Organ. Hidden beneath the stage of the Australian Cinémathèque and only revealed for special screenings is our Pipe Organ, its original home Brisbane’s Regent Theatre which opened in 1929. Read more to go behind-the-scenes.
Talor Marshall is Curatorial volunteer, Australian Cinémathèque, QAGOMA
The Australian Cinémathèque
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) is the only Australian art gallery with purpose-built facilities dedicated to film and the moving image. The Australian Cinémathèque at GOMA provides an ongoing program of film and video that you’re unlikely to see elsewhere, offering a rich and diverse experience of the moving image, showcasing the work of influential filmmakers and international cinema, rare 35mm prints, recent restorations and silent films with live musical accompaniment by local musicians or on the Gallery’s Wurlitzer organ originally installed in Brisbane’s Regent Theatre in November 1929.
Featured image: Production still from Andy Warhol’s Flesh for Frankenstein (1974)
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