ROCKET CINEMA: FRANKENSTEIN

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

Paradiso and cult cinema LAB111 present the Rocket Cinema Halloween special ‘Frankenstein’: the classic film from 1931 with a new soundtrack performed live by DJ Luxxx, screened in a historical laboratory. In this former anatomic pathology laboratory bodies were dissected for medical science around the same time that the film was premiered in cinemas around the world.

Before the film, Dan Hassler-Forest (Mediastudies, University of Utrecht) will give a lecture about the origins of science fiction and why the 200-year-old book by Mary Shelley is still relevant.

Afterparty with DJ Ir. Vandermeulen in the café of LAB111.

19.30 lecture Dan Hassler-Forest (in English)
20.30 film Frankenstein (1931)
+ Afterparty

Tickets lecture + film: regular €14 / Cineville €7
Tickets film: regular €12 / Cineville €5

 

 

???? Frankenstein (1931, 90 min) vs dj Luxxx

Mad scientist Victor Frankenstein brings to life a ‘monster’ made out of stolen body parts. An iconic role for actor Boris Karloff and his rise to fame. The film was an inspiration for many other works, including Blade Runner, Real Humans and Westworld. But more importantly, it determined the image of Frankenstein which became part of mass culture and has become synonym to playing god.

The Amsterdam based DJ, VJ and visual artist DJ Luxxx has made a new soundtrack to match the film which she will perform live.

 

???? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The film is based on the successful theatre play, but both deviate quite a bit from the original book. The gothic novel ‘Frankenstein’ came out in 1818 and is considered as the first science fiction work ever made. It was written by the then 19-year-old Mary Shelley, daughter of a prominent feminist and mistress to the married poet Percy Shelley. For some, the book can be read as a complaint against slavery or a critique on gender relations. Even though the book is 200 years old, it is as relevant as ever.  Because in a world more and more permeated by technology, the question ‘what makes us human?’ seems to be more current than ever. The novel (and the film) also question who will be seen as a fully-fledged human and who will not be. A question just as relevant for the immigration debate, Black Lives matter and the #MeToo-movement as it is for the public debate about mechanization, artificial intelligence and robotization.

 

???? Dan Hassler-Forest  works as a teacher and researcher on Mediastudies at the University of Utrecht. In his research, he focusses on the relationship between popular media, politics and ideology and on shifts within the digital media landscape. He wrote ‘Capitalist Superheroes’ (2012) and ‘Science Fiction, Fantasy and Politics’ (2016). Dan regularly gives lectures for College Club and the University of the Netherlands.

 

???? Rocket Cinema Festival
The Paradiso project Rocket Cinema has presented cult film with new soundtracks since 1997. DJs and musicians are challenged to compose a new soundtrack to match a classic film and to perform it live at a special location.