A biopic for this summer

If you´re interested in literature and you feel like learning a bit more about Mary Shelley (1797- 1851), the author of Frankestein, you shoud watch Mary Shelley, the biopic directed by Haifaa al –Mansour.  The novel Frankestein was published in January 1818 so this year we commemorate the bicentenary of the publication of the classic novel. Watching this film can be a good way of celebrating this anniversary as all of us are familiar with the story of Frankenstein but how many of us are are acquainted with the story of the author of Frankenstein, that is, the story of Mary Shelley? Haifaa al-Mansour gives us the opportunity of discovering the life of the young woman who gave birth to a monster at the age of 18 and her creation changed our views not only from a literary point of view but also from a philosphical and metaphysical one. If you wish to learn more about the influence that her work has had since its publication, you can have a look at:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/13/frankenstein-at-200-why-hasnt-mary-shelley-been-given-the-respect-she-deserves-.

However, what the film shows us is not the effect that the novel had after its publication but what lies behind the unsettling story of a new creature, which implies depicting the life of a young girl who lost her mother – the  writer and feminist campaigner for women´s rights Mary Wollstonecraft – at childbirth and was raised by her father – the writer and philosopher William Godwin – among books, her relationships with her stepmother and her stepsister and the moment she met Percy B. Shelley, which led to her elopement with him and her life with him in good times and in bad times, the loss of their baby, their meeting Lord Byron and Doctor Polidori , and the idea of writing  a ghostly story in Geneva – a  well - known anecdote; all  these episodes of her life undoubtedly contributed to her writing her most important work but in my view, what makes this film a great biopic is that it helps to depict Mary Shelly as a brave woman who loved her freedom and dared to challenge the conventions of her time.

Being a woman, it wasn´t easy for her to have her novel published and she could only get it published anonymously and accompanied by a prologue by Percy B. Shelley, which made the public think that the writer was him. Finally, her father William Godwin  managed to get the novel published under the name of his daughter.

Haifaa al-Mansour, a Saudi Arabian film-maker who also dares to challenge the conventions of Saudian society, which doesn´t allow women to direct films ( post  “ In the summertime” 18^th August 2013),  seems the right person to make this film.