By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) – Oscar nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new film “The Bride!” began with a tattoo.
“I went to a party and I saw this guy with the tattoo of the ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ on his entire forearm…and something about it hooked me,” the writer-director told Reuters.
Gyllenhaal, who made her directorial debut with 2021’s “The Lost Daughter,” watched the 1935 movie, inspired by Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel “Frankenstein”, in which actor Elsa Lanchester appears as the titular bride for a few minutes.
“It got me thinking about, well, in two minutes, somehow (Lanchester) was able to make such an impact that this guy tattooed her face on his arm. And at the same time, that movie is not concerned really with her experience at all.”
The result is “The Bride!”, Gyllenhaal’s punk and bold new take in which she gives the monster’s companion a voice.
The Warner Bros. movie, released this week, begins in 1930s Chicago, with lonely monster Frank, played by Oscar winner Christian Bale, arriving to see Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening) to ask her to create a companion for him.
They dig up the corpse of a murdered woman and bring her to life as the Bride, played by Oscar contender Jessie Buckley. Romance, murder, a police chase and a cultural movement all follow.
“I always like to step into something that is unknowable, that I have to grow within,” Buckley, who plays three roles in the movie, said. “These characters, in some way, they’re individual, but also they’re just one woman…in a really intense, epic, bold, brave conversation within herself.”
Asked what he made of the story when he first read it, Bale said: “I thought, I’ve got the wrong script…it was so radical and original and bold that I thought, well, no one’s going to be willing to take the risk to put the amount of money that I’d heard was being put into this.”
“Movies are in dire straits. We’re in trouble. This incredible medium that brings… so many people together and cures loneliness… is getting lost to humanity. And so they’re (Warner Bros.) taking big swings, they’re trusting in amazing filmmakers,” he said.
The actor added his character’s look struck a balance between monster and human.
“We always tried to humanize him as much as we could while still maintaining the fact that he’s someone who, if he lost his temper, could kill everyone in the room and bring the whole house down literally too,” he said.
The cast also includes Gyllenhaal’s brother, actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays a matinee idol, alongside her husband Peter Sarsgaard and Spanish actor Penelope Cruz, who portray a detective duo hunting Frank and the Bride.
(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
