Cornell Cinema launches Frankenstein Fridays and premieres 9/11 video

In conjunction with the New Student Reading Project of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Tompkins County Public Library's soon-to-open American Library Association Traveling Exhibition, "Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature," Cornell Cinema will present the semesterlong series Frankenstein Fridays, which begins this week with a screening of James Whale's 1931 horror classic, "Frankenstein," starring Boris Karloff. For a complete listing of films screening, visit http://cinema.cornell.edu . Admission to all the Frankenstein Fridays screenings is $4.

According to the 1996 video guide Cult Flicks and Trash Pics, "The image of the Frankenstein Monster as seen in this classic film has become ingrained into the fabric of our culture. And although the story has been the basis of works in all other mediums, Frankenstein lives in the movies better than anywhere else. With dozens of films based directly on characters from the novel, not to mention the hundreds with at least a tenuous connection to it, it may be the single most adapted work in all of cinema."

The series will include all of the films produced by Universal Studios following the success of "Frankenstein," as well as three silent masterpieces that preceded James Whale's film: a new print of Robert Wiene's "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1919), with live improvisational musical accompaniment by local musicians Hank Roberts and David Borden; Paul Wegener's "The Golem" (1920), with live piano accompaniment by Philip Carli; and the recently restored version of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927), featuring the original 60-piece orchestral score by Gottfried Huppertz.

Add to that Bill Condon's brilliant "Gods and Monsters" (1998), based on Christopher Bram's novel Father of Frankenstein; Spanish director Victor Erice's lyrical "The Spirit of the Beehive" (1973); Mel Brook's hilarious "Young Frankenstein" (1974); the quintessential midnight movie "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975); Paul Verhoven's "Robocop" (1987); Roger Corman's B-movie hoot "Frankenstein Unbound" (1990); Tim Burton's fairy-tale of a film about a misunderstood monster/artist, "Edward Scissorhands" (1990); and the superbly animated "The Iron Giant" (1999), adapted from the children's book by British poet Ted Hughes.

Cornell Cinema also is showing "Underground Zero, Part II" Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Film Forum of the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Admission is $3.

One week after Sept. 11, 2001, San Francisco-based filmmakers Jay Rosenblatt and Caveh Zahedi asked 150 independent filmmakers to create a short work related to the events. Eighteen of these works are included in Underground Zero II, a feature-length video that studies the significance of Sept. 11 through a variety of creative, personal and cultural lenses.

Cathy Crane, a professor in Ithaca College's Department of Cinema and Photography, and a filmmaker whose short, "Meal," is included in the program, will introduce the screening. Cornell alumnus Lucas Sabean's '94 "End of an Era" is also featured. The event is part of Cornell Cinema's mini-series Media Artists on 9/11, which is funded in part with a grant from the Cornell Council on the Arts "Art & Politics/Politics & Art" fund.