European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 20, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Mary Shelley s Frankenstein. The direction of Kenneth Branagh s rising Star  new York times she hovers dark and forbidding. Dressed in Lack moving in Shadow she watches Waits while he sits in the Light and laughs beguiled. And then inevitably perhaps she strikes Rushing toward him drawing Back her Arm. He faces her gravely now. She lunges at his heart. .-., with a lint Brush. Kenneth Branagh has a Groomer a woman who is paid to fuss with his hair and makeup and swipe bits of imaginary dust from his lapels. After directing and starring in tristan s $44 million mar Shelley s Frankenstein which opens thursday on the Safe circuit Branagh 33, seems to be trying to go Holly Wood.  a "v.-. In All the interviews he has Given everywhere but Golf digest it seems he uses the word buffed As he chats Coily about running and lifting weights. Weights is this alumnus of the Royal Academy of dramatic Art actually trading his shakespearean taste and Talent for the american Grunt and flex school of acting has he so sickened of the compari sons with Laurence Olivier that he chooses instead to ape the preening Bruce Willis in pulp fiction of what a Noble mind is Here o Erth rown a Well. No one Ever loved Hollywood for it mind. And As it happens Branagh s attempts to turn himself into a hunk have worked. A byronic hunk perhaps with his covertly tended mane of hair but hunk All the same. A week before maty Shelley s Frankenstein is to open he shows up at Michael s for breakfast after a turn on the today program he got Bryant his publicist exults. This is his last new York interview about the movie before his flight to los Angeles. The night before he had Beeton Letterman and Here he is in the same suit shirt open looking very morning after. He sits Down to be photographed at the Back of the restaurant and while everyone watches he is up on. He sips san Pellegrino water and keeps his ban Ter animated. Once the camera is put away though and he settles into a one on one conversation his Energy sinks. Why is he sitting in profile he looks  i yes and he kept his face turned on an Angle too in the photographs. He turns his chair abruptly Forward. It s fear i think he says forcing open his suddenly sleepy Blue eyes. He ate earlier Branagh also directs the Frankenstein Saga. Tristan Trist Rkenneth Branagh As Victor in maty Shelley s Frankenstein which opens this week at military Heaters. He says and no he does t smoke. He was up late the night before seeing a preview of his play Public enemy in its american premiere at the Irish arts enter about a Young Man on the Dole in Belfast who becomes obsessed with Jimmy Cagney gangster Persona. His exhaustion is palpable. He has spent his Weekin new York recounting his Brilliant career the Academy award nominated Henry a much ado about nothing dead again glossing Over the not so Brilliant parts Peter s frien Sall to promote Frankenstein. He gamely sat opposite Charlie Rose for the highbrow sell the effect of the Industrial revolution on Mary Shelley s writing and played along with David Letterman for the lowbrow sell imitating a sleeping lion. The Effort has left him in a state that can Only be described As pre opening Wallow. Not All the and Vance word on Frankenstein has been Good and some Early reviews have been downright negative. But Prince Charles made the trip to los Angeles for the film s premiere grateful that Branagh had shot it in London boosting the British film Industry in the process. Can a Knighthood be far behind especially since Prince Charles is a personal Mary Shelley s life by Eleanor Ringel Atlanta journal Constitution the Story of Mary Shelley would make almost As Good a movie As her Story Ondr. Frankenstein and his  in 1797, she was the daughter of famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft who died shortly after giving birth to Mary and William Godwin a leading 18th-Century Radical philosopher and author. Mary Shelley fell in love with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1814. Not Only did her father adamantly disapprove of the match but the poet was already married. The couple eloped to the continent along with Friend the two met after Branagh requested an Audi ence so he could better prepare to play Henry v. Is there a Man alive who knows less about being aking than Prince Charles to his credit Branagh laughs. It was More about the kind of atmosphere you pick up off him he says. There was a sense of isolation a tremendous melancholy and loneliness and i suppose it was that Side of Henry i was trying to get to. To see what the Job does to the human being. It would eventually drive you mad i suspect. Every time you sneeze someone is writing a Book about it. Even for the folks who Are involved it becomes hard to know the truth about feelings and  the answer is no a Knighthood cannot be far be hind.-. Now for something new and different. Mary Shel Ley s Frankenstein which co stars Robert de nip As the creature and Helena Bonham Carter As the love interest is less classic monster movie than moral dilemma about Man s interference in the natural pro Cess of life and death. It is a family tragedy like Shakespeare Branag says. There Are lots of echoes of Hamlet in it i think. Victor Frankenstein is the opposite Side of the Mary s half sister Claire. Mary and Percy were married in 1816, after Percy s first wife committed suicide. On a Thunder summer night that same year the Shelley joined Claire and her Lover and Shelley s fellow romantic poet Lor Byron at the Villa Polidori on Lake Geneva. Mary Percy Byron and Byron s personal physician or. John Polidori decided to stay up late and enjoy the storm. The talk turned to the supernatural and it was suggested they each write a ghost Story. Mary s became Frankenstein or the modern prometheus published in 1818. She was not listed As the author. At the time it was be eyed that Well brought up Young ladies did t write things like Frankenstein. Since Percy Tod written the introduction people mistakenly thought he was the Anonymous author.mlt5 other nods Vara few Man and lodore but none achieved the Fame of Frankenstein. She died a Recluse in 1851. Cox news service Page 22 sunday november 20,1994