----------------------------Original message---------------------------- when I speak of madness, I am not referring to a raving maniac, or any other culturally influenced definition of madness, and I am certainly not looking to see the 1931 James Whale film reaffirmed, primarily because I have not seen it and also because I have no desire to see repetition without reason. The madness I refer to is the madness that Victor himself refers to several times... e.g. in the ship captain's cabin when he asks if the captain shares his madness, what I think could surely be viewed as a "mad" need for discovery and innovation. The question of following the book is an interesting one, but I don't think it is of primary importance in this issue. I suppose this opinion will be poorly received, but there it is. My reasoning - the film and the novel are distinctly different mediums. What can slip by in a novel may not in a film, and vice versa. Likewise what may work in a novel may not in a film. The character Branagh attempted to construct (however melodramatically) was an individual obsessed... this obsession led to the demise of everything he had previously held dear, and perhaps even the demise of what created his obsession, i.e. his family. In a novel, I believe the writer can create the tension necessary for art with her ideas and with the inner devotion of a character's mind (among many other methods). On film, however, this luxury is not so present, certainly not in a film as straightforward as Branagh's style dictates... a tension in action and reaction must exist, and that is why I feel to more convincingly and compelling raise the issue of modernization and its attraction and its repulsion Branagh would have done better to mix these emotions in his reaction to his creation. There is an integrity to remaining faithful to a source work, but not at the expense of depth. I have not read the book as has been deftly assumed, however I would hold that a reading of the book should not be necessary to an appreciation of the film... if it is, then I feel the film is put on the level of a teaching aide, something to function as a supplementary text for individuals studying the book. In that case, it is not so much a film as a visual version of cliff notes. Denis