Sir Christopher Frayling, rector of Britain's Royal College of Art, will deliver two free public lectures in Galway - one on Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, the other on the classic spaghetti western, Once Upon a Time in the West.
Sir Christopher, who is also professor of cultural history at the Royal College of Art, will deliver his lectures at NUI Galway's Huston School of Film and Digital Media on Wednesday January 16 and Thursday 17
The lecture, 'Frankenstein - the first two hundred years', will be delivered on Wednesday 16 at 4pm. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was first published on New Year's Day 1818. Sir Christopher will explore the novel's difficult journey into print, its colourful afterlife on stage and in films, its impact on popular culture, and relevance with regards to artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, IVF treatments, robotics, three-parent families, and animal-human interfaces. The lecture will be following by a screening of the film Bride of Frankenstein.
On Thursday 17, Sir Christopher will speak on ‘Once Upon a Time in the West: Shooting a Masterpiece’ at 2.30pm, followed by a screening of the movie. Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time In The West is a celebration of the power of classic Hollywood cinema, a meditation on the making of America, and a lament for the decline of one of the most cherished of film genres.
