The projection began two minutes late. The latest wait. An assistant overturned his nerves: “Uuuhh!” Others applauded. At last the perhaps more desired film of the Venice Festival: by Guillermo del Toro, presented today in the contest. Even more he had been waiting for the filmmaker himself: almost 60 years have passed behind this project. He saw James Whale’s 1931 film when he had seven. At 11, he read the original novel, from. He felt fascinated, attracted, even identified. An obsession that the passage of time did not attenuate, rather the other way around. He told himself, in his first response to the press: “More than dream, it was a religion for me since childhood. They raised me very Catholic, but I never understood the saints. When I saw him on the screen I understood what a messiah was.”
So powerful desire has materialized today in a movie also very big. By budget, distribution – with Jacob Elordi in the skin of the creature and Oscar Isaac of its creator -, narrative, visual and of themes discussed: the nature of the human being, paternity, forgiveness, the look of the other, life, death and its latest meanings. But also for its excesses: of footage, show and explanations. In short, a huge film experience, of which the rooms need to fill and claim. However, it will only have a limited pass for cinemas. It will be seen above all in Netflix, as of October 7.
The plot remains the one that Mary Shelley devised in that famous narrative competition of 1816 with her future husband Percy and Lord Byron, locked in a rainy day in Switzerland, to invent stories of fear: a man manages to create life, although she ends up generating only death. But Del Toro brings many personal stamps to its favorite history. A splendid handling of colors, makeup, costumes and visual effects, guarantees in any work of the Mexican. An enveloping atmosphere, chamber blows, soundtrack and staging. And especially a tender, empathic look, almost a caress in the monster, and anyone who feels like him. The fear story has been filled with love.
“We live in a time of terror and intimidation. The answer for me is love and forgive The director. Hence the movie mime to the creature. It arises if it will not be “purest” than all of us. And dedicate a while to show how he learns that the water drags the leaves. Or Yorkshire’s accent from a blind old man who learns to speak is hit. Frankenstein does not leave his astonishment. The public either.
However, there is much more to count, film, deploy. Maybe it was enthusiasm, but the Mexican has turned too much in his film. It lasts two and a half hours, explosions, dismemberment, outbursts of anger, aggressions and, above all, clarifications are repeated: several times the narrative says exactly what is being seen, or intuid, on the screen. Or explain what it can be imagined. “The monster is you,” Frankenstein spokes to Victor. “I am not something, but someone,” he recriminates. More faith would have been thanked in the image, subtlety. And in the spectator.
The press room, anyway, welcomed the director. Since the thirties. No one is denied applause. But from the bull he was received with an authentic ovation. “Great!” Sure a journalist present. “I am crazy since I was little. Everything I have done since Cronos [su primera película, en 1992] It is a tool, an idea, which would bring me to this point. I waited for the film to be done in the fair, both artistic and dimension conditions, ”said Del Toro. And Netflix has also taken care of him: he made available to the Mexican everything he needed, up to about 120 million final cost.
The last lottery that wins from the bull. Although only the first wine from chance: a lucky ticket allowed the family to also buy a library, which little Guillermo began to devour. He read children’s classics, more adult novels, comics, encyclopedias. With eight years he started shooting shorts. And, from there, his own luck was built: or in 2017 before his triumph in the Oscars, they appear among the most appreciated films of the 21st century. Meanwhile, life sometimes also gave him the worse ticket: after his father was rescued from the kidnapping he had suffered, Del Toro stopped residing in Mexico. Only physically, yes: it is still closely linked to your country, until you finance children’s scholarships and think about national policy. At the press conference, he won his nationality: “I am Mexican and cry.” The whole conversation, of course, run in English. The only exceptions were … in Italian.
The native public, if possible, came above. In general, Del Toro is respected for authentic. Because he has dared to film, experiment or produce everything. And, always, at the same time, has remained consistent with a personal universe, full of monsters and humanity. He is seen in Hollywood, in a comic store in Madrid, or as a character of a video game. He has sometimes defined himself as a outsideran author’s filmmaker, but also with commercial vision. Today he even has his own library, stored in the already famous Bleak House, his cave of paraphernals and horrors. And a status that allows you to finally measure yourself with your list of pending myths. Three years ago, against war and fascism. Then, the time for Frankenstein has come. How that Mexican child has grown. Keep having big dreams, like then. Now, in addition, it meets them.
