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Guillermo Del Toro Interview
Before The Hobbit, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy or even the release of Blade 2, I got to talk to rising visceral Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro about his then new, Spanish Civil War creeper The Devil's Backbone
BY DYLAN BEHAN.
Mexico's answer to David Cronenberg, Guillermo Del Toro (Cronos, Mimic) returns to our screens with The Devils Backbone, an aesthetically chilling, Spanish language ghost story set in a rural Spanish orphanage during the civil war of the 1930's. Part autobiographical film, part visceral horror movie and part political allegory, Del Toro's self-penned script is so dense with metaphor and layers, it took him sixteen years to complete.
"I tried to make a movie that has all the trappings of a Gothic tale, but that ultimately is not so much a ghost story, but a story with a ghost. At the end of the day it tries to tell you that you have to be afraid of the living and not the dead."
"I was in a male Jesuit school, which is the Mexican equivalent of prison", he chuckles, "and the fact is that at the age of twelve I did hear a ghost. It was not an experience that was amazing or incredibly complex, but I know for a fact that at the age of thirty-eight, it was not an aural illusion and was not a phenomenon of echo, it was an absolutely certifiable ghost. In my mind there is no doubt that it was real. I tried to show that scene, not exactly as it happened, but very close, in the film."
The haunted orphanage at the centre of the film, aside from housing a few scary beings in purgatory, is primarily the home for malnourished Republican children abandoned during the fight against fascism, including main character, the ten year old Carlos (Fernando Tielve). Despite not being an overt political movie, Del Toro said he aimed to comment on the futility of war, using the orphanage as a microcosms for the civil conflict occurring outside.
"Every war is essentially a very complex event, where there is no clear black and white. It's like an onion, I say, because the more you peel it, the more you find, and in the end you feel like crying. It is a very political movie, but it's not just about the politics, it's about the human dimension of those politics."
When probed about the recent rise of Le Pen and other far right political parties in Europe, Del Toro claims the climate is just right for right wing fascism to rise again.
"I'm absolutely sure they will. The problem you're facing is globalisation, and at the same time regular people who are going to favour leaders who advocate local safeguards. Meaning, rabid nationalists. And because we are a stupid race that essentially works in cycles, the cycle has taken a full turn and it's time to be really stupid again."
Finally, I asked Del Toro what audiences can expect from the eagerly awaited Blade 2, once again starring Wesley Snipes, which is set to be released later this year. "The exact opposite to Devils Backbone. It's like a popcorn making machine. This is the first movie where I had almost no input on the screenplay, but I was hoping for a really fun exercise, to create some really outlandish, crazy and manic energy, and that's what I went for. I must say that for me, it was one of the most fun shooting experiences I've ever had."
An aesthetically complex filmmaker (on Backbone he used up to 95 channels of sound simply to create the seemingly silent atmosphere, while also adding an overall amber tint for the visual theme), I asked if got to add his own uniquely Gothic visual input to the sequel.
"To the degree that it serves the film I did. I didn't want to make Blade 2 unrecognisable, because I'm making Blade 2, but it's inescapable. Someone was pointing out to me some stuff that I was doing unconsciously visually. It was like I didn't think about it, it just turned out that way."
Finally, I asked if it was true that he became a vegetarian after watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
"It's absolutlely true, but I became a vegetarian only for four years. I recuperated the night I devoured three entire chickens, but right now you shouldn't leave your steak near me!"
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Directors David Cronenberg Miranda July Walter Salles Guillermo Del Toro American Splendor Morgan Spurlock Tarnation's Jonathon Caouette What The Bleep...
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On the phone from Los Angeles (where he recently completed filming Blade 2), I asked the director how his own childhood experiences influenced the film.