Vanessa McMahon

Mexican director, writer and producer Guillermo del Toro is what many deem the Gabriel Garcia Marquez of cinema. While Marquez popularized magical realism in literature, del Toro has mastered it in film. One of his first films was the horror flick 'Cronus' (1993), after which he has been straddling the line between genres creating one that is all his own; some of his most known works include: 'Hellboy' (2004), 'Pan's Labyrinth' (2006), 'Pacific Rim' (2013) and 'Crimson Peak' (2015). The multi award winning auteur del Toro's most recent magnum opus 'The Shape of Water' (2017) won the Golden Lion at 2017 Venice Film Festival and has gone on to win a Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. Del Toro recently made an appearance at the 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival where he and his other Academy Award nominated competitor directors received an award for Outstanding Directors of the Year.

I briefly interviewed Guillermo del Toro at SBIFF. Here is what he had to say:

Can you speak about the idea and inspiration behind 'The Shape of Water'?

GUILLERMO: When I was a little boy of six years old, I saw an old horror movie called 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' and there was a moment in which the creature is swimming underneath the girl and it was so beautiful. I hadn't seen the movie before then so I was sure they were going to fall in love and everything was going to be okay. But they didn't. So, my movie is the one where they fall in love and everything is going to be okay.

I find it remarkable that you and Miles Dale produced this major film alone. How challenging was that?

GUILLERMO: After 25 years doing this, one of the things I ask for is either money or freedom in equal proportion; and in this case, there wasn't enough money, so they had to give me enough freedom.

People are calling this film 'real cinema', which is big in our digital days. What can you say to that?

GUILLERMO: Well, that's what I tried to do. I was trying to go back to cinema that I admired and loved like the classics.

Interview by Vanessa McMahon