Renowned director Guillermo del Toro hosted a private event Wednesday, entitled “In the Labyrinth” to discuss his creative process and the unique sense of dark fantasy woven into most of his films.
Throughout his career, del Toro trusted that “[his] interests, which lied in the fantastic, would guide [him]” through the industry and gives him the opportunity to share his own perspective on reality.
“You can only put on the screen what you are,” del Toro said.
And, by all industry standards, del Toro is a success.
Responsible for inventive films like “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy,” “Blade,” and “Pacific Rim,” the Mexican director has solidified his stature as an industry leader for his genre.
Held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills, del Toro’s conversation comprised of an interview segmented into three themes: Inventing Worlds, Human Monsters and Monstrous Humans, and Collecting.
Kerry Brougher, the founding director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, served as the interviewer for del Toro and introduced each of the themes with a film clip that inspired del Toro in some way.
“You cannot just stay visceral,” Brougher said on the creative process.” At some point you must be able to articulate your ideas.”
From “Bride of Frankenstein,” to “Great Expectations,” del Toro’s eclectic personal taste in cinema centered on the sense of transportation away from the real world that is so carefully constructed by his admired directors.
“Nothing can be casual,” del Toro said about the construction of a new universe used for a movie setting. “Everything must be codified.”
When asked about his desire to create film and draw inspiration from past works, del Toro said, “I’m so in love with the world I want to collect everything beautiful and repurpose it and send it out again.”
His “pathological fascination” with the grotesque, unusual and challenging began as a small child when his grandmother would buy him pulp novels and comics on Tuesday mornings, then attempt to undo any effect the works had by having him read the Bible.
In his mind, the Bible had “even more lewd stories” than the printed media he was consuming.
The idea of repurposing that del Toro uses as motivation can clearly be seen in all of his works, which toes the lines between reality and illusion and tend to incorporate characters that are something more or less than human.
“I like directing horror films that become something else,” del Toro said. “Turning them into a fairytale of sorts…horror and a fairytale, I think one begat the other.”
Del Toro began his career in 1992 with Spanish-language “Cronos,” and has consistently directed and script-written through the present day.
His newest film “Crimson Peak,” described by del Toro as a gothic romance starring Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, and Mia Wasikowska, is set to debut in American theaters October 15.