Together with Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro is the third part of a troupe of authors that, by (re)acknowledging the Mexican film industry of all times, has tried (and achieved without a question) to rise above the Mexican folk song films and the light comedies.
It is good to say they knowhow much these proposals represent in history and culture in and about their country. But the three of them have wanted to prove they are diverse directors because of their curiosity, because their topics are from all over the world and the author chooses whatever he wants to in order to make his film.
Out of this creative trio, whose member shave diverse themes and styles, Guillermo del Toro is the youngest. He is also a scriptwriter, producer and novelist, winner of different awards such as the Ariel, the Goya and recently the Oscar, since he became famous with his La invención de Cronos (1993) until Laforma del agua (2017), he has not been afraid of showing his love for comics, ghosts and monsters.
That is why he goes over and over horror and fantastic films, in which his characters landin real historic contexts. These alternative storieshave allowed Del Toro to provide a new insight for the audience, usually imaginative and attractive, about what we know happened.
Therefore, you should not be alarmed that El espinazo del diablo (The Devil´s Backbone) (2001) and mainly El laberinto del fauno (Pan´s Labyrinth) (2006), are two of the most suggestive pieces as for complementary vision and critical ideas about the Spanish Civil War.
Del Toro is also responsible, among others, for Blade II and the saga of Hellboy. As it is known, the Mexican took most of the awards, among them the Oscars this year, with the over rated La forma del agua, a film with a staging of importance, but not more than a pretentious and at times even funny tribute to the seventh art.
We have to acknowledge that the also author of Mimic (1997) is really daringin his topics and his visual results are provoking. But sometimes, he is careless about the fluency of the narration and he does not seize the good storyhe has already chosen.
Do not forget about La cumbre escarlata (2015), where an incestuous relation ship is presented between siblings, killings in the pastand others about to begin, family ghosts and mediators between the world of the living and the dead ones, dreams and visions on top of one another in a lonely and threatening mansion.
An atmosphere willing to celebrate the grand gothic stories and link them to the horror stories from Lovecraft. Its naive ideas, in both the script and the storyin this film, confine it onlyto an infant audience, very hard to impress.
Well, the films produced by this remarkable director have seen more ups than downs. That can be appreciated in the cycle Guillermo del Toro: Bestias, fantasmas y asesinos (Beasts, ghosts and assassins), proposed by the Cinematheque of Cuba this summer, something you should not miss.
Translation by Alberto Morales