After a difficult time in Hollywood, GUILLERMO DEL TORO has returned to the form he showed with his horror classic, Chronos. His new film, The Devil’s Backbone, is as rich with allusion and visual beauty as any you’ll see this year. We asked him about horror, Hollywood, and his influences. Words: Steve Cramer
Guillermo del Toro operates. There‘s a kind of
exuberance about the man that tells you of his enthusiasm for the latest film project he has been engaged with. Part of this is surely about his general engagement with the world of art. Art that is in the broadest sense. since his films draw on everything from comic books (del Toro‘s next film is an adaptation of Mike Mignola‘s cult comic. Hell/my) to Salvador Dali in creating their astonishing visual effects.
His new film. The Devil’s Backbone. which tells the story of an orphaned boy during the Spanish civil war who is abandoned by a guardian at a school for boys in the middle of a desert. is very much sustained by its haunting imagery. Haunting in the absolute sense. since in an initially cruel
I aughter seems to be the mode in which
atmosphere. the boy makes contact with the ghost of
a recently murdered former pupil. As the adults. including a highly sexed one-legged schoolmistress. her psychotic young lover and an impotent schoolmaster engage in a dangerous emotional minuet. the boy and his friends learn rapidly about a world where war draws near.
All of this sounds like a straight realist narrative. but del Toro‘s story is no such thing. ‘lt‘s not the real Spain of the civil war.‘ he says. ‘As a Mexican. I didn‘t feel as if I could represent that. so I made an
‘You need a certain perversity in telling a fairytale, so I used the children’s stories of Saki, which are really quite cruel’
The Devil’s Backbone draws on everything from comic books to Salvador Dali to astonishing visual effect
allegory. It’s a fairytale I’ve tried to tell from the child‘s point of view. 90 percent of it was shot from the height of a child. And I’ve tried to make the camera curious. always looking around corners. as a child does. The size of everything is exaggerated. even the unexploded bomb in the centre of the courtyard. The real bombs dropped by the Italian fascists in the civil war were about 18 inches high. Mine is massive. because everything is massive to a child.‘
I ask about the clever and well—integrated allusions to other work in his films. wondering at the denseness of his imagery. ‘Well. I don’t want to say something to the audience. I want them to feel something. and that‘s where the quoting comes in. There’s one particular archway in the big cellars under the school which is a direct quote from Mario Bava‘s Kill Baby. Kill. And I drew on literature. too. You need a certain perversity in telling a fairytale. so I used the children‘s stories of Saki. which are really quite cruel. and the ghost stories of MR. James. Sheridan Le Fanu and even Dickens. As to the visual language. I needed to convey the barren landscape of the desert. and love him or hate him. you can‘t avoid Salvador Dali when you make that landscape. So aside from movies like The Night Of The Hunter. one of my favourite films. and The Searchers. because I call this film my Mario Bava western. there are all kinds of other movies mixed in.
This visual richness was equally well used in his earlier Chronos. but his one Hollywood film thus far. Mimic seems at odds with this. ‘Yes. I had a kind of epiphany with Mimic. You are never really in control in an American film. I learned the wisdom of the crocodile in Hollywood. I’ve just finished Blade 2. I didn't like the script. so this time I‘ve worked hard visually. But the films I make away from Hollywood have a little piece of my soul in them.‘ What a beautiful soul it must be.
The Devil’s Backbone, Filmhouse, 17 Aug, 9.30pm; Cameo, 25 Aug, 10.30pm. Del Toro Reel Life, UGC, 18 Aug, 2pm.
i"; 3'3 Angelo Badalamentl Reel '3 Life A masterclass on the art of film soundtrack composition from David Lynch’s soundtrack :31 composer of choice. See review. UGC, 17Aug, 6.30pm.
15:} The Devil's Backbone and Guillermo del Toro Reel ' Life The Mexican director [- brings his classy Spanish civil war ghost story to Edinburgh v' and gives a masterclass on his art. See preview, left, and
. review. The Devil's Backbone, Fi/mhouse, 77 Aug, 9.30pm; Cameo, 25 Aug, 10.30pm. Reel
Life, U60, 7 8 Aug, 2pm.
Ghost World Dan Clowes'
l underground comic book gets
1 terrific big screen treatment
courtesy of Clowes himself and director Terry Zwigoff (Crumb).
3 Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi star. See feature, page 8, and
i review. UGC, 77 Aug, 9.30pm; GFI', 21 Aug, 8.30pm.
Hedwig And the Angry Inch Star of the cult rock musical, John Cameron Mitchell gives it his all once more in the film version. As liberating as Rocky Horror, though less camp and much funnier. See review. Cameo, 17 Aug, 11pm, 22 Aug, 8pm.
4 Maids (Domesticas, O
Fllme) (pictured) Adaptation of the hugely successful Brazilian
, play about the lives of five
1 domestic servants in which lung-bursting comedy slides into
occasional tragedy. An absolute
must. See review. Cameo, 78 Aug, 5.30pm; Lumiere, 23 Aug,
6.30pm.
:14 Storytelling Another uncompromising film from
Happiness director Todd Solondz. here extracting artistic
revenge against exploitative
teachers, cruel students,
: popular jocks and the entire school experience. See panel.
Cameo, 7 8 Aug, 9.30pm, 23
Aug, 70.30pm.
l a This Filthy Earth Andrew
Kbtting’s follow-up to the
F; extraordinary Ga/Iivant, a visceral
tale of greed. cruelty and
‘. superstition in a remote
,f Yorkshire rural community
{i inspired by Emile Zola's La
Er, Terre. Cameo, 76 Aug, 7.30pm.
16-22 Aug 2001 THE LIST FISTIVAL OUIDI 37