The one movie Guillermo del Toro couldn’t live without: “It completely destroyed my brain”
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro doesn’t feed into the whole ‘high art, low art’ debate. For him, everything is equally valid, which is perhaps why he’s spent his career jumping from gothic art-house fairytales like Pan’s Labyrinth to fantastical action blockbusters like Hellboy. Here, del Toro names the one film he couldn’t live without – and I can guarantee it’s not what you’re expecting.
Born in 1964 in Guadalajara, Mexico, Guillermo del Toro stepped into filmmaking when he was still a teenager. After studying special effects and makeup under the tutelage of The Excorcist’s Dick Smith, he spent ten years working as a special effects make-up designer, forming his own company, Necropia, while continuing to make his own short films.
His big break came with 1992’s Cronos, which went on to win the International Critics Week Prize at Cannes, paving the way for his first Hollywood film, 1997’s Mimic, as well as 2001’s The Devil’s Backbone and perhaps his most famous film, 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth. With his reputation solidified, del Toro went on to make such films as Blade, Hellboy, The Shape of Water and Pinocchio.
Interestingly for a director who has spent his life creating strange and terrifying creatures, Guillermo del Toro’s ultimate film choice isn’t so much supernatural as it is dystopian. Several years ago now, the director sat down for a Hollywood Reporter round table interview with the likes of Angelina Jolie and Greta Gerwig. The first question launched at the Mexican director was one few filmmakers can answer without a great deal of thought. Del Toro, however, was required to answer immediately and so relied on his gut instinct.
“Emotionally, I will answer something completely non-prestigious,” he began. “Because of what it did when I was a teenager: The Road Warrior. It completely destroyed my brain.” Released in 1982 and directed by George Miller, this sequel to 1979’s Mad Max follows Mel Gibson’s protagonist as he avenges the murder of his wife and child by an apocalyptic gang leader. Roaming the deadly highways of the Australian outback, he ends up defending a peaceful tribe against a group of marauders led by the terrifying and aptly-named Humungus – played by Kjell Nilsson. “I worship George Miller”, del Toro confessed.
Most would expect a director like del Toro to select some gothic masterpiece like Nosferatu. Indeed, the director did go on to confess that the second film he would take if stuck on a lifeboat with nothing but a DVD player would be the 1931 adaptation of Frankenstein. “The other one is I would take Jame’s Whale’s Frankenstein,” he explained. “Just, The Road Warrior, for me, it’s the first time I noticed how the camera worked and moved – and it was a ballet. I would probably change my mind halfway through the lifeboat journey, and then I would go, ‘Where is Frankenstein?'”
Watch the full round table below.
