Frankenstein is a very truthful movie and it’s about today: filmmaker Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro, the Oscar winner, claims that everything he has done thus far has brought him closer to “Frankenstein”. According to the filmmaker, the well-known tale of the scientist and the monster he created takes place in the 19th century, but it is largely about the modern world and all of its reality. Del Toro’s ideal project, which is based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel, explores the horrors of war, the superiority of science over human emotion, and the inability to hear opposing viewpoints.

“This is a very truthful movie for me and it is about today. If you think about where we are as a society, where the cause of female role is in society, the ravages of war, the need for a sweeping emotional restructuring of our minds, those things were true in 1818, and they’re still true now,” the Mexican American director told PTI in a Zoom interview.

“We have the arrogance of science over human emotion. Completely present. The stupidity of people that believe they can push past the boundaries of humanism into transhumanism. That is, again, a very present thing. And the incapacity to listen to the other’s point of view. Check. Again, about today. I think that’s what horror as a genre is very good at, reflecting the time it’s made in,” he said.

Known for films such as “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “Crimson Peak”, “Pacific Rim”, “Hellboy”, “The Shape of Water” and “Pinocchio”, del Toro said the first duty of a filmmaker is to “talk about your now” and what he or she is feeling about the world.

In addition to Oscar Isaac, Christoph Waltz, and Mia Goth, Jacob Elordi plays the monster in the film. The movie will debut on Netflix on November 17 after a limited theatrical run on October 17. He has always been fascinated by creatures. and at last has the opportunity to depict one of the most well-known literary creatures on the big screen.

Del Toro, who read the novel as a young lad and fell in love with Mary Shelley’s creation, expressed his happiness at having lived up to his own expectations.

“‘Crimson Peak’, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, ‘The Shape of Water’, they all are rehearsing something for this movie. I’m very happy that it came out exceeding what I hoped it would be. Many of those elements coming together at the last minute, like Jacob Elordi, which is a blessing for the film,” said the filmmaker who two Oscars best director and best picture for his 2018 movie “Shape of Water” and a third, best animated feature, for 2022’s “Pinocchio”.

“I would have never thought to be this pleased with something that you have dreamt for so long. Usually, you’re going to be afraid it’ll fall short for you of where you want it. But this was incredibly satisfying.”

His love for Gothic literature and the romantic movement of the 19th century and its painters and writers Henry Fuseli, Casper David Friedrich or poets like William Blake, John Milton and Samuel Taylor Coleridge find space in his newest movie.

The film also honours Mary Shelley’s influences and the story around how it came into existence.

“Mary Shelley’s mother had gone to the French Revolution and seen all the bloodletting. And Waterloo and certainly the Napoleonic Wars raged during the early years of Mary Shelley’s life. All these elements had never been brought to play. And I brought them in.

“I brought the poetry of Percy Shelley. And the poem that closes the movie is a poem that was written about Waterloo, precisely, by Lord Byron. And I thought the quote was so profound: ‘The heart will break and yet brokenly live on’, which is what the movie’s about making peace with imperfection, forgiveness, and kindness,” del Toro said.