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Starting his career with the 1992 horror movie Cronos, Guillermo del Toro has risen to become one of the most well-known filmmakers of his generation, making instantly recognisable movies that blend horror and fantasy. His twisted nightmares are widely coveted, with titles like The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, all receiving cult and critical acclaim.
Each one of del Toro’s movies is idiosyncratic – you instantly know you’re watching a movie made by the Mexican auteur as you fall deeper into his dark fantasy worlds. It’s hard not to get enraptured by his use of bold visuals, many of which are the kind you find terrifying as a child, lurking in the back of your mind and coming out to scare you as soon as the lights turn off. The best example of this is the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth, a terrifying creature with eyes in his hands that scared a whole generation of kids.
The filmmaker’s style isn’t typically associated with the mainstream, but del Toro’s movies have proved to be incredibly popular, making him a big name in Hollywood. As a result, del Toro has found himself associated with many industry icons, like James Cameron (who even paid the ransom after del Toro’s father was kidnapped) and Steven Spielberg.
In an interview with IndieWire, del Toro once admitted that he would text Spielberg and George Miller during lockdown. “We would send each other an image and say, ‘What movie am I watching?’ We would start discussing the craft. How did this shot get made?”
It’s unsurprising, then, that del Toro is a big fan of Spielberg’s work. The filmmaker has been inspired by the Hollywood legend throughout his career, selecting Catch Me If You Can, released in 2002, as one of his favourites. He described the movie as a “melodic” one to Bright Wall/Dark Room, explaining, “Spielberg: he is constantly dispensing three minute, one-shot sequences in all of his movies that are amazing. That’s why my favourite film of his in the last couple of decades is Catch Me If You Can.”
Further explaining why he enjoys the movie, del Toro said, “That movie to me is like a musical. You cannot choreograph a movie with more precision than that movie is choreographed. Every shot is a little masterclass about how to do internal montage, by which I mean the montage of the camera and actor’s ballet, you know?”
“Most of the time you find discussions start and stop at content, at dramaturgy: what is it about, what the characters do, what does the story mean, politically. […] They talk about the actors, or they talk about the cinematography, but the reality is, when you orchestrate a movie, you’re orchestrating everything—and only about a third of it is often discussed,” he added.
Catch Me If You Can starred Leonardo DiCaprio as fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr and Tom Hanks as an FBI agent. Based on the book by Abagnale Jr, the movie received widespread praise, with DiCaprio’s nuanced leading performance impressing critics.
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