Guillermo del Toro He chose the Venice Festival 2025 to reveal his Frankenstein, The film that has been chasing for a lifetime. It is read in the eyes of the Mexican director, in the emotion that does not even try to mask, in the anxiety of those who know they have finally completed a work that is not only cinema for him, but dream, obsession, confession. “More than a dream, it is part of me,” he specifies in a restricted meeting with the press, «I grew up as a Catholic. And now that I finished it, I am in a sort of state of postpartum depression ». The director, lion d’oro for The shape of the water (Becoming Oscar then) In 2017 he continues: «Whatever you think about seeing, you will see something different. Because it is a film that has accompanied me since I was a child. The DNA of an English girl, Mary Shelley, 19 years old merges with the DNA of a 7 -year -old Mexican boy, mine. Over the years, the book has become my second nature, the films have become my second nature. I am Victor. I am every character, I am Elizabeth. It is a dialogue with myself through the decades: When I learned what it meant to be a son, when I learned what it meant to be a father, when I learned to go on ».
It is of this, in fact, that the film in competition speaks at the exhibition, which will be in the room and on Netflix from 22 October from November 7th: asks what it means to remain human in a world that pushes polarization. In recent years Guillermo del Toro has accumulated notes, ideas, drawings, imagining the cast that today represents everything they wanted: Oscar Isaac is Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi the creature, My goth, Elizabeth, girlfriend of Victor’s younger brother, Christoph Waltz The disturbing Dr. Pretorius, who in this version becomes rich by making weapons: «I created Christopher, a weapon trafficker, why Frankenstein It is also a statement against war, “explains the director,” but above all it is a love film. Mary Shelley wrote confessing, and I too wanted to be honest. The book remains on the shelf, the film is on the screen. If I did my job well, you will recognize the spirit. The film wonders what human being means in an era of fast technology, war and sides. Every film I do talks about the present. Nightmare alley He spoke of lies that become truth. Pinocchio It was not on the unification of Italy, but on learning to be a father. Here, every 10 minutes, the film changes: it starts with a terrible act, then there is a child and a terrible father, then there is love, then still more ».
The creature version of the bull: «He is a character who seems so far from me, but he is every little fragment of my life, since I was born to date. It’s all my experience. I tried to be as honest as possible with myself as this creature. It is human because it is more than I am myself. We live in a world that constantly inhumanizes us, dividing everything in pure or terrible. There is no dialogue or freedom of interpretation. The film makes peace with imperfection: you can be good, you can be bad, and in the middle there are all the colors of human experience, including errors and forgiveness. It is an urgent dialogue with imperfection, especially today that we cross 260 emotional states per day, half of which make us feel very bad, half euphoric artificially. None of this is real. It was urgent in England of the industrial revolution, it is now ». For Jacob Elordi It is the role that had been waiting for for some time: «It has been my dream since I was probably 14 years old. I was as a blockbuster in the horror section, because my mother allowed me to watch movies forbidden to children under the age of 15. For me it is a dream that comes true ». And the scars and over 10 hours of makeup to enter the character: «It was not difficult. It was a commitment made with love. For the hours of makeup Guillermo told me that it would have been like receiving a sacrament. Sit on that chair, it meant emptying me to become something else. And it was a great joy. Today I even miss having it on me: it was a safe place to create from ».
Next to him, My Goth He says: «When Guillermo invited me to participate in the film I reread the book. I was struck by the pain of Mary Shelley’s experience, which is perceived on each page, together with the sense of isolation ». And his Victor Frankenstein Oscar Isaac says: «Victor is more an artist than a scientist. It comes from a very dark and painful place. I tried to represent outsiders. It is a personal aspect, that of living with a broken and broken heart: there is a lot of cruelty in this. Everything that happens becomes an attempt to control the consequences of living with a broken heart. But Victor also has a sensual, emotional side. Like the greatest tyrants, he considers himself a victim ».
Then the discussion expands to current affairs: Who are the monsters today? “In the real world the monsters wear jacket and tie.” Del Toro, as usual, does not use turns of words: “Anyone who denies humanity for an idea: that idea has no merit. For this I choose the actors looking in the eyes. If you can look in a person who thinks he is bad, you will still see humanity. The question is: can two people who should never make peace between them find a bridge, a beautiful moment? This is at the center of the film. Victor does not want to recognize humanity in the other, because they are different. Elisabeth, on the other hand, recognizes her immediately. In the end, whether we talk about war or the Middle East, the important thing is to recognize humanity in the other. In the film, Harlander’s character has made luck by selling weapons to all wars of the last decades, and he believes that giving life is just a technical act. But that’s not the case. Jean-Paul Sartre said that “hell are the others”. I say that salvation are the others. It is urgent to remember it ».
And again: can love save the world? “One hundred percent,” Rima del Toro. «The problem is that the media focus on terror, which seems more urgent than love. But we are also surrounded by love, as Elisabeth shows, the most modern character of the film. NThe daily life to women is denied the possibility of being imperfect or monstrous: they must always be on a pedestal. Elisabeth instead moves, acts, proof compassion. Art is an act of love. It is powerful because we recognize the love, empathy and pain of those who tell us what human to be. You are attracted to those who suffered the same wounds that you suffered. It is the vulnerability that binds us ».
Finally, the inevitable question: Artificial intelligence will be the new Frankenstein? «We live in a time of terror and intimidation. The answer is forgiveness, love. The fundamental question is: what makes us human? There is no more urgent task than to remain human while the world pushes us to polarization. We have the right to imperfection, the right to understand each other as human beings. It is an extremely human film. To scare me is not artificial intelligence, but natural stupidity ».
Source: Vanity Fair
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