Guillermo del Toro opened up about fulfilling his lifelong desire to bring his version of Frankenstein story on the silver screens.
Frankenstein, classic novel written originally by Mary Shelly, was adapted by Del Toro starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth.
In conversation with director Jason Reitman, which took place post-screening Q&A session, the Mexican filmmaker shared that bringing Frankenstein to the big screen was his dream since age 11, the first time he read the novel.
“All my life, I’ve been aiming towards this movie,” he said. “All 50 years of craft, thought, thematic pondering — everything. It is a fusion of the book, my life and what I know about the Romantic movement.”
With his take on the film, Pan’s Labyrinth star deconstructed the myth of Frankenstein and rather than portraying the Creature as an ugly being or a monster like other filmmakers before, he created a gentle and innocent being portrayed by Elordi.
He also used various motifs, like religion playing a significant role when characters ask question, “Can man play God?”
Colours in the film also played a key role, with red, white and blue being the dominant choices.
“We follow Victor’s experiments in the lab, which have the language of red and reflect the brutality of Victor as an artist whose musical notes happen to be anatomical,” Del Toro told the outlet.
He explained that only Victor and Elizabeth wore red, since Elizabeth was a “mother figure” in a sense and Victor “was on a quest of eternal life because his mother died.”
On bringing creature to life, Del Toro discussed about how seamless stitching and different coloration on the Creature’s body reflect how Victor has pieced it together from body parts found on the battlefield.
“By the time the Creature is revealed, [the audience] will have already seen the things that make him unique,” del Toro says. “He looks like a newborn, not like an ICU victim. And that’s important.”
Frankenstein is now available to stream on Netflix.
