Dive deep into the gothic, grotesque, and beautiful world of Guillermo del Toro, the Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. This episode explores the life and career of a master storyteller who finds poetic beauty in the grotesque and considers monsters to be symbols of great power.
Join us as we trace del Toro's journey, from his early experiments with a Super 8 camera at age eight—including a short about a "serial killer potato"—to his breakthrough with the Spanish-language film Cronos. Learn about the creative struggles and triumphs that defined his career, including his unhappy experience directing Mimic for Miramax and his decision to shift between Spanish-language masterpieces like Pan's Labyrinth and English-language blockbusters like Pacific Rim and Blade II.
Discover the personal philosophies that shape his work: his view of horror as "inherently political," his anti-authoritarian streak, and his fascination with monsters as the "patron saints of imperfection". We'll also touch on the profound personal events that have shaped his life, including the harrowing 1997 kidnapping of his father, an event that led him into "involuntary exile" from Mexico.
From his collaborations with "The Three Amigos of Mexican Cinema" to his award-winning films The Shape of Water and Pinocchio, this is the definitive story of a filmmaker who believes all his films are part of one single, personal movie.
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