10 · 17 · 06

I consider myself to be pure, but not innocent. 17/10/2006

Clara Sánchez

Del Toro is charismatic and incredibly witty. He can talk about almost any subject. His films are known for their originality and for creating a parallel universe that is inhabited by bugs, ghoulish characters, strange artifacts, fairies and children.
Del Toro studied at the University of Guadalajara, where he worked with Jaime Humberto Hermosillo and produced “Doña Hermelinda Linda y su hijo” in 1984. His big brake came with La invención de Cronos, which won the International Film Critics Award at Cannes, as well as nine Ariels, the Mexican Oscar.
“The world of fantasy is not an escape from reality, but a language that allows me to express and understand reality,” he said. With this language, the Mexican filmmaker has created cinematic parables based on complex historic events, such as the Spanish Civil War.

Del Toro’s style of storytelling is very distinctive and engaging. Influenced by Alfred Hitchcock and fantasy filmmakers Fernando Méndez, Carlos Enrique Taboada, and Carlos López Moctezuma, Del Toro’s interior world transports audiences to a land where the his personal fears and the spectators meet.
What types of monsters scare you the most? _
I get scared just thinking about politicians, but I’m actually scared of ghosts; I’ve never seen one, but I heard one when I was a kid, and it was really frightening.
Can you tell me more about that?
I was really close to an uncle of mine as a kid, he was also called Guillermo and we both liked to read esoteric literature and horror stories and that kind of thing. One day, we agreed that if one of us died, he would send a sing to the other to prove there was life after death. Of course, it’s easy for an eleven year old to say something like that. When he died, I inherited his room. One day, while I was doing my homework, I heard him breathing and it was really sad, he was moving through the air, it wasn’t a hallucination.
What seems frightening about horror films is facing one’s inner monsters. Do you agree? _ Yes, I do. Horrible things are projections; however, I’m scared of ghosts because I know there is some sort of conscience after death. This produces a huge unbalancing effect in me and the way I see life, but yes, all we have is projections.
What’s this unbalancing effect like? _
I’m in favor of the tangible things in life, and in favor of fantastic things as a mental or spiritual exercise, but I don’t believe in heaven or hell. There are lots of questions left unanswered, though: what shape does a ghost have, is there consciousness after death, that kind of thing.
Do you sublimate your ghosts? Absolutely, I exorcize all my unhealthy impulses in a profoundly social way.
El Labyrinth del Fauna is a film about disobedience. When should we disobey? _
When things that are unfair or wrong, when your will is being manipulated by others, an essential part of you dies. When someone says, “Things should be done in this way or that way for the sake of religion or politics”, it’s a good idea to question it. One should disobey with intelligence. When my daughter asks, “Why should I wash my hands?” Instead of saying “because I say so,” I explain why. If I, as a citizen, say to a politician, why not do a recount of the votes? I’m doing the same thing my daughter is doing, but it’s somehow seen as a transgression. There should be no guilt in questioning things; it’s a virtue.
Why is it that we, as Mexicans, question don’t question things? _We’re too prudent, we think it’s polite not to question, that it’s part of a good upbringing. This “good upbringing”, however, is something that binds us, that doesn’t allow us to call things what they are, or say what we feel. We don’t say things, we allow ourselves to be mistreated and belittled; some times, we ill-treat ourselves, and we should worry about that.
To quote Buñuel, México is a surrealist country. How come more fantasy films aren’t made? As Mexicans, we fantasize quite a bit. Institutions don’t promote fantasy or emo