PART TWO OF OUR INTERVIEW WITH GUILLERMO DEL TORO

GDT: I believe you need the violence. People dump all genre films in one basket- especially horror films, but that’s like comparing an HBO soft-core film to Last Tango in Paris. Violence is no different than any other element of story in that it comes in different permutations. And just like all those other elements it is inevitable. People are violent, they are territorial, it’s part of being a mammal much less a human being. If we do not examine it then how are we to explore and deal with it? When it is presented visually it can be everything from cartoony, to poetic. Whatever the representational mode violence is clearly often deeply symbolic. To say that a film is violent is not to say much.

I will say I am quite disturbed by the way graphic violence is marketed. A truly gifted filmmaker creates one thing which is badly and endlessly aped by studios whose only purpose is to make money. In turn they create a cultural situation in which the only purpose people have in encountering the work is to have fun. The brilliance of the original is lost, and so is the ability to appreciate it all because the cart was put before the horse.

For instance in Pan’s Labyrinth, unlike in a true horror movie, the violence does not get more and more baroque, and is clearly not just for fun. In Pan’s Labyrinth I want the violence to be off putting, damaging, heartbreaking. It is the violence of war. When the audience perceives the merciless quality of that violence in that which is essentially a wartime film, I think they break free of the propaganda which has sold the war to them. Ultimately I think the real pornography is the propaganda.

INT: Did the mix of childlike story and dark imagery make it difficult to get financing?

GDT: Oh certainly. But it was also difficult to find financing for a movie that was in Spanish as opposed to English. But of course we could not change any of this without damaging the integrity of the project. The financing actually collapsed twice. I still haven’t collected a single cent as director on the film. I showed the project to a very famous Hollywood producer and his response was, “This is very, very good. If you cut the violence a bit you could market it to a PG-13.” And I said, “It’s like hearing from your wife that you should cut your balls off so you’d be more aerodynamic.” Violence and beauty in this film balance in such a way that, I hope, the viewer can experience the story like a child. If I accomplish that then I am happy.

We are so overwhelmed with violence today that I must be very careful how I use it, it must be disturbing, it must have impact. When I was speaking with Sergi Lopez about what kind of character I envisioned Captain Vidal to be I stressed that I thought of him as a real person. War creates these kinds of sociopaths and the last thing I wanted was for Sergi, who is a very smart actor, to fall into the trap of simply nuancing a fascist; especially given the incredibly ruthless brand of fascism that was utilized by Franco in Spain. Captain Vidal needs to be mindless, base, vile but he needs to believe that he is right, that he has a reason for what he does. And above all he needs to believe that he is righteous. Of course Vidal’s weakness was easy; he hated himself more than anybody else.

INT: Any news regarding the production company you’ve launched with Alfonso Cuaran?

GDT: We’re hoping I’ll produce Alfonso’s new movie or that we’ll co-produce again. We’ve produced three times together and hey we make no money but we’re happy because, at the end of it all, we are making the movies we want to make. For as long as we can afford to lose money I guess that’s what we’ll do!