Del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ shuns horror for humanity at Venice

VENICE: Forget the classic Frankenstein films, where the monster had a flat head, neck bolts and heavy boots.

The new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel “Frankenstein”, directed by Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro, portrays a sad, sensitive creature craving affection and knowledge, and instead confronted by anger and hatred.

“A lot of the interpretations of the creature visually are almost like accident victims, and I wanted beauty,” del Toro told reporters on Saturday ahead of the premiere of his latest film at the Venice Film Festival.

Del Toro directs from his own screenplay, telling the story of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), an arrogant scientist who assembles a creature from body parts and brings to life an indestructible, gentle giant (Jacob Elordi).

Park Chan-wook brings 20-year project on job insecurity to Venice

The movie shows the danger of misusing modern technologies, but del Toro, whose feature “The Shape of Water” took top honours at Venice in 2017, said he was not thinking about artificial intelligence when he wrote the script.

“Artificial intelligence I’m not afraid of. I’m afraid of natural stupidity, which is much more abundant,” he said. “We live in a time of terror and intimidation, certainly. And the answer, which art is part of, is love.”

Unlike many directors, del Toro largely shunned computerised special effects and instead built lavish sets for his team of actors, which also included Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth and Felix Kammerer.

“If you put them (actors) in a real lab with real windows, with real height, with real giant batteries, they are reacting to another actor,” he said. “CGI is for losers,” Waltz added to laughs.

‘Broken heart’

Del Toro, known for blending fantasy and horror in films such as “Pan’s Labyrinth”, said he had been obsessed by Mary Shelley’s novel, first published in 1818, since he was a boy and had always wanted to create his own film version.

“What I didn’t want is for you to feel that you were watching a classic interpreted with reverence, but with urgency and something alive now,” he said of the humane retelling of the horror saga, with the scientist emerging as the true monster.

“How do you live with a broken heart, and what do you do with a broken heart? Often cruelty happens out of broken hearts,” Isaac said of his character.

The picture is one of three films U.S. streamer Netflix is showcasing at Venice. The other two are Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” and Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly”.

It is expected to get a limited release in cinemas in October before going behind the Netflix paywall in November.

Del Toro said he wanted it to get as wide a cinema release as possible, but was excited by Netflix’s huge potential audience.

“I mean, look at my size. I always want more of everything,” the rotund director joked, before adding: “To me, the battle we are going to fight in telling stories is on two fronts, obviously the size of the screen, but the size of the ideas is very important.”

“Frankenstein” is one of 21 films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion prize, which will be awarded on September 6.