My Project!

I have decided to follow one of my initial ideas of a study on Guillermo del Toro as an auteur.

I have chosen three of his films in which I will study In greater depth.

My main focus film is:

Pans Labyrinth (2006)

I haven chosen this to be my main focus film as it was Del Toro's most successful auteured film.
As I am also interested into looking into the Auteur theory, I would like to specialise in a certain area of Del Toro's work.
I would like to look into Del Toro's love (or obsession) with monsters, his views are incredibly fascinating as he says "the only real monsters are humans". These views are particularly present in this film with the parallels between the fantasy world of monsters and reality. 





My other two focus films are:

The Devils Backbone (2001)

The Devils Backbone was the first film Guillermo del Toro had auteured, this is one of the main reasons for me looking at this film.
I want to look into why he decided to auteur his forth major film in his career and what influence this has had on future work.  This film doesn't contain monsters as such but it defiantly confronts and works in the same way as Del Toro's theory on humanity.








Hell Boy II : The Golden Army (2008)

I have chosen one of Del Toro's most recent films to study. This film tells truth to Del Toro's philosophy just by the tag line "Believe it or not, He's the good guy" this inverts the convention of the monster being the antagonist. 

 "I like the monster to stand into the spot light to reveal their true beauty and not lurk in the shadows."

This film I would say is the most true to the statement above than any other. (except Hell Boy I) 

I am also going to have reference to Hell Boy I as a significant change happened when producing Hell Boy II. Del Toro was given the chance to completely write and direct the second film were as before he was a co-writer. 

Guillermo del Toro

Love of Monsters

The Auteur

Here is an interesting article I found about the debate on Auteur-ism

CLICK ME.

Initial Ideas for my Small Scale Research Project

Social & Political.
One of my first ideas for this project came from a film I watched recently; Four Lions (Chris Morris 2010). The film tackles a taboo in society today in a humorous way. The plot entails four men who have a secret plan to bomb London. These characters are Omar, Waj, Faisal and Barry - a white Islamic convert.

The film brought up controversy as it was and is a sensitive subject for many. The Film deals with issues such as racism and terrorism but in a comical way. For many it was too close to the bone as it was too close to the 7/7 attacks.

Here is an article I found about how the families of the 7/7 attacks urged for the film to be boycotted.



The Auteur.

I have always been inspired by Guillermo Del Toro's work ever since I had seen Pans Labyrinth (2006).
What has always fascinated me is the intricate detail paid to Mise en scene and the narrative.
Guillermo Del Toro before being an award winning director was a technical artist, producer and writer which has made him into a multi talented director.
I would like to focus on these aspects of Guillermo Del Toro's work in extra detail and also how his work is linked.
I am more inclined to work on this option as I have more passion for it.