No, by family film, he does not mean that the – often bloody – film is something that is suitable as Sunday entertainment for the whole family. What he means is that it is a film that deals with family, with relationships, not least with the father-son relationship.
I have wanted to make this film for many, many years. I read Mary Shelley's book as a child, it has been with me since then. In many ways, you can say that it made me who I am, he says when TT meets him in Venice.
Loneliness
Guillermo del Toro means that there are parts of himself in all the characters in the story:
Just like there were parts of Mary Shelley in what she wrote, about loneliness and the longing for community. We are born alone, we die alone, in between we get to experience a few years when we meet other people, he says.
However, he means that it is also a horror film.
Yes, it is. I have nothing against it being called a horror film, I have made many such films. But it's not just that.
In Guillermo del Toro's film, Victor Frankenstein is played by Oscar Isaac and his creation by Jacob Elordi. Victor's brother William is played by Felix Krammerer and the female lead Elizabeth by Mia Goth.
No classic
Those who expect a film that resembles, for example, the classic with Boris Karloff will be disappointed, Del Toro means. He has rearranged the story quite a bit compared to Mary Shelley's, not least new characters have been added.
In the past, in my films, not least in my horror films, it has been that the monster was the good one and the hero the villain. Here it's more ambivalent, he says.
The first "Frankenstein" film was released in 1914. Since then, as said, more than 400 others have been made, some serious, others with titles like "The Werewolf Meets Frankenstein". But the premise of how a man plays God and tries to create life is always there. What is it that makes the myth of Frankenstein's monster continue to live? Mia Goth says:
I think it has to do with loneliness. We all recognize ourselves, we feel sorry for the creature, who hasn't asked to be created.
Gunnar Rehlin/TT
Fact: Guillermo del Toro
TT
Name: Guillermo del Toro.
Age: 60.
Family: wife Kom Morgan, two children.
Lives: Toronto and Los Angeles.
Occupation: director.
Previous films, selection: "Cronos", "Mimic", "Blade II", "Pan's Labyrinth", "Crimson Peak", "The Shape of Water", "Pinocchio".
Current: With "Frankenstein" (coming to Netflix on November 7).
