Spotlight on a Great Director

I think that it is really important to pay attention to film direction, as opposed to choosing films based on the actors involved.  I usually find that I enjoy several films by the same director, and often find little correlation between an actor's film choices and performances (ie.  I love Luke Wilson in The Royal Tenenbaums and Bottle Rocket, but really hate him in Legally Blonde... the movies are totally different, and the roles are completely unrelated... by the same token, I love almost every movie that Martin Scorsese has ever directed, and they all carry some common elements of style that are quintessential to him, as a director.)One of my current favorite directors is completely changing the standard for special effects and has an entirely innovative style and background.  His films bring imagination to life more completely than any other, and while so many directors fail to realize a story that people already care deeply about, this man makes the story real. I find that Peter Jackson and Clint Eastwood also fit this description, but don't make quite as dramatic an impact as Guillermo del Torro.

*Guillermo Del Torro was born in 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and is one of few famous directors to ever bridge the gap between the Mexican and American film industry.  In many cases, Mexican films are remade into American films, often replacing the actors for Hollywood A-listers, and following the exact story-line of the originals (ie. El Mariachi (1992) was remade into Desperado (1995) by Robert Rodriguez, trading mexican actors for Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, who is in fact Mexican, but certainly has transcended the cultural barrier.)  Del Torro has succeeded in creating brilliant and wildly successful films, both in Spanish and in English.  His most famous, award-winning spanish-language film thus far has been 

El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth, 2006), which is amazing and magical, and feels like

 watching a dream, complete with horrifying nightmare-monsters and beautiful, mythical storytelling.  The actors are also brilliant, and bring several great Spanish leading-ladies to American attention.   I also enjoyed The Devil's Backbone (2001), which follows a very classic style of Spanish film, detailing life during the Spanish Civil War, and highlights themes of magical realism and superstition against the harsh reality and catholic traditional belief system of the time.  The film is really a ghost story that takes place in an orphanage, which also follows another of del Torro's typical themes... a child as the central, heroic figure.

I, like many Americans, have also been amazed at GdT's ability to create a perfect american blockbuster.  His direction of the Hellboy (I in 2004, and II in 2008) series captures the true magic of the graphic-novel-based story, and I really doubt that any other contemporary director could have acheived the amazing effects that these films had in abundance.  Of course, no director is complete without a few reappearing actors, such as Doug Jones for GdT.  I mean, come on, let's face it,... Jones plays about every physically complicated character in any given GdT flick, so he is pretty special and essential to both the success and the impact of the film:)

For the record, I recommend GdT to anyone who wants to see crowd-pleasing, yet intelligent films, and I really advise those who have only seen Hellboy to view some of GdT's spanish-language films.  They are even more surreal.

GdT, el Gusto es mio!

(the many faces of Doug Jones, my friends)