STACK NZ Summer #70

DVD & BD Q&A

visit stack.net.nz

Guillermo Del Toro talks about his favourite gothic fiction and films, and why his latest fantasy opus Crimson Peak is not your usual haunted house movie.

What inspired you to make Crimson Peak ? Guillermo DelToro: One of my favorite gothic novels is written by Sheridan Le Fanu, and it’s called Uncle Silas, and it’s so great because there is a very innocent character trapped in a very wicked place. For Crimson Peak , I fell in love with the idea of a mountain that becomes red in the winter – the snow becomes red as blood. It’s a very powerful image, and that’s where the movie came from. What I wanted was to do a very classic gothic romance, but with a couple of things that were very, very modern. So there are a few violent sequences – graphic, brutal – and a sexual element that is quite raw; no nudity or explicit content but strong taboo breaking. Although there is a strong supernatural element, is it fair to say to it's closer in spirit to movies like Rebecca rather than The Haunting ? The Haunting has a very different architecture, and I tried to not reference other movies in the same genre. Rebecca is very much a gothic movie. But Rebecca is actually very, very close to Jane Eyre , and then Jane Eyre is very close to Dragonwyck or Uncle Silas ! Gothic novels have recurring elements: the distressed dark, brooding hero, the innocent heroine coming to a crumbling mansion, the hostility of the mansion or its inhabitants. I think the idea is to create something that comes from my own sensibility. That’s what Kubrick did in The Shining . He took the haunted house genre, and he made a hotel that looked modern and somewhat clean and full of really modern shapes on the rug and the walls, and he made it become really, really menacing. How else do you think Crimson Peak differs from other gothic classics of the past? Tonally, it is different than most gothic stories; there is quite a drive to the mystery and a use of ghosts and apparitions that is quite unique. Visually, I am trying to create a sense of scope and grandeur and – in some instances – fashioning an elegant Technicolor

DVD & BD

The house in Crimson Peak deserves more than a passing mention.The set you built is magnificent, and the house itself is a character. There is great beauty in shooting in a real place, on a real set, and it informs the way the actors behave and the way you set the mood with the camera. I think it’s good to build sets like this, for that. The set was four stories high, with running water, bathrooms, bedrooms, working chimneys, etc. and encompassed most of the house and a piece of exterior.

look. What I mean is, when you see the images, they have very strong color and it’s sort of the way the Italian filmmakers used to do colour gothic. I adore Mario Bava’s sense of color and his sense of atmosphere. He worked on camera and he used a lot of primary colors. So we are trying to do our take on ‘Technicolor gothic.’ Do you believe in ghosts? Well, I’ve had two experiences, so I do believe they exist. I had one in New Zealand and one in Mexico. In New Zealand, I rented a haunted room in a hotel. In the middle of the night, I heard horrible screams - like someone being murdered - and the hotel was empty for the season. And I heard the ghost of my uncle sighing in my ear after he died. I think that the fact that I believe in ghosts makes me treat them with a personal perspective as a filmmaker.

Are you going to take anything home from the set?

Some key props and books, yes. It’s my favorite set, I wish I could live in the library. I honestly wish the Crimson Peak house could be my house!

• Crimson Peak is out on February 17

SUMMER EDITION 2016

14

jbhifi.co.nz