The Mexican director (Oscar winner for The Shape of Water) returns to theaters with The Fair of Illusions, about a swindler in New York in the 1930s. Stellar cast starring Bradley Cooper (nude), Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe and Richard Jenkins.
There is always a ghost knocking on the forbidden door of Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican director creator of monsters who combines gothic fantasy and very human poetics. Waiting for his Pinocchio, and after The shape of water which earned him two Oscars and the Golden Lion in Venice, here he is on zoom with round glasses and apparent bonhomie in a new sleight of hand, where he tells “a man who sells his soul, a nullity, a swindler who cheats the ‘New York high society of the 1930s “. Bradley Cooper (he’s in a nude scene that caused a sensation on the web), practices the art of mind reading, and plans to cheat a dangerous tycoon. The Fair of Illusions – Nightmare Alley, out on the 27th, distributed by Disney. Stellar Cast: alongside Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara.
Del Toro, which palette did you choose this time?
«There is the shadow of the Great Depression in the background of the amusement parks in the dark and unknown aspects, the freak phenomena, a microcosm in which you meet people forced to leave behind a tormented past; there are terror and power, seduction and betrayal, corruption and lust, crime and punishment. I tried to avoid the noir clichés ».
But do you believe in spiritualism?
«I practice it and I like it, even if it scares me. It has nothing to do with magic but with psychology, with getting in touch with ourselves. I believe in magic as a perception of the world that transforms the show mind. But as with any Mexican, ghost stories have happened to me, I have experiences of strange things in my head. ‘
«From the novel by William Lindsay Gresham (it was already made a film, a long time ago, with Tyrone Power). I read it in 1993 and was impressed by the freedom of the narrative style. Gresham had really entered the minds of his characters. I was struck by some of their brutal and sordid aspects, at the same time it was a deeply human portrait. The book was difficult to find, there were legal conflicts. Talk about things that reflect the world we live in. “
The manipulations of the film lead us to the poison of today’s fake news.
“The protagonist is a wandering con man who transforms himself into a charming manipulator. The fake news they concern the personal sphere, rather than politics. We live in difficult times with ourselves, we prefer the comfort. They win fame, i followers, the ephemeral wins. It is a kind of gladiatorial culture, we are all living in a circus of ancient Rome. Existence is divided into black and white, speaking of palette, the other colors have been lost, a childish dimension, how can we start a conversation between adults? ».
Do we find this simplification in the film?
«We find it in a joke: I’m afraid every day of my life. The solution would be simple and difficult at the same time, to embrace compassion and the ability to accept the world in its complexity ».
Is there the American dream?
“Yes, on its dark side. Indeed, if I have to say it all for me it is a nightmare, the idea of success does not coincide with the truth. With its deceptions. It is much more difficult to recover from success than to fail. Failure is a life lesson that makes you grow. Success is dissatisfaction, it is exchanged with the need to have everything. Success for me is when you say: too much is too much ».
Cate Blanchett has a cursed charm here.
«He is the avenging angel, a sphinx; she is the mysterious psychiatrist (there were many of them at the time, but, under Freud’s heel, they were not recognized) who has the courage to confront the scammer, with the truth of her true self “.
Fellini’s way, the brutality of the acrobat Zampanò: have you thought about it?
«The road it could take place in my Mexico. The traveling amusement park with its merry-go-rounds and misshapen creatures in the muddy fields was the only entertainment for the masses. I was more influenced by Obsession by Visconti e The Scream by Antonioni, because my film (which has nothing mannerist about it) has more to do with raw realism. Fellini is one of my favorite directors, one of the three greatest in the world together with Buñuel and Hitchcock, he influenced my way of approaching the cinema, but in this case he doesn’t have that much to do with it ».
When he says that this story could have taken place in his country …
«Mexico and Italy have in common the ability to combine the sublime with the terrible, brutality with beauty. Which are the two dimensions of life: the human being is fascinated by horror and beauty ».
January 21, 2022 (change January 22, 2022 | 15:13)
© Time.News