Awards

The Shape of Water

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A Mesmerising Del Toro Classic

Before I even start my review, lets just go through the nominations this film has achieved already:

  • 13 Academy Awards nominations
  • 7 Golden Globe nominations – (Won BEST DIRECTOR and BEST ORIGINAL SCORE)
  • 12 BAFTA nominations

From this alone I already had high expectations.

The first thing you will notice from this film is how the main character Elisa is a mute, but that doesn’t mean she is a flat character. Sally Hawkins (a brit by the way!) has amazing emotive energy and definitely deserves her Best Actress nominations. The on-screen chemistry between Elisa and the Amphibian Man – or as he is referred to in the film, the Asset, is a marvel. Having two characters that are mute makes every move they make that much more meaningful and emotive.

In an interview with IMDB Del Toro stated that “words lie but looks don’t” and this is why he focuses a lot on the fingers. Psychologically our hands can give away our true feelings and this film uses that. At the beginning when the two characters meet, we see them touching fingers through the glass of his tank. This develops throughout the film to a full touch of the hands. The full touch is warm and affectionate whereas touching fingertips shows less affection.

Fingers

There are also a lot of noticeable similarities between Del Toro’s most well-known 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth. Both stories are told in the style of a fairy-tale about real life times of struggles. Pan’s Labyrinth is set in the time of Spanish Civil War and The Shape of Water is set during the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s.  This is a trait of Del Toro’s cinematic storytelling and is a refreshing insight into telling a story, giving a childlike wonder and the cool tones of the colour pallet.

Image result for pan's labyrinthLight

It is clear where Del Toro got his inspiration for the character of the Amphibious Man. Originally the film was going to be a reboot of The Creature From The Black Lagoon, and you can see the similarities between the Asset and Gill Man. I personally hate reboots and I am glad they took a different route.

I give this film 5 out of 5. It gripped my attention, I loved the characters and the story. Typical Del Toro film.

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Works Cited

Arnold, J. (Director). (1954). Creature from the Black Lagoon [Motion Picture].

IMDb. (2017, December 13). Guillermo del Toro Explains Symbols in ‘The Shape of Water’ | IMDb EXCLUSIVE. Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb-MzoMFtWo

Toro, G. d. (Director). (2006). Pan’s Labyrinth [Motion Picture].

Director:  Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer.

Crew: Alexandre Desplat (Music) Dan Laustsen (Cinematographer)

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 15

The Revenant

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Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Cast:  Leonardo DiCaprio , Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson.

Crew: Steve Golin – producer, Emmanuel Lubezki -Cinematographer

Genre: Epic Western Thriller

Rating: 12

Awards:  Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Actor –                        Drama,

12 Academy Award nominations, including the Best Picture and Best Director, as                     well as Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor

The Revenant has been at the forefront of the Award circuit this year and from seeing the film I can see why including 3 Golden Globes and 12 Academy Award nominations including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Director.

Not only does the film have such an amazing cast but you can see how in tune the cast and crew are. I am a big fan of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s work because of his process. Every film he does he insists on filming the scenes chronologically. Normally this doesn’t happen purely because it takes more time and needs a bigger budget. Iñárritu has said in interviews that “The emotions of the actors are better when they understand the chronological factors that are adding to the story.”  (Buder, 2015).

 You can completely understand this framework of thinking as from the actor’s point of view it is difficult to jump in and out of a plot line and filming it chronologically helps the performance of the characters and I think that is why Iñárritu gets such amazing performances from his actors. Although it may push the budget and time frame way up, you cannot disagree with the result.

In 2011 Javier Bardem became the first all-Spanish-language Best Actor nominee ever at the Oscars for his part in Iñárritu’s Biutiful.  Once again with shooting chronologically this helped to enhance his performance and Bardem even commented that it was a “gift” (Smith, 2010). I will be very surprised if DiCaprio misses out on the Oscar this year. The pure commitment he gave to the role. During the 11 month filming DiCaprio was sleeping rough, spending hours in the freezing cold Alaskan water and even ate raw Bison liver to ensure he gave a true impression. (Miller, 2015)

Mentioning about the feeling of truth this  is something that I really look for in a good film. If I can spot errors it is something that takes me out of the story and makes me realise that I am in fact watching a film. Considering the film is all about the hunter / prey dynamic you can really sense the planning of a hunter. Even small things such as walking the water to avoid making tracks in the snow. This is a typical hunter’s method and obviously works very well. Considering the film is set in 1823 those were brutal times and this is a theme throughout the film. You can see the dissolution of the characters back to their animalistic state. A good example of this is the contrast between the bear attack and the final showdown between Glass and Fitzgerald.

With the bear attack you cannot see any blood or anything initially as the ground is muddy and dark, very natural. I love the idea of Glass taking the bear’s pelt it is literally the metaphor of What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Whereas during the showdown they fight takes place on pure snow making the blood appear vibrant. It actually reminded me of the scene after a polar bear attacked a seal and left the bloody devastation.

Polar(Palmer, 2014).

Even the fighting you can see the animalistic tendencies coming out as they both lose their guns and result to hand to hand combat, including biting.

You cannot speak about a film such as this and not take in the awe of the cinematography. Emmanuel Lubezki is an award winning cinematographer for films such as Gravity and another of Iñárritu’s film Birdman. The use of light is something that still haunts me today even though I saw the film 3 days ago. The light used is so natural but also gives a lot of emotion. In the scenes where Fitzgerald is fleeing it is very murky light as there is the foreboding feeling while in Glass’s scenes where he is hunting Fitzgerald the light it bright  and determined.

Lastly I can’t review this film without mentioning the main theme of Revenge. The brutal times of the early 1800s can be seen from the first scene where there is the fight for pelts. Everyone wants to get the pelts to help their families. The Americans want the money to feed their families and the Native Americans want to get the pelts to trade with the French for guns in order to protect their families. The entire reason that Glass goes after FitzGerald is revenge for his son’s murder, but everyone is suffering. Even the Captain mentions that he would have hunted down FitzGerald in order to revenge his family.

But the idea that “Revenge is in the Creator’s hand” takes the film to another level as it isn’t just about the bloodlust it is about Glass’s journey to coping with his loss. At the very beginning he literally curls up with his son and waits for death, stage one. Stage two is the revenge stage and stage three is the acceptance that nothing will bring him back.  There is something beautiful about that journey in my opinion.

The best way I would describe this film as a whole would be Beautifully Brutal as I think it sums up the film in its entirety. I tip this film for a lot more awards and hopefully Leo is long awaited Oscar! Congratulations Iñárritu you have taken my first full marks of the year!

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 Works Cited

Buder, E. (2015, October 30). Indiewire. Retrieved from 10 Crazy Things We Learned from Alejandro González Iñárritu About Shooting ‘The Revenant’: http://www.indiewire.com/article/10-crazy-things-we-learned-from-alejandro-gonzalez-inarritu-about-shooting-the-revenant-20151030

Miller, J. (2015, December 17). Leonardo DiCaprio Explains Why He Ate Actual Raw Bison Liver for The Revenant. Retrieved from Vanity Fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/12/leonardo-dicaprio-the-revenant-raw-bison-liver

Palmer, J. (2014, November 5). Can Polar Bears be saved? Retrieved from BBC Earth: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141107-can-polar-bears-be-saved

Smith, N. M. (2010, December 27). HONOR ROLL 2010 | “Biutiful” Actor Javier Bardem. Retrieved from Indiewire: http://www.indiewire.com/article/honor_roll_2010_biutiful_actor_javier_bardem