Guillermo del Toro: Film as Alchemic Art

by Keith McDonald, Roger Clark

Overview

A critical exploration of one of the most exciting, original and influential figures to emerge in contemporary film, Guillermo del Toro: Film as Alchemic Art is a major contribution to the analysis of Guillermo del Toro's cinematic output. It offers an in-depth discussion of del Toro's oeuvre and investigates key ideas, recurrent motifs and subtle links between his movies. The book explores the sources that del Toro draws upon and transforms in the creation of his rich and complex body of work. These include the literary, artistic and cinematic influences on films such as Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, Cronos and Mimic, and the director's engagement with comic book culture in his two Hellboy films, Blade II and Pacific Rim. As well as offering extensive close textual analysis, the authors also consider del Toro's considerable impact on wider popular culture, including a discussion of his role as producer, ambassador for 'geek' culture and figurehead in new international cinema.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501308611
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/27/2015
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	962,978
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Keith McDonald holds a PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, and is the Head of Programme for Media, Film Studies and Mass Communications at York St John University, UK. His research interests include popular culture, cult cinema and digital media.

Roger Clark taught literature and film in UK Universities for over thirty years and has published on contemporary fiction and film. He was Senior Lecturer in Literature Studies at York St John University, UK, where he is currently Honorary Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1
Chapter 1. Influences and Intertexts
Chapter 2. Accented Fantasy and the Gothic Perverse
Chapter 3. Fan as Filmmaker

Part 2
Chapter 4. Twisted Genres: Cronos and Mimic
Chapter 5. Trauma – Childhood –History: The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth
Chapter 6. Gothic Superheroes: Blade II, Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Chapter 7. From Development Hell to the Pacific Depths: The Strain and Pacific Rim

Bibliography
Filmography and Comicography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"As a scholar of del Toro myself, [after reading Film as Alchemic Art] I found my understanding of this filmmaker enriched by readings of his works that I had never considered and furthermore, my comprehension of contemporary auterism expanded. [...] McDonald and Clark's book lays a solid foundation for whatever work may follow in this impressive and comprehensive reading of del Toro's cinema." --Cinema Journal

From the Publisher

As a scholar of del Toro myself, [after reading Film as Alchemic Art] I found my understanding of this filmmaker enriched by readings of his works that I had never considered and furthermore, my comprehension of contemporary auterism expanded. [...] McDonald and Clark's book lays a solid foundation for whatever work may follow in this impressive and comprehensive reading of del Toro's cinema.

Cinema Journal

In this study, McDonald and Clark achieve a comprehensive and scholarly examination of the director and his cinema. In a thoroughly researched account of del Toro's literary and cinematic influences, his experimentation with genre, the trans-national quality of his work and his self-identification as a fan, the authors build a sharp and fascinating portrait of del Toro. To this they add a series of lucid and critical readings of the director's films that show an admirable command of del Toro's multi-generic and multicultural points of reference. Building the study around the apposite metaphor of del Toro as alchemist, McDonald and Clark's study captures the person and the work brilliantly, combining exhaustive research with an evident enthusiasm for the subject matter. The result, as alchemical as del Toro's cinema, is an in-depth yet highly approachable book that will appeal to scholars and fans alike.

Sheldon Penn