Latin Director’s and Their Cinematic Work: Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron

Introduction

Since the Human Species first gained consciousness and command over the world around us. We have loved the action of telling stories; it was the only thing to give us hope. Why did we need hope? It is because we were all just scared, hairless, Sampianes, just sitting in the dark hoping the world does not eat us alive. Wouldn’t we need an ounce of hope? As our minds evolved and our imaginations grew.

The human species have developed more and more elaborate methods of sharing. One of the most popular within the mainstream art scene is that of the cinematic art of film. Within the United States, the act of filmmaking has been with us since the 1920s, when the Lumiere products team brought magic into the physical world.

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 Perhaps, this is due to the recent racist funk lingering within the United States, or it could be that they cannot get over the language barrier to be it simple. 

Regardless, we at YoAir.com to build a bridge of empathy with the readers by introducing the readers to two Latin directors, Guillermo Del Toro and Alphonso Cuaron.

We will continue at YoAir.com to support Latin Directors’ films and Cinematic works until the day We die, or when Latin and Latino creatives have the respect they deserve. Yes, this does include Latinx and P.O.C. Latin Americans.  

 

Latin Director:Guillermo Del Toro

A short bio of childhood

This Latin Director has the soul of a creative. It was sparked within him at birth when he gracefully terrorized him as a baby and made him wet his pants.

The two young children were casually watching the outer limit of their motherland of Mexico. 

Del Toro’s brother mimics a horrifying creature, a giant bug with black eyes, dead as the night sky, empty, however, filled with the notion of doing the young Del Toro harm. It should be that the older brother was pulling a prank, but how is a baby to know any better?

This innocent moment would haunt Del Toro’s right. His dreams with horrifying surrealist nightmarish monsters. Just waiting in the silence of the night, for the perfect moment to end it all, right between the eyes.

Eventually, the young boy had a lucid dream in which he signed a contract with the barren-clawed beast that would infect his dreams. He would gain a fellowship with monsters if they just let the poor boy use the bathroom. What does a child know what he is signing up for anyways? Can we ever really know the magnitude of our decisions?

The young boy’s waking life would not be any more at peace. The young man would constantly draw the monster within his humble Mexican home; his grandmother was not too thrilled.

Mental illness Scare!

Perhaps it is since mental health stigmatized the Latin American experience that caused the nerve-wracked grandmother to demand that the young boy into that for a psych evaluation.

Unfortunately for his parents, Del Torro would not stop his obsession with finding the beauty within the macabre. This obsession with the macabre continues well beyond the age of adolescence; Del Toro would add extra interest to his repertoire of creative knowledge, including old-school anime such as Mazinger Z, a deep study of the science of fairy-tales, and undying love for hands-on movie makeup.

The director’s seat

 Del Toro would not find success soon. He would work as a production assistant within the Mexican cinema sphere and quickly made contacts that would allow him to show off his directorial and screenplay skills with the television series Hora Marcada.

He would rub elbows and fight in the trenches with many Latin directors, including Cuaron himself. The Latin director would continue to pursue the almost impossible dream of making an honest living in the cinematic business. The Latin director would get a second shot when creating the odd, blood-obsessed Cronos. The director would get his “big break” with the Sci-Fi thriller Mimic.

Del Torro would proclaim that the experience would be the worst moment in his career. His constant battling with the Weinstein production staff, as well as the Weinsteins themselves. The Weinstein production house would hound Del Toro. However, Del Torro would learn from Mimic to stand stern, burly, and unrelenting. He would try from Mimic to create, be involved, collaborate with anything, and no one he did not want to.

Pan’s Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth collects Del Toro’s dedication to the science of fairy tales. The whole movie is a love letter to The Brother’s Grim Fairy Tales from start to finish. Pan’s Labyrinth takes place during the Spanish civil war in which the country of Spain was at war with the small population of Basques.

The Spanish nonmilitary troops fought the Basques for three years, brutalizing them and all those who dared side with them—the details within this film matter from the delicate clothes of the main lead and her mother and The tight, rigid Uniforme of the stepfather 

Ace in the hole.

. Del Toro spared no ounce of his power in this film. He even battled with one of his favorite collaborators, Doug Jones; lucky for the virtuously bossy Del Toro, Mr.Jones is always up for the challenge. Within his set shots, Doug Jones, playing the Faun, had to go through two costume changes to help the Faun have a more creature-like strut, had to learn all his lines phonetically in Spanish, and had to wear a thousand pounds of makeup while bringing life to a mystical being.

Del Toro would not have it any other way, and Mr. Douge Jones accepted the challenge humbly, earnestly, and with the dedication of a saint, and he would continue to accept that challenge by working with the director on multiple creative campaigns. 

Hellboy

He would play the graceful and elegant Abe Sapien in Hellboy 1 & 2. Along with his castmates, Ron Perlman as the pleasantly grumpy Hellboy and the gracefully reserved Liz Sherman, played by Selma Blair.

The film adopts the energy of a dark world superhero movie, a dark world in the sense of dealing with dark magic, violence, monsters, etc.

The Relationships within Hellboy

The two films explore the notion of degenerate outsiders finding employment, love, and nurturing environments within a world that sees them as destructive monsters. The film explores the growth of trust and love within their chosen relationship.

Hellboy has to trust that Liz’s love for him is real and if she rejects him despite their commonality of being “freaks.” Hellboy has to learn that he can stand on his own two feet despite being left all alone after his father’s death. Liz learns that she has agency despite being an outcast; she does not have to love Hellboy because he is also a freak and nearby. Liz has to choose him.

The Tea

Within the franchise, Hellboy and Liz have to learn to deal with the consequences of those actions. They also learn to enjoy the rewards of their specifically odd relationships too. Abe Sapien has to deal with literally and metaphorically being a Fishman out of water.

 A virgin at the art of human interaction, dealing with friendships, workplace politics, and, at the spark of the second movie, even deals with the complexities of love. Abe has to learn, unfortunately, how to deal with loss. The third film, unfortunately, didn’t have any. The build-up for the third movie 

Why did the movie franchise die out?

 We at YoAir.com believe that since dark world superhero stories were not in vogue, they are not really in vogue now, but we might get one considering every one of the crew is in good health. It was not because of any lack of control over power struggles on set. As far as we can confirm, 

The outcome

Thankfully, Pan’s Labyrinth did very well. As well as Hell Boy 1 & 2; despite being canceled for the third in the trilogy. It is safe to say that this was not only due to Del Toro’s direction and every member of the cast’s performance.

That includes the individuals working behind the Latin director. Grips need love too. It would be safe to say it was also due to the sense of proper marketing and, most specifically, proper resource marketing.

Marketing within Film

Del Toro would explain that proper marketing and proper resource marketing would be the downfall of his Gothic Romance Cinematic project Crimson Peak, done in later years after his comic book adaption phase, and even further ahead of the Latin director’s Spanish language film phase.

The Latin director argues that Crimson Peak within the trailer portrays it as a horror movie. However, the director felt, firmly, that it was of a Gothic Romance. Crimson Peak is still a great film and worth the viewership. 

Why does this matter? The problem is that, because of the lack of consideration towards the specific target audience, the film could not reap its full financial reward.  

 With his most recent project, at least in the film The Shape of Water, Del Toro was given charge of all aspects of the movie of every bit of cinematic control. The Latin director even had a voice during the marketing campaign. As a former Marketing campaign manager, part of the job is making sure the through-line is coherent and follows through. 

The Shape of Water

Fortunately for Doug Jones, he would get a second chance to be an aquatic heartthrob that could even rival Jason Momoa’s Aquaman with his leading role in The Shape of Water as the Amphibian Man.

The Shape of Water is Del Toro at his most liberated in his career. Del Toro got control of the actors he wanted, he got every ounce of talent off-camera that Del Toro wanted, and he even wrote the damn script. The film takes inspiration from the beast from the Black Lagoon. However, it further explores the love life of people thrown into marginalized communities.

The emotion of Love explored within the Shape of Water

The love of friendship between Giles, Zelda, Dr. Dimitri, Robert Hoffstetler, and Elisa commit a break-out scheme that rivals anything seal team six could ever accomplish. The fact is, our leading man and lady. They have to explore what their relationship means.

To our pleasant surprise, even though it is a little disturbing. Del Toro pushes the boundaries and explores sexual desires and the need for sexual love within the disabled community. By having Elisa, a mute woman knowledgeable in A.S.L., have sexual intercourse with the creature twice. These are soft-core hentai people, very vanilla, lovely, and very heartwarming.

After the fact, the film explores communicational love within the disabled community between friendships when Elisa jokes with Zelda about having sexual intercourse with the creature. The cinematic work explores LGBTQ within The Shape of Wate; the film shows the dangerous responsibility of being a member of the LGBTQ. It explores race relationships and race relationships when it comes to people who are also disabled.

 

Alfonso Cuaron: Latin Director 

A Short Bio: Cuaron in a nutshell

Alfonso Cuaron, a brilliant Latin Director, came from humble means, growing up with middle-class parents within Mexico, specifically Mexico city. As the young Latin director grew up, the Mexico City political sphere was in turmoil.

The worker’s rights federation had been given life by recent youthful blood.

They would storm many retail stores, big business establishments, and any place they could to disrepute the economic system at large to bring their political message of fair wages to the homes of Mexican citizens.

This period will be a significant motif in many of Cuaron’s cinematic works, along with the real-time image of seeing a mass movement of life happening within the background, 

Cuaron’s method. 

Cuaron’s method of filmmaking and screenwriting is unique in the world of Latin Directors and even Cinematic writers. It is not to say that he is better or more profound, just unique. The Cuaron method of filmmaking utilizes extremely formulaic scripts to give the liberation of even the background actors to live naturally within the performance of the cinematic work. 

Y Mama Tu Tiembian

Cuaron’s early work was a lot more experimental, messy, and downright from the libido of a horny teenager. With the work Y Tu Mama Tambien.

A novel of a movie, Y Tu Mama Tambien opens up with an easy-going, slow day, a life of two of Mexico’s waspy elite. Two teenagers, Julio and Tenoch, who sleep with their respective girlfriends behind each other’s backs, go off on a road trip with a forty-three-year-old woman named Luisa.

The Trio

Luisa is the wife of Tenoch’s cousin. In the form of any other movie, she would decimate to nothing more than a background character giving off exposition.

However, she is pulled to the front by the boys. The protagonist and antagonist, interchangeably between Julio and Tenoch, go on a cross-country road trip with a woman twice their age as the youth travels the countryside searching for Cielo de Boca, a mystical beach spot.

The specific beach spot is a hidden secret that only Mexico’s elite social scene knows.

The trio, on their travels, in and out, of the lives of passersby within the scene. This cinematic method breaks the adherence of typical character structure and interaction by allowing the scene to have a new breath of depth through the interaction; the people within the background are no longer the people walking by. They now have agency and autonomy. They now contribute to the main story.

Children of Men

Cuaron would continue this style, further expanding it not with dialog but with movement and activity. Children of Men, a chaotic dystopia of a film, is only that way within the shallow end of its viewing.

If the readers are patient enough to have multiple viewings, the reader will see that the background has its own interconnecting story within the main plot. The main plot is of a man trying to rescue the last living pregnancy on the planet earth, yet the background shows a much more sinister by-product of the earth’s infertility pandemic.

The background shows hoards of people treated like cattle, police enacting highly violent acts, and people trying to live within the means of their desperate lives. Most directors would have had images of dystopia. Cuaron shows individuals living within a dystopia.

Roma

A minute factor within the Mexican middle-class household is the Maid; the ladies usually have a darker skin complexion, lower finical status, and sometimes of more Native-Tribal origins.

Alfonso Cuaron would focus on the life of his family, Maid.  A title I use with the highest reverence and respect.

Not only because we believe that Maids deserve the same respect as any “Higher Education Possessing Professional”,  and because Cuaron stated in an interview that the woman who raised him was his family Maid, but Cuaron would also use this as the main inspiration for Roma, an Oscar-winning movie.

What’s the movie trying to say?

The direct antithesis of the Roma is the disillusioned lives of the highly elite, and the disassociated working class. The light-skinned Mexican population and the darker-skinned working-class “help.”

Let us clarify what Americans would consider a minority. Both Sofia and Cleo fit the description. Perhaps, that juggling of expectations is why Roma feels so alien. The wealthy family led by Sofia turns into an average middle-class family just north of the border. The more impoverished servant led by Cleo would live in an unmovable property line.

Alfonso Cuaron explores the line where these two matriarchs live opposite lives; which intertwines within the same country, social circles, and even. Just their status as women to a different standard.

Sofia and Cleo

Cleo is subjected to the opposition of men when she’s forced to watch her boyfriend’s awkward naked karat.

Cleo is not given the same urgency for her pregnancy, leading to a tragic miscarriage. Sofia ultimately defending herself during the attack on the retail center.

Sofia degrades her husband, confidently going so far as to destroy the family car in a fit of rage.

She is the center of the socialite party. She hosts within her luxury compound and has two healthy children that she has Cleo helps to raise.

Both women are oppressed and liberated through the pain, isolation, and death-lock of dedication. That a matriarch lands upon one’s shoulders. The two women live in separate and equal worlds.

The voice of the environment shows the separation of these two women, yet they come together by the film’s end.

The humanity of the scene comes to a complete unified embrace both with the main cast. Literally with the story, and the spirit of humanity surrounding the cast.

Conclusion: Why these two Latin Directors Matter

Cuaron’s cinematic style has been perfected over the years, spawned out of these three cinematic works. Cuaron’s cinematic style developed further within the artist’s work if he so chooses; the cinematic choice of using background characters to further contribute to the main story, as for Del Toro.

We hope Del Toro gets a bit more power.

To explore further terms and conditions, he might not be able to do without that set.

Latin American voices within the cinematic world. They must have the creative freedom, power, and resources to manifest their dreams into reality.

We must celebrate Latin Films. Cinematic Latin voices, and Latin creators because they are marginalized voices.