in Focus
The Devil’s Backbone. Do you think this
theme appeals to you because you feel like
an outsider?
I think so. I think that there is—or there
should be—in our lives, an acknowledgement
of the fact that we are physical, mundane
beings but that we also have spiritual needs
or characteristics that are equally powerful.
I believe that my movies say that we
belong to the real world and to a secret,
spiritual world.
And your heroes are always flawed with a
long way to go to find redemption.
The characters in my films all have to
struggle with an unspoken secret shame.
Even the woman in Mimic has to deal with
the enormous burden of having created them
You strive to make your films both
entertainment and substantive. Most movies
today don’t even try to have substance.
What I try to do is put text in the texture
of my movies. Believe me, it may go
unnoticed but it does not go unperceived.
At the risk of sounding obsequious, I think
that’s what makes your films art works in
the truest sense; all real art is by definition
how it is perceived, and your work can be
rediscovered over and over again depending
on how you look at it. It doesn’t surprise me
that much of your work starts in your
notorious notebooks of sketches and studies.
Well, you know I’m in love with painting
and illustration as a form of art. I refer
constantly to the two schools of painting
that are closest to illustration: the symbolists
and the pre-Raphaelites, and also, to a
degree, to the surrealists. When you look
at these paintings the communication is
mostly direct in what is there in form,
shape and colour, but the form itself carries where already there’s an animosity to fantasy (the bugs that evolve to mimic humans and
more content in a gleefully secretive way. movies and to movies with content. And prey on them) but didn’t realise the nature
the more time passes, the more I try to of the beast. And the kids in The Devil’s
You’re in way too deep for me. My head is shift the content to the form. So I’m not Backbone are ashamed and horrified by the
starting to hurt! Getting back to Hellboy II, doing myself any favours! secret of hiding where the dead boy really
I consistently appreciate how detailed your is. There is some of that in every movie.
soundtracks are. I couldn’t help but notice I But you’re challenging yourself and that’s
could hear every time Abe Sapien blinked! what true artists do. And that extends to the environments you
I try to make my films elaborate in the way A challenge that may go largely unnoticed choose—the broad canvas of your stories
the audio and visual aspects interact with but a challenge I feel is worth taking, consistently gives us disparate worlds in
the narrative. I try earnestly to have 50 per nevertheless. conflict that mirror the conflicts the
cent of the heavy lifting in the story to be characters are facing within themselves.
done exclusively by image in sound. It’s It’s almost as if your individual films are That’s why the dichotomy I try to deal with
become something of a discipline now. like tiles in a mosaic that are forming a in most of my films is about the conflict
bigger picture as you continue to work. between the inside and the outside. I try
That commitment to detail certainly works For example, I’ve noticed there’s a consistent to flesh out this conflict by having the
well in the fantasy genre. Do you think it’s theme of dealing with characters torn characters transverse the exterior world of
possible to bring that level of artistic between two worlds—whether it’s the sunlight verses an almost womb-like inner
expression to a mainstream film? vampire in Cronos, or the daywalker, title world of catacombs or subways or sewers or
It’s particularly difficult in an environment character in Blade II, or the ghostly boy in abandoned tunnels…
42 By Filmmakers. For Filmmakers.
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