Traditionally Single Party there’s a stark line between high art films that are food for thought and genre movies, which are considered junk food, or “popcorn films.” Citizen Kane is the ultimate example of the former, and Star Wars of the latter. We live in post-Star Wars world, of course, where fantasy – aliens, monsters, men and women in capes – rules the cinematic universe. That most of the top ten movies at the box office (as I write this) are steeped in the fantastical, is evidence.
But these two worlds don’t need to be so exclusive, and no one brings them together better than Guillermo del Toro, particularly in his two most personal films: The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. Pan’s, a period fairy tale film populated by monsters both mythical and human, is a multiple Academy Award-winning production, while The Devil’s Backbone, a period ghost story, was released in the shadow of 9/11 and has slowly found its audience over the past decade. Regardless, the filmmaker has called The Devil’s Backbone his favourite of his works, and considers it his first real feature, as his previous two, the vampire flick Cronos and giant bug chiller Mimic, did not turn out as he intended for various reasons.
