It’s alive! It’s at Venice Film Festival! But it is not an edifying story on artificial intelligence.
“Frankenstein” by Guillermo Del Toro, with Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac, follows a brilliant but selfish scientist who gives life to a monstrous creature, only for experience to destroy the two. Although this is a timely story about pride, the corruption of power and the dangers of technology, the Oscar -winning director insists that his new film is not a warning as to the proliferation of AI.
“It is not intended for a metaphor for this,” said Del Toro at the film’s official press conference on Saturday afternoon. “We live in a time of terror and intimidation, certainly. And there is no more urgent task than staying, at a time when everything grows towards a bipolar, an understanding of our humanity. The film tries to show imperfect characters and the right that we must remain imperfect, and the law that we must understand ourselves in the most oppressive circumstances.”
In addition, he fell in love with: “I am not afraid of artificial intelligence. I’m afraid of natural stupidity. “
Mary Shelley’s work has been adapted to the screen several times, notably in “Frankenstein” of 1931, directed by James Whale and with Boris Karloff. In the version of Del Toro, Elardi plays the creature locked in a deadly quarrel with its creator (Isaac). But instead of a standard horror film, the director imagines history as a family drama in layers. For Del Toro, putting your own cinematographic rotation as “Frankenstein” is the culmination of a dream for life.
“I have been the creature since I was a child. I waited for the film to be finished in the right conditions, both in a creative way in terms of the realization of the scope to make it different and to do it on a scale that you could rebuild the whole world,” he said. And now that he has finished the film, he joked: “I am in postpartum depression.”
Given the themes of the film, Elordi was asked who in society represents a monster for him – and the actor was quick to answer: “men in costume”.
Del Toro intervened, “very well adapted (those)”.
Meanwhile, Isaac recalled the first conversations with Del Toro who led to his cast as a manufacturer of the monster, Victor Frankenstein.
“I cannot believe that I am here right now. I cannot believe that we have arrived in this place two years ago, sitting at the table (from Del Toro) eating Cuban pork and talking about our fathers and our lives, to say to him:” I want you to be victorious “, so not really sure if it was true or if I dreamed,” said Isaac. “It just looked like such a pinnacle.”
The film Monster with a budget of 120 million dollars, which will be presented on Saturday evening, will compete in the prestigious Golden Lion, a prize that Del Toro won in 2017 for “The Shape of Water”. The Co-Stars of Elordi and Isaac, Christoph Waltz and Mia Goth, as well as composer Alexandre Deplat, attended the press conference.
Since Netflix releases “Frankenstein”, the film will only have a three -week limited release on the big screen before landing on the streaming service. But Del Toro is not concerned about a shorter theatrical window and argued that it was satisfied with the arrangement of the deployment of the film.
“Look at my set, I always want more of everything,” he said. But with regard to the rocky state of cinemas, the director noted: “You never know what will happen.” He spoke of his psychological thriller in 2021 “Nightmare Alley”, which missed at the box office.
“We were released next to ‘Spider Man (no time at home) and Omicron, the variation of Covid. We lasted very little,” said Del Toro. “So, you never know what is affordable. What I know is to reach more than 300 million viewers (on Netflix), you take advantage of it and the challenge to make a film that evokes this cinema, then you provide theaters at the beginning. It makes a very creative experience for me.”
