As a director, I design every movie to be true to itself, and damn it if they like it, and damn it if they don't.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of artistic integrity over public approval.
Guillermo Del Toro expresses a strong conviction that as a director, his primary responsibility is to create films that are authentic and true to their own essence. He reflects a resolute attitude towards criticism, indicating that his artistic vision takes precedence, regardless of whether it resonates with audiences or not.
In practice
In a film class discussing the importance of authenticity in art, this quote by Guillermo Del Toro can be cited to emphasize artistic integrity.
I don't try to sanction other people's joy in monsters. I mean, I think the fact is, humor, fantasy - you know, like fear, desire or laughter - create genres of their own: comedy, melodrama, or erotic films or horror films... The boundaries cannot be defined. It's to each his own.
If you ask me, I alternate between truly bizarre, what you would call 'Hollywood' movies and truly bizarre, what you would call 'arthouse' movies.
But I think we are seeing a resurgence of the graphic ghost story like The Others, Devil's Backbone and The Sixth Sense. It is a return to more gothic atmospheric ghost storytelling.
The saddest journey in the world is the one that follows a precise itinerary. Then you're not a traveler. You're a f@@king tourist.
When you start with Super 8, you are everything. You're the DP, the sound man, the effects guy. And what I started understanding, by working for other people, is that the best type of director is someone who rose through the ranks.
The way they control a population is by pointing at somebody else - whether they're gay, Mexican, Jewish, black - and saying, 'They are different than you. They're the reason you're in the shape you're in. You're not responsible.' And when they exonerate you through vilifying and demonizing someone else, they control you.
When I don't have a story to tell, I'm a terror to live with.
Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41)
It's a wonderful thing to be able to create your own world whenever you want to.
When I first began choreographing, I never thought of it as choreography but as expressing feelings. Though every piece is different, they are all trying to get at certain things that are difficult to put into words. In the work, everything belongs to everything else - the music, the set, the movement and whatever is said.
I think I probably would have enjoyed to keep my own private pain out of my work. But I was changed by my audience who said your private pain which you have unwittingly shown us in your early songs is also ours.
Things rust, you know, like the heart. My cardiologist said, 'It's a pump; use it - that's the sole advice I've got to give you.' It's the same in playwriting. Don't theorise about it. Do it.
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