erichart's review
5.0
Del Toro is more than a filmmaker, he's a unique artist. This book offers an insight into his creative process as he describes the development of ideas for each movie up until Pacific Rim. Includes some material from unmade projects such as At the Mountains of Madness.
fongolia's review
5.0
This book is a remarkable glimpse into the singular and visionary world of Guillermo del Toro, truly a creative renaissance man. Each page is filled with marvel upon marvel, from a jaw-dropping photo tour of his house/art gallery/funhouse named Bleak House to pages from his meticulous notebooks of art and writings from all his past films (and tantalizingly unmade ones). The bulk of the text is an extensive interview with del Toro on all aspects of his creative works and inspirations, which is also peppered with glowing testimonials from the likes of other creative luminaries such as James Cameron, Alfonso Cuaron, Adam Savage, Neil Gaiman, Ron Perlman, and others. I haven't even read the whole thing since there's so much to digest, but this is a 5 star book through and through. Even if you're not a fan, you should borrow this from your local library, flip through the pages, and let your mind be sucked into his world.
vossnraven's review against another edition
3.0
The three star rating is because the book has a somewhat narrow focus. For a del Toro fan, I would give the book a solid four.
zombeesknees's review
5.0
As if Guillermo del Toro wasn't already my favourite director; as if I didn't already love him more than most people in this world. An absolutely stunning insight into the limitless imagination and surreal brain of one of the most interesting and creative artists of all time -- a must-read for anyone who wants to understand GDT better or wants to appreciate his work on a more visceral level. Just bloody wonderful.
madeyesjojo's review against another edition
dark
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
lamusadelils's review
4.0
Para la gente curiosa como yo, hay algo increíblemente satisfactorio en adentrarse en el proceso creativo y las fuentes de inspiración de personas que uno considera talentosas.
Con Memo, además, está el factor de ñoñez compartida que nos recuerda que no importa que cosa extraña te llame la atención y consuma tu tiempo, al final todo eso forma parte de quién eres y termina reflejado en lo que sea que te atreves a crear.
Con Memo, además, está el factor de ñoñez compartida que nos recuerda que no importa que cosa extraña te llame la atención y consuma tu tiempo, al final todo eso forma parte de quién eres y termina reflejado en lo que sea que te atreves a crear.
markyon's review
5.0
Cabinet of Curiosities: “A cabinet of curiosities was an encyclopedic collection in Renaissance Europe of types of objects whose categorial boundaries were yet to be defined.” (Wikipedia)
When I was young, I used to read (with great envy) of Forrest Ackerman and his yearly tradition of opening his house/museum (the ‘Ackermansion’) to visitors at Halloween, to show items from movies such as Dracula, King Kong, Frankenstein, War of the Worlds and the like. I hoped that one day I would visit myself, even though I live in the UK. (Alas, it has never happened.)
However, I was fascinated by the pictures of all the items and the rooms. There was such a variety, things hidden away in every corner. I would spend hours looking over the pictures.
The reason for raising this here is that this book reminds me very much of that mansion. Coincidentally, one of those visitors to the Ackermansion was a young Guillermo del Toro. To the young del Toro it was a revelation and an inspiration. He admits here that it was something that gave him the inspiration that led to his future career. Now, as co-author of the Strain series of novels, director of the Hellboy movies, Oscar-winning film Pan’s Labyrinth and, most recently, Pacific Rim, it seems his dreams have been realised.
Throughout all of these, Guillermo’s visual flair has shown his lifelong love of science fiction, fantasy, horror and film, and he has a great knowledge of the genre. Guillermo’s reputation for making detailed notes, maps and sketches of his project ideas are now very well known. Guillermo del Toro: Cabinet of Curiosities is (as the Wikipedia definition above may suggest) a miscellany of pictures of Guillermo’s notebooks, storyboards, director’s notes, art designs from one of his houses.
Note that: one of his houses. Guillermo has a home, named Bleak House (after Charles Dickens’ novel), which is both his workshop and source of inspiration, stuffed to overflowing with books, posters and artwork. Bleak House is Guillermo’s version of the Ackermansion. “Catholics go to church, Jews go to temple, I come here.” he says at one point.
The book is divided into three sections – his Bleak House collections, his movies and a final part on Unfinished Projects.
Poring over the 300+ illustrations, there is much to delight. Each turn of the page shows the reader something new, something delightfully ghoulish, often jawdropping. In the Bleak House collection section we have in one room a statue of legendary Jack Pierce putting on Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein makeup whilst Karloff is drinking tea; in del Toro’s library we have a life-size statue of HP Lovecraft reading a book. A huge bust of Frankenstein's monster overlooks the lobby. Throughout there are automatons, creepy artwork, models, severed hands and heads galore. There’s even a room (the Rain Room) with a window that can give the impression of it raining at night 24 hours a day, no doubt to inspire those ideas. “As a kid I dreamed of having a house with secret passages and a room where it rained 24 hours a day.” says del Toro.
The Notebooks section of the book looks at each of his major films chronologically, from Cronos to Pacific Rim. Not only are pictures of pages from his notebooks there (with translations from the Spanish where appropriate) but photographs, maps and models.
The most tantalising section is the final one, where Guillermo’s unrealised projects are shown (although not The Hobbit, for as Guillermo says “I kept a lot of notes, but I was very paranoid of them being lost because that was a supersecret project….if I reveal anything that’s stayed in the movies, it’s legally very, very binding.” p.239).
There are lots of comments here about things that never came to fruition, from Mephisto’s Bridge, to The List of Seven and The Left Hand of Darkness (not the Ursula K. LeGuin novel, but a version of Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo) and the best known aborted example other than The Hobbit, HP Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness , a film Guillermo says he’s been trying to do for almost twenty years. I was very surprised that at one point Guillermo and Tom Cruise were considering a film of the 1960’s UK TV series The Champions.
Based on hours of interviews, Marc Scott Zicree, (author of one of my most used reference books, The Twilight Zone Companion) does a sterling job of interviewing Guillermo throughout, about his work and his ideas, showing us the inspirations and the love of fantasy that Guillermo clearly has. It also gives the reader an insight into the man’s hyperactive imagination. To add to this, Guillermo himself suggests four mainstays of Horror that have inspired him and some musings on Symbolist Art.
If that wasn’t enough, the book is peppered with essays from friends and work colleagues about Guillermo or his work. There is an introduction to the book from James Cameron (Avatar, Aliens) who Guillermo worked with on the aborted HP Lovecraft movie At the Mountains of Madness. Tom Cruise, once slated as one of the film’s lead characters, also writes an Afterword and talks of the imagination of Guillermo. Much of this is echoed by others. Cornelia Funke explains del Toro’s ability to use the skills of storytelling and myth in his work. Mike Mignola talks of their collaborations on Blade II and the Hellboy movies, Ron Perlman tells of how del Toro persuaded him to take on a part in Spanish (in Cronos), which led to bigger things and resurrected his career. John Landis writes of the Ackermansion and Bleak House. Alfonso Cuaron writes of their first meeting and their work on Pan’s Labyrinth. Neil Gaiman of their first meeting too, in Austin, Texas.
In summary, Cabinet of Curiosities is a delightful cornucopia of a book, lovingly produced, that will be appreciated by any fan of Guillermo’s work, or indeed of the genre. Not only does it give you an insight into the thoughts of a genre-loving director, there is enough imagery in there to inspire any budding writer or director. (Or book reviewer!)
Recommended.
Mark Yon, September 2013
When I was young, I used to read (with great envy) of Forrest Ackerman and his yearly tradition of opening his house/museum (the ‘Ackermansion’) to visitors at Halloween, to show items from movies such as Dracula, King Kong, Frankenstein, War of the Worlds and the like. I hoped that one day I would visit myself, even though I live in the UK. (Alas, it has never happened.)
However, I was fascinated by the pictures of all the items and the rooms. There was such a variety, things hidden away in every corner. I would spend hours looking over the pictures.
The reason for raising this here is that this book reminds me very much of that mansion. Coincidentally, one of those visitors to the Ackermansion was a young Guillermo del Toro. To the young del Toro it was a revelation and an inspiration. He admits here that it was something that gave him the inspiration that led to his future career. Now, as co-author of the Strain series of novels, director of the Hellboy movies, Oscar-winning film Pan’s Labyrinth and, most recently, Pacific Rim, it seems his dreams have been realised.
Throughout all of these, Guillermo’s visual flair has shown his lifelong love of science fiction, fantasy, horror and film, and he has a great knowledge of the genre. Guillermo’s reputation for making detailed notes, maps and sketches of his project ideas are now very well known. Guillermo del Toro: Cabinet of Curiosities is (as the Wikipedia definition above may suggest) a miscellany of pictures of Guillermo’s notebooks, storyboards, director’s notes, art designs from one of his houses.
Note that: one of his houses. Guillermo has a home, named Bleak House (after Charles Dickens’ novel), which is both his workshop and source of inspiration, stuffed to overflowing with books, posters and artwork. Bleak House is Guillermo’s version of the Ackermansion. “Catholics go to church, Jews go to temple, I come here.” he says at one point.
The book is divided into three sections – his Bleak House collections, his movies and a final part on Unfinished Projects.
Poring over the 300+ illustrations, there is much to delight. Each turn of the page shows the reader something new, something delightfully ghoulish, often jawdropping. In the Bleak House collection section we have in one room a statue of legendary Jack Pierce putting on Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein makeup whilst Karloff is drinking tea; in del Toro’s library we have a life-size statue of HP Lovecraft reading a book. A huge bust of Frankenstein's monster overlooks the lobby. Throughout there are automatons, creepy artwork, models, severed hands and heads galore. There’s even a room (the Rain Room) with a window that can give the impression of it raining at night 24 hours a day, no doubt to inspire those ideas. “As a kid I dreamed of having a house with secret passages and a room where it rained 24 hours a day.” says del Toro.
The Notebooks section of the book looks at each of his major films chronologically, from Cronos to Pacific Rim. Not only are pictures of pages from his notebooks there (with translations from the Spanish where appropriate) but photographs, maps and models.
The most tantalising section is the final one, where Guillermo’s unrealised projects are shown (although not The Hobbit, for as Guillermo says “I kept a lot of notes, but I was very paranoid of them being lost because that was a supersecret project….if I reveal anything that’s stayed in the movies, it’s legally very, very binding.” p.239).
There are lots of comments here about things that never came to fruition, from Mephisto’s Bridge, to The List of Seven and The Left Hand of Darkness (not the Ursula K. LeGuin novel, but a version of Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo) and the best known aborted example other than The Hobbit, HP Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness , a film Guillermo says he’s been trying to do for almost twenty years. I was very surprised that at one point Guillermo and Tom Cruise were considering a film of the 1960’s UK TV series The Champions.
Based on hours of interviews, Marc Scott Zicree, (author of one of my most used reference books, The Twilight Zone Companion) does a sterling job of interviewing Guillermo throughout, about his work and his ideas, showing us the inspirations and the love of fantasy that Guillermo clearly has. It also gives the reader an insight into the man’s hyperactive imagination. To add to this, Guillermo himself suggests four mainstays of Horror that have inspired him and some musings on Symbolist Art.
If that wasn’t enough, the book is peppered with essays from friends and work colleagues about Guillermo or his work. There is an introduction to the book from James Cameron (Avatar, Aliens) who Guillermo worked with on the aborted HP Lovecraft movie At the Mountains of Madness. Tom Cruise, once slated as one of the film’s lead characters, also writes an Afterword and talks of the imagination of Guillermo. Much of this is echoed by others. Cornelia Funke explains del Toro’s ability to use the skills of storytelling and myth in his work. Mike Mignola talks of their collaborations on Blade II and the Hellboy movies, Ron Perlman tells of how del Toro persuaded him to take on a part in Spanish (in Cronos), which led to bigger things and resurrected his career. John Landis writes of the Ackermansion and Bleak House. Alfonso Cuaron writes of their first meeting and their work on Pan’s Labyrinth. Neil Gaiman of their first meeting too, in Austin, Texas.
In summary, Cabinet of Curiosities is a delightful cornucopia of a book, lovingly produced, that will be appreciated by any fan of Guillermo’s work, or indeed of the genre. Not only does it give you an insight into the thoughts of a genre-loving director, there is enough imagery in there to inspire any budding writer or director. (Or book reviewer!)
Recommended.
Mark Yon, September 2013
lanternsjourney's review
5.0
Beautiful and inspiring! There's a wealth of intrigue and knowledge in the mind of Guillermo Del Toro and this book explores it all.