In
an interview with Caroline Vie for Fangor, #132, Guillermo
del Toro explains that he began directing when he was eight years
old, using a Super-8 camera to create his own monster movies. "My
first film was made with some Planet of the Apes action figures and
a lot of ketchup," he recalls. "For
something that was made by an eight year old kid, I guess it was an
OK movie. Unfortunately, I burned the print by showing it too many
times."
Del
Toro went on to direct several 16mm shorts before applying for Dick
Smith's Advanced Makeup Course so that he could learn more about the
special FX he loved so much. He formed his own company called Necropia
which quickly became very popular in Mexico. Del Toro then branched
out into writing and directing episodes of a TV horror anthology called
Hora Marcada which was considered to be the Mexican Twilight
Zone.
By
1985 del Toro was anxious to do a horror feature film and the first
ideas for Cronos were born. It took him two years to write
the script and then came the problems of financing the movie which
was eventually done with the help of producer Bertha Navarro. "After
going through a lot of degradation and suffering, I finally put the
money together," del Toro says. "My
family were very supportive, and my wife and father-in-law worked
on the effects! Bertha was also very influential; she did a wonderful
job getting the movie made and helping promote it when it was finished."
Necropia was in charge of the special FX although del Toro himself
didn't work in this area. "I knew I couldn't
get involved in the effects," he points out. "I
had to put all my energies into directing the movie. The shoot lasted
eight weeks and a lot of that time was devoted to effects. The Necropia
guys were really wonderful and did an enormous amount of work. Most
of the time we only used one camera. We didn't have a lot of money,
but we did have fun."
Caroline Vie goes on to explain that the only technical aspect del
Toro took charge of was the device itself; though he didn't design
it, he did a great deal of sculpting work on its interior. Because
of the lack of money and time, the crew wasn't able to do silicon
impressions of the gears and were forced to make them from real metal.
The resulting creation, though small on screen, was as big as a small
car in real life - and just as heavy.
Cronos
is also a rather unique vampire movie in that it doesn't focus on
sex. "I thought it would be interesting to
have a vampire who's motivated purely by hunger," del
Toro says. "I don't like the erotic approach
to vampirism. As a horror fan I have this theory that all vampires
are sexually dead, and I don't like the Casanova type of bloodsucker.
The monster is the hero for me, and in that sense, he shouldn't be
moved by a perversion but by a real physical need for blood. In fact
I wanted a vampire that would be pitiful, in the same way that Terence
Fisher's monsters were."
Finding
the right actors was also an important task for the young director.
Fortunately Ron Perlman and veteran actor Federico Luppi were enthusiastic
about the script and signed on quickly. "I
fall in love with my actors, and that's why they like me, " del
Toro says. "They appreciate that I take
time for them. Ron Perlman loved the script, and I was so happy to
work with him. He's the only actor who could play such a brutal character
and infuse him with a soul."
A joint interview with Ron Perlman and Guillermo del Toro at the Carnegie
Deli by Gersh Kuntzman of the New York Post, March 30 1994, describes
Perlman as del Toro's artistic doppelganger, adding that this is metaphorically
speaking, as Perlman is lanky where del Toro is plump, and reserved
where del Toro is impetuous.
Kuntzman
reports that in Cronos, Perlman plays Angel, a brawny
underachiever who just wants a nose job.
"The character is a tribute to what Ron plays
best - the fragile monster," del Toro says.
"He is great at playing enormous men who appear beastly, but are more
human than the human characters. I have always been a huge fan of
his, so when I first met him it was like a date thing. I even combed
my hair."
Kuntzman points out that despite his director's praise, Perlman is
a supporting player in Cronos, which centers around a spider-like
device which transforms Jesus Gris, an aging antique dealer
played superbly by Argentinian star Federico Luppi, into a youthful
vampire.
"I never wanted to be the guy that everything
hinges on," Perlman says. "When
I did my first film, Quest for Fire, I discovered that the best role
is to be the friend of the lead. The more color you bring the less
he has to do - except be heroic and take the heat if the movie doesn't
do well."
The $2 million budget for Cronos makes it the second-highest-budgeted
film in Mexican history, (just after Like Water for Chocolate),
but the budget is minuscule by American standards.
"They
saved money on catering," Perlman jokes. "But
it cost them in the long run. This film had the highest toilet paper
and Pepto Bismol budget I've ever seen on any film."
Kuntzman goes on to say that instead of a bloody axe fight, Cronos
gives you Jesus Gris driving to work and opening his store
in the morning. Instead of Dracula in a big cape with bright
yellow eyes and computer animation, we see the bully preparing a meal.
"Jesus' reactions remain human throughout
the entire transformation," Perlman adds. "That's
because the entire movie is reality-based. We know what this guy's
everyday life is like. Ultimately, that makes us much more engaged."
Mexicans
tend to view terrible things with a dark half-smile," del
Toro says. "We view death with an irreverent
quality. Even in the darkest moments, there is a smile. From when
I was a tiny kid, I have always lived in the world of fantasy,
If I wasn't in film, I'd be in a mental hospital."
In April 1993, Cronos swept the Mexican Academy Awards, taking
nine top Ariels including: Best Film, Best Director, Best First Feature
and Best Screenplay. It was also awarded the Grand Prix of the Semaine
de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival that year.
When
it was released in America in 1994 Cronos was favourably received
by the US critics. Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald, Feb 11, 1994,
describes the movie as "lean and focused,
never condescending towards its subject matter, and often genuinely
creepy. More gothic than gory (although there are violent moments),
it is a remarkably assured and original feature debut by Guadalajaran
writer-director Guillermo del Toro, who shows a passion for making
his audience squirm." She goes on to say that it is also
handsomely mounted and well acted.
Inquirer movie critic, Steven Rea calls Cronos a stylish, witty
take on the vampire myth, and says, "What's
nicely surprising about this atmospheric first feature is that it's
also about intergenerational love; the bond between a kindly, cardigan-wearing
gramps and his quiet, resilient granddaughter."
Dave Kehr in the New York Daily News, 30 March 1994, says "del
Toro's film is a refined, artistically ambitious effort, exquisitely
photographed by Guillermo Navarro and enacted with immense dignity
by Argentine star Federico Luppi." Of Ron's performance
he says, "Perlman is both creepy and ingratiating
as the sadistic henchman who dreams of someday getting a nose job
and polls his victims on what sort of profile they prefer."
In the New York Times, 24 March 1994, Janet Maslin describes Cronos
as "a very stylish and sophisticated
Mexican variation on some age-old themes. This film's reflective,
even stately style elevates it from the ranks of ordinary stake-through-the-heart
vampire dramaturgy, turning it into something much more exotic."
She also says, "Mr Perlman brings a tongue-in-cheek
scariness to the exaggerated role of the thug."
The following interview was conducted with Ron Perlman by Bruce Fessier
from the local newspaper THE DESERT SUN, during the Palm Springs International
Film festival, 1993.
"FEW
'BEASTS' IN PERLMAN'S LATEST ROLES"
THE
REAL THING: 'LARGER THAN LIFE' ACTOR SETTLES INTO NEW CAREER PLAYING
REAL PEOPLE.
After
establishing a career with roles requiring four hours of makeup a
day, Ron Perlman is finally getting to show the real him.
He appears sans heavy makeup in "Cronos" and "Romeo is Bleeding"
in the Palm Springs International Film Festival today (Sunday) and
he'll appear in the TNT cable production of "The Cisco Kid"
Feb 6.
That's
a switch from the larger than life parts he became known for in the
TV series "Beauty and the Beast," and the films "Quest For
Fire" and "The Name of the Rose."
"I made a concerted effort the last two years
to try to find scripts that are more suited to the real me,"
Perlman confesses, "and I've been successful."
Still he enjoyed finding ways to play those earlier roles for which
"there are no role models."
"You just have to go back to the writing,"
he says. "It's an exercise more of imagination
than some of the other skills required in acting."
As the epoquent Beast, for example, he developed his ideas for his
character solely from the TV script, as opposed to a clue from the
real individual or actor Jean Marais in the 1946 Jean Cocteau film.
"The
writing is so specific, so provocative, that's your road map."
Perlman
earned a Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations for "Beauty and
the Beast" and other offers to play larger than life characters
followed.
"I never really sought these roles out, they
just sought me," he explains. "But
I have a real affection for taking the abstract and off-beat path
and trying to find some truth and reality. I've been very fortunate
not being born looking like Tony Curtis. I've had to find my ways
through other avenues and it's been very rich and rewarding."
His performance in Beauty drew him to 28-year old "Cronos"
director Guillermo del Toro. "Guillermo del
Toro had been, prior to having been a writer and director, one of
the foremost makeup artists in Mexico. He inhabited a world I was
not a stranger to and he was very educated to my work."
Del
Toro sent Perlman a letter asking him to play a brutal, slow-witted
guardian angel of an elderly antique dealer who discovers a means
to eternal life in "Cronos." Later, Perlman met del Toro in
Los Angeles and "was even more taken with
him."
"I
would call this the first chapter in the second half of my life because
I have since become dear friends with this fellow."We're collaborating
on a second screenplay and I think 40 or 50 years from now he's going
to be considered one of the greats of the film world and I feel grateful
to be there when he's starting out."
And in an article by Anthony DePalma from the New York Times, 20 March,
1994, Ron Perlman said, "There are going
to be people who hate the film, who are offended by all the blood,
who don't want to work hard to get what they would get from the subtleties.
But as far as I'm concerned, it's a world-class gem of a film."