The Shape of Water

From Richard Jenkins opening narrative monologue, we get a sense of a fairytale story positioned in extraordinarily hard time.  Not as different in scope to Pan’s Labryinth, which was a fictional world amongst the backdrop of bitter and cruel world war.   Guillermo Del Toro is the living embodiment of auteur theory, and The Shape of Water is his testimonial or Exhibit A.  

After watching the movie in theatres and the months that followed, I continued to wrestle with the specific MEANING behind the movie’s title. The point is obviously on the noise; but the precise articulate meaning is as follows. “Love has no shape; you can fall in love with any person. You find a soul. Water has no shape until you put it into a container, and it’s the strongest element on Earth. It’s the most malleable. It can cut rock over the millennia and yet it has no shape, which is the epitome of love. We are containers and water, you live in the shape love gives you, a glass of water, a pitcher, a cup, or bowl. The water perfectly fills that container, a perfect metaphor for love”.
In various talk shows, leading into awards season Guillermo Del Toro described the GENESIS of how the film came to be.  It was a six year journey from idea to Celluloid, but its own seeding etches back decades further.

1969, on a Sunday afternoon watching TV (Creature from the Black Lagoon) A then six year old Del Toro saw a Gillman swim a few feet below Actress Jane Adams as she traversed across the surface in a white bikini.  The elegance and beauty of that visual moment in cinema resonated with Del Toro, and how Hollywood could never allow a happy ending with a monster and bathing beauty being together after sharing such an extraordinary moment; he felt an injustice.

2011, Toronto, Canada  Del Toro was having breakfast with his writing partner Daniel Krause (children book series Trollhunters)  Daniel came up with the idea “What if a janitor in a super-secret government Facility  found an amphibian man and stole it – took it home?”   That was the pitch that sold Guillermo, with the childhood inspiration in the back of his mind he spent two years developing the story.

2013. Del Toro always had Sally Hawkins (after watching Happy-Go Lucky and Fingersmith) in mind for the role of Elisa, He contacted her and over a year of emails and refining the character with Sally and developing her sensibilities and machinations of the character in the process. 

2014 Guillermo finally pitched the idea/treatment to Fox Searchlight, who was known to take risk with indie films and found audiences with Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman (The unexpected virtue of Ignorance) as their track record.  They agreed to back his project; partnering with Vanessa Taylor (Divergent, Game of Throne) to help him co-write the screenplay, their collaboration took the next two years before it was finally fully realized.

2016 Toronto, and parts of Ontario Canada – Filming of the production commenced, and movie was released in theatres in late fall of 2017

The SETTING is 1962 Baltimore, This was a time when soldiers had returned home after World War II, And the motto of the American Dream was ‘Make America Great Again’, It’s was the time of Kennedys and Camelot;  It was also the height of the Cold War, and Both superpowers were in a  stalemate in the space race.  Politically, there were activism with rallies and riots for gender & race equality, Vietnam had not occurred yet. So the Shape of Water takes a hard look at prejudice amongst its characters during these times.  While framing its most central characters of a Mute woman and an Amazonian River God who fall in love in this very particular place and time.

Elisa Esposito begins the story as a solitary figure her last name means “placed outside” of “Exposed” and was, in Italian tradition, given to orphans.  She’s a pale, slender mute woman with several mysterious keloid scars on her neck. Zelda Fuller played by academy award winner Octavia Spencer is her chatterbox co-worker, and a perfect foil to Elisa. Giles Dupont played by Richard Jenkins is Elisa’s neighbor and only male companion in Elisa’s life; they share meals, watch musicals and spend a lot of time together when she is not at work.  Giles is an artist and former advertising creative director whose in his twilight years.  Richard Strickland is played by two time academy award nominated actor Michael Shannon.  Strickland is a ruthless and brutal government man who captured the amphibian man and looking to exploit his ability to breath out of water as the edge to break ahead in the space race.   And finally there is Dr. Robert Hoffstetler a marine biologist, charged to study the creature, played by Michael Stuhlbarg.

Del Toro is intimately familiar with every character he creates on the screen.  In addition to the script, he gives the actors he works with a biographical dossier of the character they are portraying, it’s usually around 2 pages typed single space; detailing the history and motivations of the character, hopes and dreams , childhood, and deposits moments in their life that contribute to who they are or become.  Most actors flock to the pages given to them as an extra layer and connection to the people they portray. And to better identify themselves to the world Guillermo Del Toro has built around them.

Del Toro’s Director of Photography Dan Laustsen (Crimson Peak) who shot an incredible world, an often fantasy setting under water, or completely out of water.  It’s a 60’s period piece with less colorfulness that is normally associated with that era, with key lighting that makes all shadows fall into black/darkness; whereas Crimson Peak was very saturated in color with stark shadows.

The Shape of water was given the most nominations than any other film for the 90^th Academy awards.  13 in total and took home 4  of its nominations including Best Picture and Director, ear marking the awards season as the year of inclusion.

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