Guillermo Del Toro: Use Of Magic Realism In Film

The topic for this dissertation was inspired by previous studies and an interest in the filmography of the Mexican filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro. Looking at del Toro’s filmography, he has not only directed, but he has also produced and written a great number of films. A common theme among those films is the genre of magic realism. With this in mind, the investigation of the dissertation will be focused on, ‘examining the use of magic realism in a selection of films by Guillermo del Toro’. All three of the selected films to be explored, are Spanish-language dark fantasy films, although del Toro also continues to produce more mainstream American action English-language films. The choice of these three films is important for both the similarities

For example, war is important because it is the backdrop of two of the films; the action of El Espinazo del Diablo’ and ‘El Laberinto del Fauno’ elapse in the context of a war situation – the Spanish Civil War. It would be easy to think that del Toro is not Mexican, but rather Spanish because he is seems so interested in the Spanish Civil War. As the historical context, the war and its effects on society have a great significance upon the portrayal magic realism in the

The mise-en-scene describes many of the film’s design aspects, including moments of choice, production design, use of colour, props and costume. More significantly, the staging performance, lighting and realism and anti-naturalism within the mise-en-scene will also be looked at closely. With the analysis of the cinematography, it will have an insight into the art of photography and camerawork in the filmmaking, which will give a better idea of how magic realism is translated through the medium of film. Understanding how the films technically communicate magic realism will be crucial to this