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.
What do you think an artist is? ...he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.
I would rather dance as a ballerina, though faultily, than as a flawless clown.
This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.
You don't write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you're really doing it, that's all you're doing: writing.
Good art theory must smell of the studio, although its language should differ from the household talk of painters and sculptors.
If you already have a piece of music ingrained in your body, why would you not play it?
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