Текст книги "Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions"

Автор книги: Guillermo del Toro

Соавторы: Marc Scott Zicree
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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

It’s one of the legends: that you can nourish the mandrake into becoming a baby, like a living, small person, like a homunculus. I really obsessed about the mandrake. I obsessed about the fetal, baby-like quality of it. I thought it would be really disturbing for it to have a tongue.

^{Ivana Baquero (Ofelia) posing with the mandrake root prop in a publicity photo for the film.}

^{A page from The Book of Crossroads, rendered in the style of a medieval manuscript and echoed by del Toro with an illuminated drop cap on a page in his notebook.}

^{This page also houses del Toro’s first drawing of another important prop–Vidal’s phonograph, which was developed by Raúl Villares in this concept of the captain’s office.}

MSZ: So this page [opposite] is from the beginning of the notebook that covers Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy II. What was it like starting a new book?

GDT: I was starting a new notebook and I remember where I began. It was in a little hotel near the Gran Vía in Madrid. I remember exactly how full of hope and joy I was.

The movies would change rapidly through the notebooks. Some of the stuff survived—like the little phonograph at the bottom for the Fascist captain. But you see the elements that didn’t, too. For example, this little “nerve ghost,” which is what I call this little ghost with all the nerves exposed. They ate the fairies, which eventually the Pale Man does. I had this idea, which is on the next page about a wooden puppet that lives in the roots of the tree, which holds a chestnut that contains the key. Eventually that became two separate tasks for Ofelia, and he became the Pale Man instead of the wooden doll. I just thought it was really creepy to have a wooden doll coming to life.

MSZ: Here you say to use the stick bug instead of the fairies to guide Ofelia to the labyrinth at the beginning, and you mention a blind man. Blindness seems to be an issue that you deal with in a lot of your work, even with the Pale Man, for instance, where you’re obliterating the eyes.

GDT: The idea was there was a blind man who can traverse the labyrinth by knowing it, but not by sight. It was sort of a silly metaphor about real knowledge or faith, like faith being blind, and the girl believing in herself. At the beginning of Pan’s Labyrinth there were a lot of good ideas, but not necessarily in a shape that I found “gainly.” It was very ungainly.

MSZ: These places where you seem to be struggling to get things to cohere, and seeing which things to retain and which things should be jettisoned, are very interesting. You also mention them hanging the grandfather instead of the granddaughter. There seems to be a grandfather character in this, as well, hearkening back to Cronos and Mimic.

GDT: I decided that the blind man was the grandfather to the housekeeper, and then I decided I liked the housekeeper better with a brother than a grandfather. I thought she needed to be more active and less passive.

^{NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 2B}

In “The Labyrinth” use the stick hug instead of the fairies at the beginning. Use it as a “guide” to lead the girl to the labyrinth. The blind man tells her the story while putting out bird traps.

–They hang the grandfather instead of the granddaughter

–Create a man made of wood instead of a toad.

–In L.M.L. use a voice-over, as if it were an instrument.

–In H.B.2., the burly agent is the troll brother.

–The grandfather was left blind from gunshot wounds, but what side was he on?? Vidal, what does he make of him?

–The doll with the nut licks up a drop a blood

–The trials are: (1) The nut, the one found in the hollow tree at the edge of the labyrinth. (2) There is a key inside the nut that unlocks the secret room in the Library. It opens the door where the dead children who eat fairies appear to her. (3) Using the tools she has gathered up, she “harvests” the mandrake root and hides it under her mother’s bed. (4) Kill the little one.

–If I switch 2 and 3 around, I achieve a bit more visual variety and can make use of the little phials filled with sleeping medicine

–Look at this drawing. The contrast between the blue and the intense reds is a bit risky.

–What key could be more interesting than the insect (??) and how could it be found?

–Will the wooden doll have a nut (??) Will his voice (the doll’s) be heard through a gramophone?? If so, make it a cylinder gramophone.

^{NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 2A}

^{The Pale Man was originally associated with both the tree (where the frog dwells in the final film) and the color gold, representing temptation.}

–Starting a new notebook. I met Steven Spielberg and he told me how much he liked “Hellboy.” Unreal.

–Flexibility defeats rigidity

–Bulbs.

–Seeds.

Inside the chestnut are 5 seeds that need to be planted beneath the branches of the ancient tree when the moon is full. Gifts to [?] The wooden doll with the secret key.

–Gold plays an extremely vital role in European fairy tales. In our tale, I would put gold and not food on the table of temptations. Which of the two would the public understand more easily? (??)

–8/9/04

We found a flat near El Retiro on J.J. street

–Watch Walter Murch’s Return to Oz again for its sound effects

^{Red food replaced gold, and the Pale Man (Doug Jones) was given a more disturbing lair for Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) to visit.}

MSZ: You have a note here [opposite] about gold playing an extremely vital role in European fairy tales, and you were playing with the notion of putting gold instead of food on the table as a temptation, which of course was an idea you abandoned.

GDT: Yeah, I abandoned it and, unfortunately for me, I cut a phrase in the editing room. That is the only phrase I regret cutting in Pan’s where you are reminded that the girl, no matter how strong her convictions, has not eaten in more than a day because she was sent to bed without supper. Then her mother bleeds, she’s horrified, she doesn’t eat. The line I cut was where the maid tells her, “You haven’t eaten all day.”

But the way I brought together the two ideas of the food and the gold was to make everything in the banquet red. I thought, “If gold has a uniformity of color, then it would be great to give that uniformity to the food by making everything red—the gelatin, the grapes.”

MSZ: Stylistically, in previous notebooks, it looks as if you were dealing with calligraphic elements, with typography. Here it looks more as if you’re throwing stuff down. There’s not as much of the tricks and musings. There’s more of a sense of, not haste, but of definitely getting on with business.

GDT: Yeah, yeah. I think that more and more the books became more and more practical. So there was less of a sense of design. Curiously, I like these pages more than the old ones, because they’re complete—they’re not looking for anything. They’re just me looking through myself, in a way.

^{NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 11A}

^{An early drawing in del Toro’s notebook depicted the Pale Man with eyes in his head.}

The comics, like the pulps before them, didn’t speak for the social elite. Their point of view was that of the man in the street. Perhaps for that reason, their hatred of Nazis or “foreign enemies” foreshadows the U.S.’s posture toward WWII. The 30’s and 40’s see an explosion of heroes of all sorts: The Spider, The Shadow, Doc Savage, Captain America, Superman, The Avengers, etc. etc. Hellboy is a child of the pulps, Kirby and Sgt. Rock (1959, Kanigher).

–Charles Fort (1874–1932, New York) Blind, like J. L. Borges.

–From the moment we’re born, we begin a long journey toward death. It’s called life, and you catch on in the end.

–Go from the last piece of the crown to the auction.

–A piece of the sword breaks off inside H.B. It “moves” if they touch it and will kill him when the “bad guy” returns at the end

–One eye, One arm!!

–There’s no hope left. There never was any. I know.

–Relic/Auction

–I pity the fool.

–It’s like walking in on yourself.

6 wings for the fairies. —

–Hellboy fights with “Iron Shoes” at some point in the film.

–The point of the spear reveals Hellboy’s location

–Tim Curry for the role of one of the U.M. professors.

–Hellboy finds the Golem in Prague and Johan reanimates it with his ectoplasm.

GDT: Here [opposite] we have a possibility for the Pale Man.

MSZ: This one still had eyes in its head.

GDT: The idea was that the eyes were in like a liquid space. Like, the flesh was moving, so the eyes would gently float in the sea of flesh, and they would never be at the same height.

MSZ: They’re reminiscent of some of the portraits by symbolist painters.

GDT: Proto-symbolist, actually. It’s older, but it’s a very strong influence on that. Eyes are very important in fairy tales, and there’s a great story called “One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes,” about three sisters. One of them is born with one eye, one is born with two eyes, and one is born with three eyes. And they think that the one with the two eyes is the freak, the ugly-looking one. When you go back to Greek mythology, too, there are so many images of eyes being absent or singular—the cyclops, the gorgons, for example.

Here I wrote about comics for some reason. “The comics, like the pulps before them, didn’t speak for the social elite. Their point of view was that of the man in the street. Perhaps for that reason, their hatred of Nazis or ‘foreign enemies’ foreshadows the U.S.’s posture toward World War II.” These are notes about Hellboy II, or just notes to myself. I remember clearly that Marvel and the pulps and the comics were using Nazis as villains before it was a popular posture.

^{Displacing them to the creature’s hands created a much more disturbing being, seen in these storyboards by Raúl Monge.}

^{The final performance by Doug Jones.}

^{NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 17A}

^{Occasioned a change of course with DDT while it was in the middle of sculpting the creature according to an approved concept that included more of a human visage.}

–Blue dolphin to Big Red, Yes, Abe? Not Abe, Blue Dolphin, abide by the security code, Brother Red. Procedure comes first.

–These days, whenever people talk about a “good screenplay,” they’re thinking about plot. They assume that the actors are the ones who create the characters, who improve the action and dialogue.

–Does the prince have a double agent?

–When he’s going to scold Hellboy, he asks everyone to step out of the room.

–And you stole a six-pack!!

–6/1/05 Today I’m getting the email from AA offering me XB, along with HPB and MIB and C of N, decisions that will follow me for the rest of my life.

5/30/05 Based on DDT sculpture.

–

Read: Connor McPherson.

–

–I’ll create a sword for you.

–SMOKE for light columns.

On the plate: eyes that fit in his palm.

Ofelia puts her hands on her head and walks BACKWARD, I talking with Mercedes.

2007/41 It’s my year: Guillermo del Toro.

–Broken mirror. Created by a tiny demon. When it was shattered, it launched shards into the air that got lodged in the eyes and hearts of human beings

–Why does the BPRD airplane crash? Because dozens of harpies attack it

–Double Load bullets. DRILL

–An enormous library at BPRD to which only Abe has access

–The book contains every possible destiny, every possible future, which your decisions could create. It was made just for you, written in your father’s blood, and will reveal its secrets to your eyes alone. Infinite and limited

–Your role in this story will be determined tonight.

–He closes the book and taps on the cover 3 times. Open it and your fate, and yours alone, will be revealed to you. It will show you only what you need to know at that particular moment, that time.

^{Concepts by Raúl Monge show that, up until very close to production, the Pale Man was more of an elderly figure with eyes in a humanoid face.}

^{The final concept first came to del Toro while working in the notebooks.}

GDT: This [opposite] is a very important page for me. This is where the movie starts to take more shape. On the left, there is a drawing of the Pale Man, and what I did is, originally that figure had a human face, and it was sculpted by DDT. This was my drawing of that sculpture with the face removed. I did a rougher drawing of this and I mailed it, faxed it, to DDT.

It’s one of the two times we’ve had a disagreement, because they had worked so hard doing that sculpture. It was an old man sculpture. And they loved it, and they said to me, “Oh, this is really ruthless. We were doing this.” I said, “Listen, trust me, it’s going to be worth it.”

The reason I insisted on changing it was because I was having dinner with my wife, and I had seen the sculpture, and it was great. It was a great sculpture of an old man. I had a picture with me, which was more or less the picture as it is in the drawing here but with a face. I was looking at the picture and I was telling my wife, “I have two options. One of them is you have this old man with stumps for a hand, and then in front of him there’s a plate with two wooden hands that he puts on and they move. Or, I take off the face and I put two eyes on the plate, and he puts the eyes on the face.” And she said, “I like the plate with the eyes better.” Then I thought, why don’t we do the stigmata, since he’s supposed to be the church. And it just all fit together.

MSZ: Removing the eyes of the Pale Man and doing exactly what you did, it took guts. There’s the challenge of coming up with something new, something fresh that will resonate with an audience, but also the challenge of sticking to your guns.

GDT: I was very sensitive about telling the guys at DDT because I was a sculptor, and I know what it takes, and I know they’d done a fantastic job, and there’s no way of rejecting it and not sounding glib. “Take it off,” you know? It’s like, “Let them eat cake.” But it was necessary. Sometimes, as a director, you have to be an asshole. Even if you’re trying not to be, you’re going to come out as one in the short term. But if the movie is worth it, it’s worth that.

MSZ: And then there is this drawing and note about Ofelia talking and walking backward. Where does that come from?

GDT: It’s just something I saw my daughter do. I didn’t do it in the movie. Then it goes, “Today, I’m getting the email from AA offering me XB.” I got an email, yes, I got an email from Avi Arad at Marvel, and he was offering me some big, big, big movies. I was very broke at that moment because the money for Pan’s Labyrinth hadn’t materialized. They were offering me X-Men 3, and they were offering me Fantastic Four, I think. He offered me Thor. Anyway, it was a moment where money-wise, I was tight, and I thought, “Should I leave Pan’s to do that, and then come back?” And I chose to stay. So, again, this is an important page for me.

^{The storyboard panels by Raúl Monge show how the design for the Pale Man returned to a much older concept that had been haunting del Toro for years–a figure he calls the “Shadow Man”.}

GDT: Funny enough, here [opposite] is an early version of the Pale Man, in a way. This time without the eyes. At the time, I was calling him the Shadow Man, which was a soul eater. But if you look at his teeth, they are larger, but they are exactly the same shape of the teeth of the Pale Man, which are very thin and blunt.

^{BLUE NOTEBOOK, PAGE 66}

S.M.**** Montage with smoke in dissolves which create Spirit images

S.M.**** Shadow-man, the one who eats souls.

M/M G* Is he dead? someone asks

BAM! BAM! BAM! Now, he is…

S.M. **** The duel between Q and Carl begins in a physical way and then it becomes mental. Q poisons him, climbing onto his chest and fucking him up until Carl bursts.

S.M.**** Q is the way he is because of something that happened to him during his childhood (Flash back)

* Dorian’s session is telemetric

S.M.**** Hemorrhage in their eyes when Q or Carl use their powers to the maximum.

* Ernie’s ancestors were big shots, war heroes.

^{Del Toro, here on set with Sergi López [Vidal] and Maribel Verdú [Carmen], was able to understand Vidal, having created him.}

^{While Vidal is obsessed with being remembered, the film and these storyboards by Raúl Monge underscore that Ofelia is the one who makes the difference that matters to the world.}

GDT: Here [opposite] it says, “My life is halfway over. Forty years and I barely have a thing of my own to leave behind. I made captain, imagine that. But my name, the only thing I have left to pass on is my name.” This was part of the speech the captain gives in Pan’s, musing about age.

On Pan’s Labyrinth, frankly, I was thinking about these things. I don’t write the bad guys in my movies without knowing what they feel, and I understand the captain. I don’t like him—I wouldn’t want to hang out with him—but I understand him.

I thought it would be interesting if posterity will remember the girl through little details, but no one will remember the captain because he’s so obsessed with being remembered.

In that sense, I was also writing for Ofelia. I always go back to this quote by Kierkegaard that says, “The reign of the martyr starts with his death. The reign of the tyrant ends with it.” And I thought that was the clash at the center of the movie: a guy that is obsessed with his name being remembered, and a girl that doesn’t care. But she makes the right choices.

^{NOTEBOOK 3, PAGE 45B}

^{As the idea for the Faun evolved into a more delicate creature.}

–Not with bullets, which cost too much. We’re going to make a very clear statement about what we’re doing here.

–The father smokes cigars while listening to the radio.

–My life is halfway over. Forty years and I barely have a thing of my own to leave behind. I made captain, imagine that. But my name, the only thing I have left to pass on is my name.

–They talk while she cooks rabbit for dinner. She tells him that she comes from a family of 5. 2 brothers, 3 sisters, and her parents. Her brother died at the front (PAUSE). And the other brother? Him, too. He hears the hesitation in her voice.

–There are 3 doors in the library.

–You leave the dirty plates in the sink on Friday and find all the crap stuck to them on Monday. That’s what I’m here for.

–MARIA BOTTO. MARIA.

–I saw you in the window. What do you think of me? Sir, you don’t need to know what I think. You aren’t interested in what I think, I’m sure. That man wasn’t guilty. But I’m not here to dispense justice. I’m here to bring peace. When it comes to peace, one dead man is as good as any other. The best offering for peace is what’s hanging from that tree. everyone understands that. sooner or later I’m going to hang someone that they’re.

^{Del Toro recruited Doug Jones for the part, here seen performing with Ivana Baquero [Ofelia].}

GDT: This [opposite] is the restaurant bill for an Indian lunch with Joe Hill and Stephen King on the day I showed them Pan’s Labyrinth. It was one of those cheap thermal papers, so it faded, but I glued it on my notebook with the little note that Stephen King did, “We had a blast!! Steve King,” and a smiley. Because I think he is my favorite living writer. I think he is one of my favorite writers of all time. And that day I still didn’t know if he was going to like it or not, but I had just shown my movie to Stephen King, you know? So I drew the Faun on the empty paper of the faded receipt. And then beneath is a sketch for Abe Sapien’s new glasses.

MSZ: This also speaks to the design evolution of the Faun. Earlier, it was almost like a Hellboy kind of thing—muscular with big horns.

GDT: Definitely. And it evolved a lot even after this. DDT made an exquisite creation. I was making it bigger to hide the mechanics, and they said, “We think we can really sculpt it so that it can be the actor’s mouth. We can do that delicate a sculpture.” And I must say, without them, the Faun would not be what it is. They are masters of their art. I knew Doug Jones was the only guy to play the Faun, because his sensibility in playing Abe Sapien is amazing.

^{NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 21B}

^{To design the Labyrinth in the film, del Toro’s drawing.}

–Screenings P.L. WB, FD, M.P. S.S. they need to clean it!!

Feeling a little afraid is normal when facing something new, in a place or in a way you’ve never experienced before. But to learn something it’s necessary to surpass that fear completely.

–Luke Goss for the role of the prince, but will need to work his eyes, forehead

–We need Johann for something that is not the final gag?? And I know that it would be Abe who would appear before the B.P.R.D. and is loved by everyone and makes Hellboy jealous? If it was so, then Johann could be introduced in the Eurospec portion of the movie.

–I have an irrational fear. A superstition. I fear that a terrorist act will take the world one more time. As was the case on 9/11 during Backbone.

–Bring me BIG BABY, but Manning said—he said, to be discreet!! HB: And the silver please—and B.B. (watch out!) it’s enormous.

–Sometimes (Abe says) with feeling an extraordinary desire to cry.

–I know—yes??!!—Yes!! Oh God!! Oh God!! Silence—give me another beer.

–Perhaps in the place of Goggles. Abe with new Goggles. Abe uses CONTACTS or glasses.

^{NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 14A}

–It’s impossible to find the beautiful without first exploring everything that is terrible. 2/14/05 Madrid.

–They CHANGE the princess into a

–The nano-robots are called CELLBOTS.

–I GUESS I’M OUT.

–He’s just about to step outside when they insult him. He closes the door quietly and turns around with a smile on his face. The camera makes a push…

–We are—you see?—the fallen. HB II

–The point of the sword moves toward his heart

–For how long? Until you can stand on your own two feet.

–I know what I am but I didn’t know the name others have for it. What to call it.

–You can go up and see her. She’s resting right now.

–A biography’s lucidity is the result of the man, the journey he takes in his final days as he unknowingly approaches his own death.

–Thin. in front.

–Or the proportions could be even more extreme:

–The prince slices off Johann’s hand/arm. Protoplasm escapes out.

–IRON SHOES.

–Wheelchair Ghost.

–HB imitates static while talking with Myers over the radio.

Well.

–Keep the mushrooms for the Toad’s lair (fig tree).

–The real world is made of straight lines, and the world of fantasy is curved. Reality is cold. Fantasy is warm.

–The fantasy world should feel UTERINE, INTERIOR, like the subconscious—of the girl/photo.

GDT: Here [opposite] it says, “It’s impossible to find the beautiful without first exploring everything that is terrible.” I think this is true. I mean, this is probably a conclusion I reached there. But it’s true.

“The real world is made of straight lines, and the world of fantasy is curved. Reality is cold. Fantasy is warm.” These are Pan’s Labyrinth ideas for the initiation pit in Portugal.

The pit is still pretty much the same in the movie—the composition is almost the same; the labyrinth corridor in front of a pit. There are these pits in Portugal that have great alchemical and occultist symbolism, and we reproduced that shadow in the pit where the Faun lives. These are little things—details that are important for me or for my designers.

MSZ: And what are all these little doodles? One of the figures looks like Abe Sapien smoking a cigarette. And the pig?

GDT: Some of those are for Hellboy II—ideas that were abandoned. The guy with the cigarette is the captain, lifting weights in his undershirt with dark glasses. And the pig? They make those pigs in Mexico. They come with a little tape that you put a fly on. You put it inside, and as the fly dies, it animates the pig.

^{Raúl Monge’s illustration made reference to prehistoric monuments in Portugal.}

^{For Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro envisioned an underground city.}

^{Where Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) would meet her parents in a throne room and be declared Princess Moanna.}

^{Raúl Monge’s sketches and storyboards.}

MSZ: This [opposite] is the underground city Ofelia goes to at the end of Pan’s Labyrinth. I have a question about that, because at the last moment, when she returns, it seems so cold and so austere. Was that your thinking?

GDT: When she comes back, I wanted her not to embrace anyone because then it would become very sappy. So I put her father and her mother in these super-high thrones, because if we made her embrace them and then you cut to her dying, it is melodramatic in the wrong way. There is melodrama that is a little more austere, and melodrama that is a lot more syrupy, and I thought if we had them all dancing around her and embracing her, and then you cut and she’s dying, it’s really cheap. But if you hear them applaud, and she’s there but she’s alone, still alone, it’s an easier transition to her dying. So I made them sort of very high and mighty, literally.

^{Of the high thrones that kept Ofelia at a distance from her parents, helping to avoid an overly melodramatic ending.}

^{NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 14B}

Walk with him for the reaction shot

–Open with the TITLE PAGE/CLOSE.

–The exterior world is blue/Hades: Gold

–The sky was truly blue in those days and the grass was greener—And now—Now look at what it has all become. What the world is today.

–USE THE MIRROR—to escape/Ofelia needs to react in front of the mirrors—

–Cages with hens in them—

–SUNlight/Ed/CGI.

–The Mouros live in underground cities. They’re beings related to the giants. In Galicia, it is believed that the mountains are hollow and contain underground palaces. Kingdoms.

–The girl is THIRSTY.

–We had dinner with Belen, Paolo Basili, Manuel Villanueva, and Alvaro at Viridiana Tuesday/2/05

–Commemorates the 600th anniversary of the TREUCE

–The prince is irritated by what people say to him at the auction and he gets very angry

–They will eat the souls of all of you, infidels.

–Manning walks through the hall with Abe Sapien/explo.

–The prince gets his arm cut off in the story. Perhaps the BPRD keeps the arm in its museum of FREAKS. “No wonder he is pissed off.” HB.

–There goes a pissed off fish, HB says to Abe.

–The film begins at Christmas with PC in the snow. The demons have lost HB.

F Porto 3/5/05 Use the sketch of Gaudí’s “Sagrada Familia” cathedral as a model.

^{NOTEBOOK 4, PAGE 18A}

–In the face.

Pillars for the duel. Travels in order:

(1) Lilliput, (2) Brobdingnag

(3) Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg, and Japan.

(4) Houyhnhnms.

–The key to the crown. Change the beginning and make it a flashback to the scene with the stack of pancakes. Return and find the book again in the library/storeroom of BPRD.

–Abe and the princess use the “magic” escape route to reach the other side of the planet. The BPRD uses the $ media buys.

3 keys

–Count the number of keys.

–One of the keys makes the water level drop and opens the locks to the ocean.

For the battle with the giant.

–He/she cooks dinner for Abe Sapien.

–Upon entering a certain place, they find the remains of others who entered first.

–One of the keys is underwater, so only Abe can fetch it.

–Eliminate the station and trains 6–6-05 and build the interior of the Bentley to fill the plates in time for summer.

RIVER

Downriver.

Fairy tales.

Insect looks at itself in front of the book.

^{While reading The Book of Crossroads, Ofelia [Ivana Baquero] inspires the insect to become a fairy.}

^{Del Toro’s notebook, Raúl Monge’s storyboards, and the film itself persistently refuse to declare whether this transformation is real or imagined.}

GDT: This frame here [opposite, top] is the moment in Pan’s Labyrinth where Ofelia shows the insect the illustration in the fairy tale book and it becomes a fairy. The act of magic I believe in is if you tell the world what you want out of it, the world conforms. Not if I hold a picture of a Porsche against my forehead, a Porsche’s going to come to me. Nothing as base as that. But the world is like a torrent of impressions, I think. Spiritual, physical, all of them. And we’re like a sieve. If you adjust the size of your sieve, and you declare something, you declare the size of the sieve, you start seeing reality, and interacting with reality, in a different way. I love the idea that this girl tells the bug, “Are you a fairy?” And the bug transforms for her. It’s a moment in which magic occurs, and it becomes objective.

Pan’s, for me, responds to an original principle: that, at the end of the day, in the geological time scale, we are all insignificant. In other words, at one time or another, long after we are gone, the worst-worn pocketbook is going to mean the same as the entire oeuvre of Dickens or Shakespeare. In geological time, in five million years, we will be a stratum in the geological plate that is going to be found by no one, perhaps. All we can do is change the world in small ways. No work of art is so big that it’s going to change the world, to make a difference, geologically. That’s why the Faun says Ofelia changed the world in very, very, very small ways. Like, there are people that will remember her, and there’s one little flower blooming in the fig tree because of her, because she killed the frog. It’s a tiny, tiny change, but it says she left traces of her time in the world for those who know where to look. I think that’s all of us.

The artist only changes the world in tiny ways. To think, “Oh, my work is so important,” is misguided. Really? In what perspective? Seriously. I mean, who remembers the great poet Triceratops?