Frankenstein is a very truthful movie and it's about today: Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro

Everything he has done so far has led him towards "Frankenstein", says Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro. As the filmmaker sees it, the much told story of the scientist and the monster he created is set in the 19th century but is very much about today and its many realities.

The ravages of war, arrogance of science over human emotion, the incapacity to listen to the other point of view... del Toro's dream project based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's 1818 novel delves into it all.

"This is a very truthful movie for me and it is about today. If you think about where we are as a society, where the cause of female role is in society, the ravages of war, the need for a sweeping emotional restructuring of our minds, those things were true in 1818, and they're still true now,” the Mexican American director told PTI in a Zoom interview.

"We have the arrogance of science over human emotion. Completely present. The stupidity of people that believe they can push past the boundaries of humanism into transhumanism. That is, again, a very present thing. And the incapacity to listen to the other's point of view. Check. Again, about today. I think that's what horror as a genre is very good at, reflecting the time it's made in," he said.

Known for films such as "Pan's Labyrinth", "Crimson Peak", "Pacific Rim", "Hellboy", "The Shape of Water" and "Pinocchio", del Toro said the first duty of a filmmaker is to "talk about your now" and what he or she is feeling about the world.

Jacob Elordi stars as the monster in the movie, which also features Oscar Isaac, Christoph Waltz and Mia Goth. The film will be released in select theatres on October 17 before releasing on Netflix in November.

He's had a lifelong fascination with monsters. And finally gets a chance to paint one of the most famous literary monsters for the big screen.

As someone who fell in love with Mary Shelley's creation when he read the book as a young boy, del Toro said he is happy he did not fall short of his own expectation in bringing the book to life.

"Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, they all are rehearsing something for this movie. I'm very happy that it came out exceeding what I hoped it would be. Many of those elements coming together at the last minute, like Jacob Elordi, which is a blessing for the film," said the filmmaker who won two Oscars — best director and best picture — for his 2018 movie ‘Shape of Water’ and a third, best animated feature, for 2022's "Pinocchio".

"I would have never thought to be this pleased with something that you have dreamt for so long. Usually, you're going to be afraid it'll fall short for you of where you want it. But this was incredibly satisfying." His love for Gothic literature and the romantic movement of the 19th century and its painters and writers — Henry Fuseli, Casper David Friedrich or poets like William Blake, John Milton and Samuel Taylor Coleridge — find space in his newest movie.

The film also honours Mary Shelley's influences and the story around how it came into existence. Lord Byron proposed that he and his guests — Punjab Shelley and Mary Shelley — write a ghost story while they were confined to their house during a summer in Switzerland. "Frankenstein" begins and ends with a Lord Byron quote that del Toro thought was perfect.

"Mary Shelley's mother had gone to the French Revolution and seen all the bloodletting. And Waterloo and certainly the Napoleonic Wars raged during the early years of Mary Shelley's life. All these elements had never been brought to play. And I brought them in.

"I brought the poetry of Percy Shelley. And the poem that closes the movie is a poem that was written about Waterloo, precisely, by Lord Byron. And I thought the quote was so profound: 'The heart will break and yet brokenly live on', which is what the movie's about — making peace with imperfection, forgiveness, and kindness," del Toro said.

In "Frankenstein", Victor Frankenstein's scientist is obsessed with conquering death but is instantly repelled by his own creation. In "The Shape of Water", a woman falls in love with a captured amphibian creature. "Pan's Labyrinth" is a parable for Francoist Spain, the fascist regime that ruled after the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), using a fairy-tale framework to reveal the horrors of tyranny and celebrate imagination as an act of resistance.

Del Toro said he often reflects on what it is to be human and his movies talk about that: about making mistakes, being flawed but dealing with them with awareness and kindness.

"I'm very afraid of people that want to always be right. I'm very afraid of people that think they have the truth. I'm very afraid of people that have complete certainty. I think uncertainty is the root of intelligence. Doubt is the most important thing, not the answer. The question is the important thing. And that's what the movie tries to say."      According to the filmmaker, in his film, Victor is incredibly smart, but asks wrong questions and has "the most brilliant" answers to questions that are not important.

"Why do we die? To live. And that's why I like the moment where he thinks he's been serving an angel of life, and he realises he's been serving an angel of death in the movie."