The shape of Water

"Unable to perceive the shape of You, I find You all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with Your love, It humbles my heart, For You are everywhere."

Last night I decided to watch The Shape of Water. For some reason, I didn't like the hype around it nor the fact that Guillermo del Toro has changed to a big Hollywood name. Then, it just slip from my mind like many respectable movies do. 

So, why did people talk so much about it? Why did a movie where the main character is mute and in love with a male mermaid won 4 Oscars and other awards? To begin with, it didn't have the feeling of a big Hollywood production but more like Pan's Labyrinth. The whole movie is set at night with only glimpses of sunrise as the main female character commutes from her job to her home. It had an amazing music score that actually wrapped the filming and the acting with extra warmth. The photography and colorization was remarkable and finally the acting was outstanding. When the two main characters of the movie are mute and mutated, you either expects a lot or nothing. I expected nothing, but finished the movie thinking that I've seen everything I ever wanted to see in a romantic drama. 

Of course, the idea of a woman falling in love with a creature isn't new and it has been depicted in movies since the beginning of cinema. What made this one so special? In my opinion, it is the bond between the mute woman who was always invisible to people and the creature who had been invisible to almost anyone until it was found in the Amazon. Since she was the only one who showed compassion to a brutally tortrured amphibian humanoid, he was able to actually see her and not see through her like most people around her were doing. Her kindness tamed him and his love for boiled eggs sparkled the flame. Only at the end we realize that it wasn't just the romance that brought these two together, but the special ability both of them shared to breathe under water.

I was only 7 when I watched a movie of humanoid amphibians attacking the shores of the USA (because everything strange has to happen there), stealing the women in an effort to procreate and reproduce. I was shocked, scared to death and generally understood why movies like that are marked 16+ nowadays. Ignorance and foolishness brought me to that summer theater to watch the lust that these creatures had for blood and pussy. Totally unacceptable. 

Then it was the creature from the green lagoon, a BW movie that can only bring you laughter due to the way the creature looks there, thus it was eventually turned into a meme with the pissed off amphibian wrecking everything. 

Maybe it was these two movies that influenced me and turned me away from The Shape of Water, back in 2017. Last night, the need to stay awake and watch over my mom's broken head had me looking for films to watch. I'm so happy I made this serendipitous choice and streamed it (sorry dear directors and people who made this jewel reality). It wasn't just a weird romance between a woman and an amphibian man, it was the sweet taste it left for compassion and unconditional love. It was the mutual understanding of their inferiority, one being captured and tortured and the other being ignored. It was everyone's effort to make this movie not another horror film by Guillermo del Toro, but a movie that will evoke warmth, compassion and will allow you to leave the theater with the cathartic feeling that a tragedy wants you to have according to Aristotle. You feel love and loved. You feel that the green and yellow tones aren't symbols of rotten fish tanks with the smell of stale water. You feel liberated from all the stereotypes of humanoids who kill for pleasure. 

I hope that in the future, Guillermo del Toro will continue making films with the support of Hollywood and the thought-provoking direction of art movies. 

«ἔστιν οὖν τραγῳδία μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας καὶ τελείας μέγεθος ἐχούσης, ἡδυσμένῳ λόγῳ χωρὶς ἑκάστῳ τῶν εἰδῶν ἐν τοῖς μορίοις, δρώντων καὶ οὐ δι᾽ ἀπαγγελίας, δι᾽ ἐλέου καὶ φόβου περαίνουσα τὴν τῶν τοιούτων παθημάτων κάθαρσιν.»