An old cabinetmaker has always yearned to have a child. Miracle: the one he has just sculpted in a log comes to life. Birth of Pinocchio. Written in 1883, the tale of Collodi needs no presentations for having been adapted many times for television and cinema, in animation as well as live action. In 2021-2022 alone, three versions were produced: an excellent one by Matteo Garrone, a mediocre one made by Robert Zemeckis and, on display since Friday, a fabulous one imagined by Guillermo del Toro.
We write “imagined”, but “re-imagined” would be more appropriate in this case to qualify this feature film directed by Guillermo del Toro (with the help of Mark Gustafson) with forceful mastery, meticulousness and inventiveness, in stop motion, or “ stop motion “. Indeed, the brilliant Mexican filmmaker, winner of the Oscar for best film and best direction for The Shape of Water (The shape of water), takes many liberties with the source, which it appropriates (see full title Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio / Pinocchio par Guillermo del Toro) without however betraying its spirit.
From the start, among other examples, we meet a Geppetto, not childless, but the father of a son whom he adores. Unfortunately, the First World War took it from him during a sequence where emotional power and technical brilliance rub shoulders. On a stormy night, a desperate and drunk Geppetto tries to ease his pain by carving a little boy out of a piece of wood. Against a background of lightning and lightning, Geppetto, like a mad scientist, tries to conquer death. Therefore, we are closer to Frankenstein than past adaptations of Pinocchio.
In fact, as del Toro pointed out during a virtual conference we attended: “The two stories that have marked, even defined my childhood, are Pinocchio and Frankenstein. »
Either way, the puppet will come to life, with the Blue Fairy having been replaced by a Woodland Fairy vaguely resembling the Angel of Death at the end of Hellboy II: the Golden Army (Hellboy II: The Golden Army).
The sequel, very fluid and carried by the music and songs of Alexandre Desplat (Oscar for The Shape of Water), proceeds by episodes and ellipses. We recognize the main original lines, like this fugue in the bosom of a traveling theater directed by a sinister sire. Dwelling in the belly of a sea monster (not exactly a whale) also occurs.
End of a trilogy
However, the discourse has changed. Once an ode to obedience, the story becomes, in the hands of Guillermo del Toro, a plea for disobedience. Anyone who knows the author’s cinema will hardly be surprised, since several of his films are populated by children who disobey and who, in doing so, lead the public in their wake in terrifying or marvelous adventures – often both.
We think of little Aurora who persists in helping her vampire grandfather in Chronosto the young Chuy who ventures into the den of monsters against his grandfather’s advice in Mimicking (Metamorphosis), orphan heroes who outwit the murderous thief in The Devil’s Spineto the unforgettable Ofelia who defies her cruel Francoist captain of a father-in-law in Pan’s Labyrinth…
In this regard, del Toro confirmed that his Pinocchio completes his “childhood and war” trilogy, after The Devil’s Spine and Pan’s Labyrinth, exactly. In fact, after having camped these last two films in Spain during the Franco regime, the filmmaker has transposed his Pinocchio in Mussolini’s Italy.
Far from being incidental, this change of time engenders a stint in a fascist training camp where the unique gifts of Pinocchio, who comes back to life every time he perishes, are prized for the wrong reasons. This historical context is also an opportunity for the filmmaker to recall, as in the two previous opuses of his trilogy which respectively featured ghosts and fantastic creatures, that true monstrosity (here fascism) is an entirely human characteristic.
In this respect, and here again, as in many of Guillermo del Toro’s films, it is primarily adults like Geppetto, much more than children, who have things to learn from the fantastic beings taken from the filmmaker’s bestiary. Once is not customary, but being taught the lesson in this way is a real delight.