Guillermo del Toro will be attending in-person a 12-film career-spanning retrospective of his work at the American Cinematheque‘s Beyond Fest, the nation’s highest attended genre film festival, in Los Angeles later this year. Among the notable offerings in this look at more than 30 years of his filmmaking is the theatrical premiere of the 4K restoration of his debut film, “Cronos.”
Titled “Está Vivo: The Gods and Monsters of Guillermo del Toro,” the retrospective arrives right as his latest film, “Frankenstein,” for Netflix, is about to become an awards season player. For what it’s worth, Netflix owns the Egyptian Theatre, the headquarters of the American Cinematheque and where all of the del Toro retrospective screenings will take place, except for two at the Los Feliz 3: Screenings of “Pacific Rim” and “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” This year’s Beyond Fest will run September 23 to October 8.
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Del Toro is one of our finest cinephiles in addition to being a great filmmaker: His list of favorite films is deep, he’s contributed multiple times to Turner Classic Movies’ filmmaker picks, he paid tribute to George Lucas at San Diego Comic-Con, and he had great comments about the importance of big ideas and ambition in cinema at his recent Venice Film Festival press conference for “Frankenstein.”
The “Está Vivo” lineup will begin with a triple bill of del Toro’s films titled “In the Mood for Love,” featuring “Crimson Peak,” “Nightmare Alley,” and “The Shape of Water.” The version of “Nightmare Alley” being shown is a special 159-minute edition personally supervised by del Toro actually titled “Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness in Light.”
The director will be in attendance for Q&As about “Nightmare Alley,” “Hellboy,” the director’s cut of “Mimic” (which should be particularly interesting, given his voiced displeasure about the film’s original butchering at the hands of Harvey Weinstein), and “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
“Guillermo del Toro’s films have inspired generations of filmmakers and audiences alike in a way unlike any other artist we’ve experienced,” said Evrim Ersoy, Head of Programming at Beyond Fest, in an official statement. “To welcome him and celebrate his artistic vision on this scale truly honors who he is as both a creative force of nature and a proudly obsessive servant of Cinema.”
