Jacinto is the embodiment of the toxic form of masculinity that oppresses and inflicts pain but runs and hides when faced with real responsibility. Casares to illustrate an important theme of the film-what it truly means to be a man. The character of Jacinto is pitted against his opposite, the compassionate, loyal, and brave Dr. His greed and the ghost of his most cowardly act are ultimately his undoing.
He is “the man without warmth,” that he reads about from the back of a childhood photograph of himself late in the film. Jacinto is an abuser and a manipulator, but also a scared child-a weak, greedy, cowardly man hiding under a façade of machismo. Though Jacinto feigns love for her, he is all the while having an affair with headmistress Carmen but also attempting to double cross her by gaining access to her safe filled with bars of gold. He is engaged to the beautiful and innocent Conchita ( Irene Visedo), who we learn Jaime has a schoolboy crush on. Early on, we catch our first glimpses of the ghost of Santi ( Junio Valverde), a young boy who died of a head wound and was hidden in a pool of dirty water below the orphanage, like “an insect in amber.” Santi is the perfect blend of beauty and fright that characterize so many of del Toro’s “monsters.” As is so often the case in his work, however, the true monster of the film is a human, the young and handsome Jacinto played by Eduardo Noriega. We meet several other boys including the friendly Gálvez ( Adrián Lamana) and Owl ( Javier González Sánchez), so called because he doesn’t speak much but “stares a lot.” There is also a group of apparent bullies lead by Jaime ( Iñigo Garcés), a slightly older boy. They are sympathetic to the cause of the leftist freedom fighters but know that the fascist Nationalists will soon arrive. Casares ( Frederico Luppi) who run the Santa Lucia orphanage. The story follows Carlos ( Fernando Tielve), the son of a hero killed on the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, who is left in the care of Carmen ( Marisa Paredes) and Dr. As it celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, The Devil’s Backbone remains as potent as ever and a supreme example of del Toro’s mastery of the genre. What is a ghost? Is it a memory? A trauma? A fear? Is it a warning? A protector? Or a destroyer? Guillermo del Toro’s gothic masterpiece is a meditation on the nature of ghosts and monsters while being haunted by a few ghosts of its own.
0 kommentar(er)
