the sexual dimension. This is perhaps the first film in which del Toro delves into love and sex. For the film-maker, this is important, or at least in this context, and he sees it as a natural-istic, everyday and beautiful element.

For the director, an important mo-ment of the film is when Giles draws with new inspiration when he meets the monster.

The film combines a spy thriller, a monster story, melodrama, musical nostalgia, action movies and romance between humans and anthropomorphic creatures.

it is the beast who changes the beauty. In a twist to the classic story, it is the heroine who finally saves the monster.

‘I envisioned him emerging from the pool [...] We wanted him to look as if he were emerging in front of the sun figure on this temple’

his is seen particularly in the colour palette, specifically in the use of greys and blues for death scenes and de la Guardia’s warehouse/factory, which provide an updated allusion to the gothic castles and aristocratic homes of Hammer productions.

All this highlights the unnatural state that the millionaire lives in and there are clear parallels to the lives of vampires. Like them, he feeds off others (as a wealthy capitalist), and he is unable to live in a natural environ-ment, just as daylight will destroy the vampire.

‘the red ones are es-pecially good today’

informally

multinational Mexico preyed on by its powerful North American neighbour.

IMCINE

I examine the way the film questions the fixity of borders while also making a political statement on US–Mexican relations