Winner of 9 Mexican Academy Awards
including:

•  Best Picture

• Best Director

• Best 1st Work

• Best Original Story

• Best Production Design

• Best Screenplay

• Best Special Effects

Also Won Awards
in:

• Cannes

• Brussels

• Spain

• Italy

• Portugal

• Cuba

• Russia

Cronos
by: Jorge Solis

SUPER

Cronos is the first movie written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro. The movie was shot in Mexico, produced at a low budget, and made by a guy who was the guy only in Mexico (probably still is) who studied make-up. Cronos is a vampire movie that is not really a vampire movie. If this sounds weird, well remember George A. Romero’s Martin was a vampire movie but not.

Cronos plays around with the mythology of the vampire. Rather than show an extensive amount of blood, the movie centers itself on the themes of immorality and depression. The main protagonist played by Federico Luppi is an old man who finds an ancient device in his antique shop. This ancient device infects him with a serum that changes him physically and mentally. He does feel younger but slowly he can’t stand under sunlight and he starts to crave blood. Ron Perlman, in his first collaboration with Guillermo Del Toro, is the antagonist who knows the secret behind the antique device. There is a slight political satire because Ron Perlman’s character is in charge of a U.S. factory that does nothing important in Mexico. The suspense rises throughout the movie and under all the fun of watching, you start to notice that there is something personal hidden in the context. The vampire make-up by Necropia, which used to be Guillermo Del Toro’s company before he shut it down, is amazing. There is dark humor throughout the movie, especially in the morgue scene. There is an impressive camera movement spiraling down from a cliff to the car crash. I recommend listening to the commentary on the DVD disc to hear how he did this shot. 

I own the special edition DVD of Cronos and it is worth buying. The commentary by Guillermo Del Toro is definitely worth listening to because it is fun and interesting. There is also an interview with Federico Luppi who talks about his character. On a side note, I became interested in Cronos when I saw it on the Sci-Fi channel back in the early 90s. Since then I became interested in the career of director Guillermo Del Toro. Any fan of his should have this DVD.

DVD

The Philosopher's Vampire
by: Christian De Matteo

Super

Jorge loaned me this amazing debut from Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro and damn, was I impressed.  Made in 1992 for the highest budget ever spent on a Mexican film, you can see where the brilliance that was Blade II came from.  A deep, well informed by literature and philosophy storyline, together with perfect camera shots, excellent lighting and color usage that almost tells the story on it's own.

Cronos is one of those little discoveries that every movie fan hopes for on every trip to the movies.  A Vampire story that is unrelentingly un-vampire, filled with subtle, never-on-a-soapbox commentary on human greed and gluttony, with a moral summed up perfectly about halfway through the film by the flick's jackass character, Ron Perlman:  "All the f*cker does is sh*t and piss and he wants to live forever?"

Ferderico Luppi is wonderful as the elderly grandfather, who falls pray to the Cronos device and temptation but the film is held together to his character's granddaughter played perfectly with only one line of dialogue but all the heart of the film, Tamara Shanath.

I recommend this film very, very highly and even rank it above on the Coen Brother's Blood Simple, as the best debut film of all time.

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