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The Shape of Water

January 29, 2023

This article is about the 2017 American film. For the unrelated Italian novel, see The Shape of Water (novel).

The Shape of Water is a 2017 romantic fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor. It stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the film follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid amphibian creature, and decides to help him escape from death at the hands of an evil colonel. Filming took place on location in Ontario, Canada, from August to November 2016.

The Shape of Water
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGuillermo del Toro
Screenplay by
Story byGuillermo del Toro
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDan Laustsen
Edited bySidney Wolinsky
Music byAlexandre Desplat
Production
companies
Distributed byFox Searchlight Pictures
Release dates
  • August 31, 2017 (2017-08-31) (Venice)
  • December 1, 2017 (2017-12-01) (United States)
Running time
123 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United States
  • Mexico[2]
Languages
  • American Sign Language
  • English
Budget$19.5–20 million[3][4]
Box office$195.3 million[5]

The Shape of Water was screened as part of the main competition in the 74th Venice International Film Festival, where it premiered on August 31, 2017, and was awarded the Golden Lion. It was also screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It began a limited release in two theaters in New York City on December 1, 2017, before expanding wide on December 23, 2017, and grossed $195 million worldwide.

The Shape of Water was acclaimed by critics, who lauded its acting, screenplay, direction, visuals, production design, cinematography, and musical score. The American Film Institute selected it as one of the top ten films of 2017. The film was nominated for a leading thirteen awards at the 90th Academy Awards, winning four, including Best Picture and Best Director for del Toro, and received numerous other accolades. It was the second fantasy film to win Best Picture, after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). A novelization by del Toro and Daniel Kraus was published on March 6, 2018.

Plot

Elisa Esposito, who was found abandoned by the side of a river as an infant who had wounds on her neck, is mute and communicates through sign language. In 1962, during the Cold War, Elisa works as a custodian at a secret government laboratory in Baltimore, Maryland, and lives a very routine life in an apartment above a movie theater. Her only friends are her closeted gay next-door neighbor Giles, a struggling middle-aged advertising illustrator, and her co-worker Zelda Fuller.

Colonel Richard Strickland has just captured a mysterious creature from a South American river and has taken the creature to the Baltimore facility for further study. Curious about the creature, Elisa discovers it is a humanoid amphibian. She begins visiting him in secret, and the two form a close bond.

Seeking to exploit the Amphibian Man for a US advantage in the Space Race, General Frank Hoyt is eventually persuaded by Strickland to vivisect it. Dr. Robert Hoffstetler, a scientist who is secretly a Russian spy named Dimitri Mosenkov, pleads unsuccessfully to Strickland to keep the Amphibian Man alive for further study, while simultaneously ordered by his Soviet handlers to euthanize the creature.

When Elisa overhears the Americans' plans for the Amphibian Man, she persuades Giles to help her liberate him. Hoffstetler stumbles upon Elisa's plot in progress and chooses to assist her. Though initially reluctant, Zelda also becomes involved in making the escape successful.

Elisa plans to release the Amphibian Man into a nearby canal when heavy rain will allow access to the ocean. In the meantime, she keeps him in her bathtub. Strickland interrogates Elisa and Zelda, among others, but he learns nothing.

The Amphibian Man, curious about Giles's cats, is met with a hostile attitude from the cat. Giles discovers the Amphibian Man devouring the cat. When he tries to stop him, the Amphibian Man gets startled, slashes Giles's arm and rushes out of the apartment. He gets as far as the cinema downstairs before Elisa finds him and returns him to her apartment. The creature touches Giles on his balding head and wounded arm; and the next morning, Giles discovers hair has begun growing back on his previously bald head,, while the wounds on his arm have healed. Elisa continues to develop her romantic relationship with the Amphibian Man, culminating in sexual intercourse.

General Hoyt unexpectedly arrives and tells Strickland he has 36 hours to recover the Amphibian Man, or his career and life will be over. Meanwhile, Hoffstetler is told by his handlers that he will be extracted from the US in two days. Although the planned release date approaches, the Amphibian Man's health begins to deteriorate.

Hoffstetler goes to meet his handlers, and Strickland follows him. At the rendezvous, Hoffstetler is shot by one of his handlers, but Strickland, in turn, shoots and kills both handlers. Having realized that Hoffstetler is a spy, Strickland tortures the dying Hoffstetler into revealing specifics on the "team" which "extracted" the Amphibian Man, and Strickland is surprised to learn that Elisa and Zelda are implicated.

Strickland threatens Zelda in her home, unsuccessfully, until her husband, Brewster, reveals that Elisa has the Amphibian Man. Zelda immediately telephones Elisa, warning her to release the creature. An enraged Strickland ransacks Elisa's empty apartment until he finds the bathtub full of chemicals and a calendar note revealing where she plans to release the Amphibian Man.

At the canal, Elisa and Giles are bidding farewell to the creature when Strickland arrives, knocks Giles down, and shoots both the Amphibian Man and Elisa. The Amphibian Man quickly applies his healing abilities himself, and slashes Strickland's throat, killing him. As the police arrive on the scene with Zelda, the Amphibian Man takes Elisa and jumps into the canal where he swims around her, not knowing she is dead. When he applies his healing ability underwater to the scars on Elisa's neck, they open to reveal gills like his. She jolts back to life and the two embrace and kiss. In a closing voice-over narration, Giles conveys his belief that Elisa lived "happily ever after" and "remained in love" with the Amphibian Man.

Cast

Production

Development

 
The Gill-man from Creature from the Black Lagoon was an inspiration for del Toro's concept.

An international co-production film between The United States and Mexico. The film was directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay he co-wrote with Vanessa Taylor.[1] Del Toro formed the idea for The Shape of Water over breakfast in December 2011 with Daniel Kraus, his future collaborator on the novel Trollhunters.[6] It was primarily inspired by del Toro's childhood memories of seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and wanting to see the Gill-man and Kay Lawrence (played by Julie Adams) succeed in their romance.[7]

When del Toro was in talks with Universal to direct a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon, he tried pitching a version focused more on the creature's perspective, where the Creature ended up together with the female lead, but the studio executives rejected the concept.[8] Additionally, the film also shows similarities to the 2015 short film The Space Between Us.[9]

In placing the film in the 1960s, del Toro said "the movie is a movie about our problems today and about demonizing the other and about fearing or hating the other, and how that is a much more destructive position than learning to love and understand [...] if I say once upon a time in 1962, it becomes a fairy tale for troubled times. People can lower their guard a little bit more and listen to the story and listen to the characters and talk about the issues, rather than the circumstances of the issues."[10]

Casting

A fan of her performances in Fingersmith (2005) and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), del Toro wrote the script with Sally Hawkins in mind for the female lead and pitched the idea to her while he was intoxicated at the 2014 Golden Globes.[11] Hawkins prepared for the role by watching films of silent comedians Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Stan Laurel from Laurel and Hardy, the last of whom Del Toro told her to watch because he thought Laurel could "do a state of grace without conveying it verbally".[12]

Doug Jones was chosen to portray the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water, having collaborated with del Toro on Mimic (1997), Hellboy (2004), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), and Crimson Peak (2015). In an interview with NPR, Jones said his initial reaction to learning the creature would also be a romantic lead was "utter terror" but trusted the director to expand the character's development. As Jones wanted to portray a creature distinct from others in monster films, he practiced a variety of movements in a dance studio. After del Toro told him to make the character "animalistic, but royal and regal", Jones decided to also portray the character as a Matador.[13]

The part of Giles was originally written with Ian McKellen in mind, and del Toro was inspired to do so by his performance in Gods and Monsters as the real-life closeted gay filmmaker James Whale, the director of Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), who found himself unemployable in his later years. When McKellen proved unavailable, del Toro sent an e-mail to Richard Jenkins, who accepted the part.[14]

Michael Shannon was cast as Richard Strickland, the villain of the film. Shannon and del Toro had early conversations about the notion that Strickland would have been the hero of the film if it had been made in the 1950s, something that fascinated the actor.[15] Octavia Spencer, who played the role of Elisa's co-worker, friend, and interpreter Zelda, found it funny that the people del Toro used to speak for the mute main character were people who represent very disenfranchised groups.[16]

Filming and visuals

 
Elgin Theatre, Toronto, the Orpheum cinema of the film

Principal photography began on August 15, 2016, in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario,[17][18][19] and wrapped on November 6, 2016.[20] The interior of the Orpheum (the movie theater seen in the film), is that of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres in Toronto, while the exterior of the building is the façade of the Victorian Massey Hall, a performing arts theatre not far from the other one. Elisa and Giles's old flats, which in the film are just above the Orpheum, were actually a set built at Cinespace Studios, West Toronto.[21]

Del Toro was torn between making the film in color or in black and white, and was at one point leaning toward the latter. Fox Searchlight Pictures offered del Toro either a $20 million budget to make the film in color or a $17 million budget to shoot it in black and white. Del Toro admitted he was in "a battle I was expecting to lose. I was of two minds. On one hand I thought black and white would look luscious, but on the other hand I thought it would look postmodern, like I was being reflective rather than immersed." As a result, he chose to shoot it in color.[22][23] In an interview with IndieWire about the film, del Toro said the project was a "healing movie for me", as it allowed him to explore and "speak about trust, otherness, sex, love, where we're going. These are not concerns that I had when I was nine or seven."[24]

Music

Main article: The Shape of Water (soundtrack)

Three years before The Shape of Water was released, del Toro met with composer Alexandre Desplat to talk about the film's premise. In January 2017, Desplat was shown a rough cut of the finished film, and finding it similar to a musical, he agreed to compose a score. As a result, Desplat tried to capture the sound of water extensively to have audiences experience a "warm feeling" that is also caused by love. In an interview, he said the melody from the opening scene was "actually made of waves. I did not do that on purpose, but by being completely immersed in this love and these water elements, I wrote a melody that plays arpeggios like waves."[25]

Writing the film score took six weeks; it was purposely composed to create the sense of immersion and to give the "sense that you, yourself, are floating". The two melodies, one titled "Elisa's Theme", are heard at the beginning of the film and later merge into a single piece of music by the end of it. To emphasize this effect and its final result, Desplat changed the sounds of the accompanying flutes, accordions, and whistles to "something blurred". On composing the score overall, he said that it was "a matter of sculpting the music and making it take the shape of the storyline." As a result, Desplat opted out of giving Shannon's character a melody.[25]

The music for The Shape of Water was released on December 1, 2017, by Decca Records. At the 90th Academy Awards, it received the Academy Award for Best Original Score.[26] Desplat noted that "when the movie's that beautiful—and I actually think this movie is a masterpiece—it makes your life much easier. You just have to put your hands on it and it takes you anywhere you want."[25]

Release

The Shape of Water premiered on August 31, 2017, at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Golden Lion for best film.[27][28] It also screened at Telluride Film Festival,[29] the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival,[30] and BFI London Film Festival, among others.[31] The film was released in two theaters in New York City on December 1, 2017, and then expanded to several other cities the following week. It had its official wide release in the United States on December 8, 2017.[32]

On March 13, 2018, the film was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download.[33] Special features on the Ultra HD Blu-ray includes a making-of documentary, two featurettes, a MasterClass Q & A with Guillermo del Toro, an interview with artist James Jean, and three theatrical trailers.[34]

Reception

Box office

The Shape of Water grossed $63.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $131.4 million in other countries, for a total of $195.2 million.[5]

After grossing $4.6 million over a three-week limited release, the film began its wide release on December 22, 2017, alongside the openings of Downsizing, Pitch Perfect 3 and Father Figures, and the wide expansion of Darkest Hour, and grossed $3 million from 726 theaters over the weekend, and $4.4 million over the four-day Christmas frame.[35] The following weekend, the film made $3.5 million.[36] The weekend of January 27, 2018, following the announcement of the film's 13 Oscar nominations, the film was added to over 1,000 theaters (for a total of 1,854) and made $5.9 million (an increase of 171% over the previous week's $2.2 million), finishing 8th.[37] The weekend of March 9–11, following its four Oscar wins, the film made an additional $2.4 million. It marked a 64% increase from the previous week's $1.5 million and was similar to the $2.5 million made by the previous year's Best Picture winner, Moonlight.[38]

Critical response

 
 
 
Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, and Richard Jenkins's performances garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Supporting Actor respectively.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 463 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Shape of Water finds Guillermo del Toro at his visually distinctive best—and matched by an emotionally absorbing story brought to life by a stellar Sally Hawkins performance."[39] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[40] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it positive reviews; audience members under the age of 40 gave the film an average grade of either "A+" or "A", while those over 40 gave it an "A" to "A−", on an A+ to F scale;[41] PostTrak reported that filmgoers gave the film an overall positive score of 80%.[42]

Ben Croll of IndieWire gave the film an 'A' rating and called it "one of del Toro's most stunningly successful works... also a powerful vision of a creative master feeling totally, joyously free."[43] Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising Hawkins's performance, the cinematography and del Toro's direction, and saying: "Even as the film plunges into torment and tragedy, the core relationship between these two unlikely lovers holds us in thrall. Del Toro is a world-class film artist. There's no sense trying to analyze how he does it."[44] For the Minnesota Daily, Haley Bennett reacted positively, writing, "The Shape of Water has tenderness uncommon to del Toro films. ... While The Shape of Water isn't groundbreaking, it is elegant and mesmerizing."[10]

Rex Reed of the New York Observer gave the film 1 out of 4 stars, calling it "a loopy, lunkheaded load of drivel" and that "the whole movie is off the wall". Reed's review was criticized for referring to Hawkins's mute character as "mentally handicapped" and for falsely crediting actor Benicio del Toro (spelled Benecio) as the film's director. Reed also stated Benicio was Spanish, whereas he is Puerto Rican; Guillermo del Toro hails from Mexico.[45] The article was quickly edited to reflect the mistake made.

Accolades

See also: List of accolades received by The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water received 13 nominations at the 90th Academy Awards, the most of any film in the 2018 race. It won in four categories: Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Director, and Best Picture. It was the second fantasy film to win Best Picture, after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).[46][47][48] The Shape of Water was acclaimed by critics, who lauded its acting, screenplay, direction, visuals, production design, and musical score. The American Film Institute selected it as one of the top 10 films of the year.[49] At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, the film earned seven nominations, winning for Best Director and Best Original Score.[50] It received twelve nominations at the 71st British Academy Film Awards, winning three awards including Best Director, and fourteen at the 23rd Critics' Choice Awards, winning four awards.[51]

The film also sparked some debate about whether it should have been eligible for a Canadian Screen Awards nomination, as it was filmed in Canada with a predominantly Canadian crew and many Canadian actors in supporting roles. Under Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television rules, to qualify for CSA nominations under the rules for international coproductions, at least 15 percent of a film's funding must come from a Canadian film studio. Even the film's Canadian co-producer, J. Miles Dale, stated that he supports the rules and does not believe the film should have been eligible.[52] The Shape of Water also appeared on many critics' year-end top-ten lists, of which 25 critics chose it as their favorite film of that year.[53] A novelization by del Toro and Kraus was published on March 6, 2018.[54]

Plagiarism accusations

In February 2018, the estate of Paul Zindel initiated a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Central District of California against director Guillermo del Toro and associate producer Daniel Kraus, alleging that The Shape of Water "brazenly copies the story, elements, characters, and themes" of Zindel's 1969 work Let Me Hear You Whisper, which depicts a cleaning lady bonding with a dolphin and attempting to rescue it from a secret research laboratory's nefarious uses.[55] The complaint spends more than a dozen pages detailing alleged "overwhelming similarities" between the works.[56] Del Toro denied the claim of the Zindel estate, saying that "I have never read nor seen the play. I'd never heard of this play before making The Shape of Water, and none of my collaborators ever mentioned the play." Distributor Fox Searchlight also denied the claim and said that it would "vigorously defend" itself in court.[57] In July 2018, Judge Percy Anderson dismissed the suit and stated that del Toro and Fox Searchlight were entitled to recover their legal costs.[58] On April 5, 2021, the following statement by plaintiff was released: "David Zindel, the son of Paul Zindel, author of Let Me Hear You Whisper, acknowledges, based on confidential information obtained during the litigation process, that his claims of plagiarism are unfounded. He acknowledges Guillermo del Toro as the true creator of The Shape of Water. Any similarity between the two works is coincidental."[59]

There have also been accusations that The Shape of Water plagiarised Amphibian Man, a 1962 Soviet film based on a 1928 novel of the same name by Alexander Belyaev.[60][61] Indie Cinema Magazine noted that both have a similar plot, the use of the name "Amphibian Man" in both films, the Soviet connection in both stories, and the 1962 setting.[60] Amphibian Man was one of the highest-grossing Soviet films of all time, with up to 100 million box office admissions in the Soviet Union.[62]

The film also received accusations of plagiarism by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the French director of the romantic comedy Amélie and the cult classic Delicatessen,[63] who claimed that del Toro plagiarized some of the scenes within his works Amelie, Delicatessen, and The City of Lost Children.[64] Other observers vehemently disagree with Jeunet's assertion.[65] Jeunet pointed out some of the similarities in the saturation of the colours, overall art direction and the use of anthropomorphic objects, as well as the music, which is reminiscent of Yann Tiersen's soundtrack on the former. Responding to Jeunet's accusations of plagiarism, del Toro cited the influences of Terry Gilliam's works as the inspiration for The Shape of Water.[64] Both composer Alexandre Desplat and del Toro have cited French composer Georges Delerue,[66] whose work predates Tiersen's by decades, as the inspiration for the musical score. Desplat has also emphasized the importance of water as essential to both the score and to the themes of the film itself.[67]

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External links

January 29, 2023
shape, water, this, article, about, 2017, american, film, unrelated, italian, novel, novel, 2017, romantic, fantasy, film, directed, guillermo, toro, written, toro, vanessa, taylor, stars, sally, hawkins, michael, shannon, richard, jenkins, doug, jones, michae. This article is about the 2017 American film For the unrelated Italian novel see The Shape of Water novel The Shape of Water is a 2017 romantic fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor It stars Sally Hawkins Michael Shannon Richard Jenkins Doug Jones Michael Stuhlbarg and Octavia Spencer Set in 1962 Baltimore Maryland the film follows a mute custodian at a high security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid amphibian creature and decides to help him escape from death at the hands of an evil colonel Filming took place on location in Ontario Canada from August to November 2016 The Shape of WaterTheatrical release posterDirected byGuillermo del ToroScreenplay byGuillermo del Toro Vanessa TaylorStory byGuillermo del ToroProduced byGuillermo del Toro J Miles DaleStarringSally Hawkins Michael Shannon Richard Jenkins Doug Jones Michael Stuhlbarg Octavia SpencerCinematographyDan LaustsenEdited bySidney WolinskyMusic byAlexandre DesplatProductioncompaniesFox Searchlight PicturesTSG EntertainmentDouble Dare You ProductionsDistributed byFox Searchlight PicturesRelease datesAugust 31 2017 2017 08 31 Venice December 1 2017 2017 12 01 United States Running time123 minutes 1 CountriesUnited States Mexico 2 LanguagesAmerican Sign Language EnglishBudget 19 5 20 million 3 4 Box office 195 3 million 5 The Shape of Water was screened as part of the main competition in the 74th Venice International Film Festival where it premiered on August 31 2017 and was awarded the Golden Lion It was also screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival It began a limited release in two theaters in New York City on December 1 2017 before expanding wide on December 23 2017 and grossed 195 million worldwide The Shape of Water was acclaimed by critics who lauded its acting screenplay direction visuals production design cinematography and musical score The American Film Institute selected it as one of the top ten films of 2017 The film was nominated for a leading thirteen awards at the 90th Academy Awards winning four including Best Picture and Best Director for del Toro and received numerous other accolades It was the second fantasy film to win Best Picture after The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King 2003 A novelization by del Toro and Daniel Kraus was published on March 6 2018 Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Development 3 2 Casting 3 3 Filming and visuals 3 4 Music 4 Release 5 Reception 5 1 Box office 5 2 Critical response 5 3 Accolades 5 4 Plagiarism accusations 6 References 7 External linksPlot EditElisa Esposito who was found abandoned by the side of a river as an infant who had wounds on her neck is mute and communicates through sign language In 1962 during the Cold War Elisa works as a custodian at a secret government laboratory in Baltimore Maryland and lives a very routine life in an apartment above a movie theater Her only friends are her closeted gay next door neighbor Giles a struggling middle aged advertising illustrator and her co worker Zelda Fuller Colonel Richard Strickland has just captured a mysterious creature from a South American river and has taken the creature to the Baltimore facility for further study Curious about the creature Elisa discovers it is a humanoid amphibian She begins visiting him in secret and the two form a close bond Seeking to exploit the Amphibian Man for a US advantage in the Space Race General Frank Hoyt is eventually persuaded by Strickland to vivisect it Dr Robert Hoffstetler a scientist who is secretly a Russian spy named Dimitri Mosenkov pleads unsuccessfully to Strickland to keep the Amphibian Man alive for further study while simultaneously ordered by his Soviet handlers to euthanize the creature When Elisa overhears the Americans plans for the Amphibian Man she persuades Giles to help her liberate him Hoffstetler stumbles upon Elisa s plot in progress and chooses to assist her Though initially reluctant Zelda also becomes involved in making the escape successful Elisa plans to release the Amphibian Man into a nearby canal when heavy rain will allow access to the ocean In the meantime she keeps him in her bathtub Strickland interrogates Elisa and Zelda among others but he learns nothing The Amphibian Man curious about Giles s cats is met with a hostile attitude from the cat Giles discovers the Amphibian Man devouring the cat When he tries to stop him the Amphibian Man gets startled slashes Giles s arm and rushes out of the apartment He gets as far as the cinema downstairs before Elisa finds him and returns him to her apartment The creature touches Giles on his balding head and wounded arm and the next morning Giles discovers hair has begun growing back on his previously bald head while the wounds on his arm have healed Elisa continues to develop her romantic relationship with the Amphibian Man culminating in sexual intercourse General Hoyt unexpectedly arrives and tells Strickland he has 36 hours to recover the Amphibian Man or his career and life will be over Meanwhile Hoffstetler is told by his handlers that he will be extracted from the US in two days Although the planned release date approaches the Amphibian Man s health begins to deteriorate Hoffstetler goes to meet his handlers and Strickland follows him At the rendezvous Hoffstetler is shot by one of his handlers but Strickland in turn shoots and kills both handlers Having realized that Hoffstetler is a spy Strickland tortures the dying Hoffstetler into revealing specifics on the team which extracted the Amphibian Man and Strickland is surprised to learn that Elisa and Zelda are implicated Strickland threatens Zelda in her home unsuccessfully until her husband Brewster reveals that Elisa has the Amphibian Man Zelda immediately telephones Elisa warning her to release the creature An enraged Strickland ransacks Elisa s empty apartment until he finds the bathtub full of chemicals and a calendar note revealing where she plans to release the Amphibian Man At the canal Elisa and Giles are bidding farewell to the creature when Strickland arrives knocks Giles down and shoots both the Amphibian Man and Elisa The Amphibian Man quickly applies his healing abilities himself and slashes Strickland s throat killing him As the police arrive on the scene with Zelda the Amphibian Man takes Elisa and jumps into the canal where he swims around her not knowing she is dead When he applies his healing ability underwater to the scars on Elisa s neck they open to reveal gills like his She jolts back to life and the two embrace and kiss In a closing voice over narration Giles conveys his belief that Elisa lived happily ever after and remained in love with the Amphibian Man Cast EditSally Hawkins as Elisa Esposito Michael Shannon as Richard Strickland Richard Jenkins as Giles Doug Jones as The Amphibian Man Michael Stuhlbarg as Robert Hoffstetler Dimitri Mosenkov Octavia Spencer as Zelda Delilah Fuller Nick Searcy as General of the Air Force Frank Hoyt David Hewlett as Fleming Nigel Bennett as Mihalkov Stewart Arnott as Bernard Lauren Lee Smith as Elaine Strickland Martin Roach as Brewster Fuller John Kapelos as Mr Arzoumanian Morgan Kelly as Pie Guy Wendy Lyon as SallyProduction EditDevelopment Edit The Gill man from Creature from the Black Lagoon was an inspiration for del Toro s concept An international co production film between The United States and Mexico The film was directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay he co wrote with Vanessa Taylor 1 Del Toro formed the idea for The Shape of Water over breakfast in December 2011 with Daniel Kraus his future collaborator on the novel Trollhunters 6 It was primarily inspired by del Toro s childhood memories of seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954 and wanting to see the Gill man and Kay Lawrence played by Julie Adams succeed in their romance 7 When del Toro was in talks with Universal to direct a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon he tried pitching a version focused more on the creature s perspective where the Creature ended up together with the female lead but the studio executives rejected the concept 8 Additionally the film also shows similarities to the 2015 short film The Space Between Us 9 In placing the film in the 1960s del Toro said the movie is a movie about our problems today and about demonizing the other and about fearing or hating the other and how that is a much more destructive position than learning to love and understand if I say once upon a time in 1962 it becomes a fairy tale for troubled times People can lower their guard a little bit more and listen to the story and listen to the characters and talk about the issues rather than the circumstances of the issues 10 Casting Edit A fan of her performances in Fingersmith 2005 and Happy Go Lucky 2008 del Toro wrote the script with Sally Hawkins in mind for the female lead and pitched the idea to her while he was intoxicated at the 2014 Golden Globes 11 Hawkins prepared for the role by watching films of silent comedians Charlie Chaplin Buster Keaton Harold Lloyd and Stan Laurel from Laurel and Hardy the last of whom Del Toro told her to watch because he thought Laurel could do a state of grace without conveying it verbally 12 Doug Jones was chosen to portray the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water having collaborated with del Toro on Mimic 1997 Hellboy 2004 Pan s Labyrinth 2006 Hellboy II The Golden Army 2008 and Crimson Peak 2015 In an interview with NPR Jones said his initial reaction to learning the creature would also be a romantic lead was utter terror but trusted the director to expand the character s development As Jones wanted to portray a creature distinct from others in monster films he practiced a variety of movements in a dance studio After del Toro told him to make the character animalistic but royal and regal Jones decided to also portray the character as a Matador 13 The part of Giles was originally written with Ian McKellen in mind and del Toro was inspired to do so by his performance in Gods and Monsters as the real life closeted gay filmmaker James Whale the director of Frankenstein 1931 The Invisible Man 1933 and Bride of Frankenstein 1935 who found himself unemployable in his later years When McKellen proved unavailable del Toro sent an e mail to Richard Jenkins who accepted the part 14 Michael Shannon was cast as Richard Strickland the villain of the film Shannon and del Toro had early conversations about the notion that Strickland would have been the hero of the film if it had been made in the 1950s something that fascinated the actor 15 Octavia Spencer who played the role of Elisa s co worker friend and interpreter Zelda found it funny that the people del Toro used to speak for the mute main character were people who represent very disenfranchised groups 16 Filming and visuals Edit Elgin Theatre Toronto the Orpheum cinema of the film Principal photography began on August 15 2016 in Toronto and Hamilton Ontario 17 18 19 and wrapped on November 6 2016 20 The interior of the Orpheum the movie theater seen in the film is that of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres in Toronto while the exterior of the building is the facade of the Victorian Massey Hall a performing arts theatre not far from the other one Elisa and Giles s old flats which in the film are just above the Orpheum were actually a set built at Cinespace Studios West Toronto 21 Del Toro was torn between making the film in color or in black and white and was at one point leaning toward the latter Fox Searchlight Pictures offered del Toro either a 20 million budget to make the film in color or a 17 million budget to shoot it in black and white Del Toro admitted he was in a battle I was expecting to lose I was of two minds On one hand I thought black and white would look luscious but on the other hand I thought it would look postmodern like I was being reflective rather than immersed As a result he chose to shoot it in color 22 23 In an interview with IndieWire about the film del Toro said the project was a healing movie for me as it allowed him to explore and speak about trust otherness sex love where we re going These are not concerns that I had when I was nine or seven 24 Music Edit Main article The Shape of Water soundtrack Three years before The Shape of Water was released del Toro met with composer Alexandre Desplat to talk about the film s premise In January 2017 Desplat was shown a rough cut of the finished film and finding it similar to a musical he agreed to compose a score As a result Desplat tried to capture the sound of water extensively to have audiences experience a warm feeling that is also caused by love In an interview he said the melody from the opening scene was actually made of waves I did not do that on purpose but by being completely immersed in this love and these water elements I wrote a melody that plays arpeggios like waves 25 Writing the film score took six weeks it was purposely composed to create the sense of immersion and to give the sense that you yourself are floating The two melodies one titled Elisa s Theme are heard at the beginning of the film and later merge into a single piece of music by the end of it To emphasize this effect and its final result Desplat changed the sounds of the accompanying flutes accordions and whistles to something blurred On composing the score overall he said that it was a matter of sculpting the music and making it take the shape of the storyline As a result Desplat opted out of giving Shannon s character a melody 25 The music for The Shape of Water was released on December 1 2017 by Decca Records At the 90th Academy Awards it received the Academy Award for Best Original Score 26 Desplat noted that when the movie s that beautiful and I actually think this movie is a masterpiece it makes your life much easier You just have to put your hands on it and it takes you anywhere you want 25 Release EditThe Shape of Water premiered on August 31 2017 at the 74th Venice International Film Festival where it was awarded the Golden Lion for best film 27 28 It also screened at Telluride Film Festival 29 the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival 30 and BFI London Film Festival among others 31 The film was released in two theaters in New York City on December 1 2017 and then expanded to several other cities the following week It had its official wide release in the United States on December 8 2017 32 On March 13 2018 the film was released on Blu ray DVD and digital download 33 Special features on the Ultra HD Blu ray includes a making of documentary two featurettes a MasterClass Q amp A with Guillermo del Toro an interview with artist James Jean and three theatrical trailers 34 Reception EditBox office Edit The Shape of Water grossed 63 9 million in the United States and Canada and 131 4 million in other countries for a total of 195 2 million 5 After grossing 4 6 million over a three week limited release the film began its wide release on December 22 2017 alongside the openings of Downsizing Pitch Perfect 3 and Father Figures and the wide expansion of Darkest Hour and grossed 3 million from 726 theaters over the weekend and 4 4 million over the four day Christmas frame 35 The following weekend the film made 3 5 million 36 The weekend of January 27 2018 following the announcement of the film s 13 Oscar nominations the film was added to over 1 000 theaters for a total of 1 854 and made 5 9 million an increase of 171 over the previous week s 2 2 million finishing 8th 37 The weekend of March 9 11 following its four Oscar wins the film made an additional 2 4 million It marked a 64 increase from the previous week s 1 5 million and was similar to the 2 5 million made by the previous year s Best Picture winner Moonlight 38 Critical response Edit Sally Hawkins Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins s performances garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Actress Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 92 based on 463 reviews with an average rating of 8 4 10 The website s critical consensus reads The Shape of Water finds Guillermo del Toro at his visually distinctive best and matched by an emotionally absorbing story brought to life by a stellar Sally Hawkins performance 39 On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100 based on 53 critics indicating universal acclaim 40 Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it positive reviews audience members under the age of 40 gave the film an average grade of either A or A while those over 40 gave it an A to A on an A to F scale 41 PostTrak reported that filmgoers gave the film an overall positive score of 80 42 Ben Croll of IndieWire gave the film an A rating and called it one of del Toro s most stunningly successful works also a powerful vision of a creative master feeling totally joyously free 43 Writing for Rolling Stone Peter Travers gave the film 3 5 out of 4 stars praising Hawkins s performance the cinematography and del Toro s direction and saying Even as the film plunges into torment and tragedy the core relationship between these two unlikely lovers holds us in thrall Del Toro is a world class film artist There s no sense trying to analyze how he does it 44 For the Minnesota Daily Haley Bennett reacted positively writing The Shape of Water has tenderness uncommon to del Toro films While The Shape of Water isn t groundbreaking it is elegant and mesmerizing 10 Rex Reed of the New York Observer gave the film 1 out of 4 stars calling it a loopy lunkheaded load of drivel and that the whole movie is off the wall Reed s review was criticized for referring to Hawkins s mute character as mentally handicapped and for falsely crediting actor Benicio del Toro spelled Benecio as the film s director Reed also stated Benicio was Spanish whereas he is Puerto Rican Guillermo del Toro hails from Mexico 45 The article was quickly edited to reflect the mistake made Accolades Edit See also List of accolades received by The Shape of Water The Shape of Water received 13 nominations at the 90th Academy Awards the most of any film in the 2018 race It won in four categories Best Production Design Best Original Score Best Director and Best Picture It was the second fantasy film to win Best Picture after The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King 2003 46 47 48 The Shape of Water was acclaimed by critics who lauded its acting screenplay direction visuals production design and musical score The American Film Institute selected it as one of the top 10 films of the year 49 At the 75th Golden Globe Awards the film earned seven nominations winning for Best Director and Best Original Score 50 It received twelve nominations at the 71st British Academy Film Awards winning three awards including Best Director and fourteen at the 23rd Critics Choice Awards winning four awards 51 The film also sparked some debate about whether it should have been eligible for a Canadian Screen Awards nomination as it was filmed in Canada with a predominantly Canadian crew and many Canadian actors in supporting roles Under Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television rules to qualify for CSA nominations under the rules for international coproductions at least 15 percent of a film s funding must come from a Canadian film studio Even the film s Canadian co producer J Miles Dale stated that he supports the rules and does not believe the film should have been eligible 52 The Shape of Water also appeared on many critics year end top ten lists of which 25 critics chose it as their favorite film of that year 53 A novelization by del Toro and Kraus was published on March 6 2018 54 Plagiarism accusations Edit In February 2018 the estate of Paul Zindel initiated a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Central District of California against director Guillermo del Toro and associate producer Daniel Kraus alleging that The Shape of Water brazenly copies the story elements characters and themes of Zindel s 1969 work Let Me Hear You Whisper which depicts a cleaning lady bonding with a dolphin and attempting to rescue it from a secret research laboratory s nefarious uses 55 The complaint spends more than a dozen pages detailing alleged overwhelming similarities between the works 56 Del Toro denied the claim of the Zindel estate saying that I have never read nor seen the play I d never heard of this play before making The Shape of Water and none of my collaborators ever mentioned the play Distributor Fox Searchlight also denied the claim and said that it would vigorously defend itself in court 57 In July 2018 Judge Percy Anderson dismissed the suit and stated that del Toro and Fox Searchlight were entitled to recover their legal costs 58 On April 5 2021 the following statement by plaintiff was released David Zindel the son of Paul Zindel author of Let Me Hear You Whisper acknowledges based on confidential information obtained during the litigation process that his claims of plagiarism are unfounded He acknowledges Guillermo del Toro as the true creator of The Shape of Water Any similarity between the two works is coincidental 59 There have also been accusations that The Shape of Water plagiarised Amphibian Man a 1962 Soviet film based on a 1928 novel of the same name by Alexander Belyaev 60 61 Indie Cinema Magazine noted that both have a similar plot the use of the name Amphibian Man in both films the Soviet connection in both stories and the 1962 setting 60 Amphibian Man was one of the highest grossing Soviet films of all time with up to 100 million box office admissions in the Soviet Union 62 The film also received accusations of plagiarism by Jean Pierre Jeunet the French director of the romantic comedy Amelie and the cult classic Delicatessen 63 who claimed that del Toro plagiarized some of the scenes within his works Amelie Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children 64 Other observers vehemently disagree with Jeunet s assertion 65 Jeunet pointed out some of the similarities in the saturation of the colours overall art direction and the use of anthropomorphic objects as well as the music which is reminiscent of Yann Tiersen s soundtrack on the former Responding to Jeunet s accusations of plagiarism del Toro cited the influences of Terry Gilliam s works as the inspiration for The Shape of Water 64 Both composer Alexandre Desplat and del Toro have cited French composer Georges Delerue 66 whose work predates Tiersen s by decades as the inspiration for the musical score Desplat has also emphasized the importance of water as essential to both the score and to the themes of the film itself 67 References Edit a b The Shape of Water British Board of Film Classification Archived from the original on December 21 2017 Retrieved December 19 2020 The Shape of Water kinorium com Retrieved June 6 2019 Tapley Kristopher November 21 2017 Spirit Awards Call Me by Your Name Get Out Soar Shape of Water Shunned Again Variety Penske Business Media Archived from the original on January 8 2018 Retrieved November 21 2017 2017 Feature Film Study PDF FilmL A Feature Film Study 25 August 8 2018 Archived PDF from the original on August 9 2018 Retrieved August 14 2018 a b The Shape of Water Box Office Mojo IMDb Archived from the original on April 21 2021 Retrieved April 21 2021 Potter Janet March 1 2018 How an Evanston writer s boyhood idea inspired Shape of Water Chicago Reader Archived from the original on April 21 2021 Retrieved April 21 2021 The Iconic Horror Movie Scene That Inspired The Shape of Water Bloody Disgusting September 6 2017 Archived from the original on October 14 2017 Retrieved October 16 2017 Del Toro Talks Black Lagoon Influence On Shape darkhorizons com November 5 2017 Archived from the original on December 1 2017 Retrieved November 20 2017 Is The Shape of Water Cribbed Directly From the Short Film The Space Between Us AwardsWatch 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of Love IndieWire Archived from the original on September 6 2017 Retrieved September 7 2017 Travers Peter November 27 2017 The Shape of Water Review Guillermo del Toro s Girl Meets Monster Romance Is a Gem Rolling Stone Archived from the original on November 27 2017 Retrieved November 28 2017 Sharf Zack December 20 2017 Rex Reed s Negative The Shape of Water Review Goes Viral After Crediting Benicio del Toro as Director IndieWire Archived from the original on March 6 2018 Retrieved March 5 2018 Mendelson Scott March 5 2018 Oscars 4 Reasons Shape Of Water Is A Unique Best Picture Winner Forbes Archived from the original on March 5 2018 Retrieved January 22 2020 Buckley Cara February 7 2018 How Did The Shape of Water Become the Film to Beat at the Oscars The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on January 22 2020 Retrieved January 22 2020 Oscars The Complete Winners List The Hollywood Reporter March 4 2018 Archived from the original on March 5 2018 Retrieved November 11 2022 AFI Awards 2017 American Film Institute Archived from the original on December 8 2017 Retrieved December 8 2017 Berg Madeline January 7 2018 Golden Globes 2018 The Full List Of Winners Forbes Archived from the original on August 26 2021 Retrieved August 26 2021 The Shape of Water leads Bafta nominations BBC News BBC January 9 2018 Archived from the original on January 9 2018 Retrieved January 9 2018 Patch Nick March 8 2018 Are the Canadian Screen Awards too Canadian Toronto Star Archived from the original on March 9 2018 Retrieved March 8 2018 Dietz Jason December 5 2017 Best of 2017 Film Critic Top Ten Lists Metacritic Archived from the original on January 25 2018 Retrieved January 30 2018 Lussier Germain December 6 2017 The Shape of Water Novel Does Much Much More Than Adapt the Movie io9 Archived from the original on March 6 2018 Retrieved February 23 2018 Dwyer Colin February 22 2018 Shape Of Water Creators Sued Over Plagiarism Claims As Oscars Approach NPR Archived from the original on February 23 2018 Retrieved February 23 2018 Berman Eliza March 1 2018 Everything to Know About the Shape of Water Plagiarism Controversy Time Archived from the original on March 5 2018 Retrieved March 1 2018 Dwyer Colin February 23 2018 Shape of Water Creators Sued Over Plagiarism Claims As Oscars Approach NPR Archived from the original on February 23 2018 Retrieved February 23 2018 Chmielewski Dawn C July 24 2018 Judge Dismisses Shape Of Water Lawsuit Waged During Final Oscar Voting Against Guillermo Del Toro s Best Picture Winner Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on July 24 2018 Retrieved July 24 2018 Gardner Eriq April 5 2021 Guillermo del Toro Overcomes Claim The Shape of Water Was Plagiarized The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on April 6 2021 Retrieved April 6 2021 a b The Shape of Water Review The Shape of Plagiarism of director Guillermo del Toro Indie Cinema Magazine January 22 2018 Archived from the original on August 28 2019 Retrieved August 28 2019 Does a Movie Need to Have an Original Plot to Be Good Times of San Diego February 4 2018 Archived from the original on August 28 2019 Retrieved August 28 2019 How film flourished in the USSR Humanities Division University of Oxford December 6 2017 Archived from the original on February 4 2019 Retrieved February 3 2019 Mulholland Rory February 10 2018 Director of Oscar favourite The Shape of Water accused of copying scenes from Amelie and Delicatessen The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on September 30 2018 Retrieved December 5 2018 a b La Forme de l eau Jean Pierre Jeunet accuse Guillermo Del Toro de copier coller Delicatessen The Shape of Water Jean Pierre Jeunet accuses Guillermo Del Toro of copy and paste Delicatessen Archived from the original on February 7 2018 Retrieved December 5 2018 Imitation Game The Difference Between Homage and Plagiarism Film School Rejects February 12 2018 Archived from the original on December 21 2018 Retrieved January 9 2019 EmanuelLevy Shape of Water Love Letter to Cinema from Del Toro Emanuel Levy Archived from the original on January 24 2019 Retrieved January 23 2019 Grobar Matt December 30 2017 The Shape Of Water Composer Alexandre Desplat on the Sounds Of Love amp Water Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on January 24 2019 Retrieved January 23 2019 External links EditThe Shape of Water at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Data from Wikidata Official website The Shape of Water at IMDb The Shape of Water at Rotten Tomatoes The Shape of Water at Metacritic Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Shape of Water amp oldid 1135592335, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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