VENICE, Italy (AP) — Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi arrived at the Venice Film Festival Saturday for the world premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” the kickoff to what's expected to be the film's major awards season push. The audience gave it a 13-minute standing ovation, one of the most enthusastic of the 82nd edition of the festival.
Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein and Elordi is the monster in this adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, which del Toro has been dreaming about making for decades.
“It’s the movie that I’ve been in training for 30 years to do,” del Toro told The Associated Press.
Speaking in Venice, del Toro said he feels like he's in “postpartum depression” now that he's completed the film, a gothic feast of sets.
Isaac said before they started making “Frankenstein,” del Toro told him, “I’m creating this banquet for you, you just have to show up and eat.”
“This film feels particularly personal," Isaac added. ”I think ultimately it is about outsiders."
Elordi joined the production fairly late in the process, and threw himself into the childlike monster, who he didn't find so hard to relate to.
“It’s a vessel that I could put every part of myself into,” Elordi said. “In so many ways the creature that is on screen in that movie is the purest form of myself, he’s more me than I am.”
Outside the red carpet, several hundred anti-war protested gathered peacefully, hoping to turn the spotlight to the war in Gaza.
The last time del Toro was at Venice was with “The Shape of Water” in 2017, which won the festival’s top prize that year before going on to pick up the best picture and best director Oscar in 2018. Netflix does not yet have a best picture winner in their arsenal, but is betting big on “Frankenstein.” Del Toro’s last film, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” won the streamer its first best animated film Oscar.
Like “The Shape of Water,” “Frankenstein” is up for the big awards at Venice, where it will be competing with films like Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Bugonia,”Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” and Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab.” Winners will be announced by the Alexander Payne-led jury on Sept. 6.
Netflix plans to release “Frankenstein” in theaters on Oct. 17, before it comes to streaming Nov. 7.
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