Guillermo del Toro praises the cinema as a ‘temple of images’
Director Guillermo del Toro crowed about the enduring value of movie theaters this week, reminding television advertising executives gathered in New York that there is no substitute for the big screen.
Speaking to a standing-room only crowd of more than 700 advertising and media professionals at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square on Wednesday, Del Toro presented footage from his upcoming science fiction film “Pacific Rim” and shared childhood memories about going to the cinema.
“I think that it is very important for us to remember why we go to the theater — what makes the experience memorable,” said Del Toro, a guest speaker at an upfront ad sales event hosted by NCM Media Networks. “I think that one of the reasons why we all are still making movies and showing movies is because we expect new generations of filmgoers to truly experience films. Not only in the scope and the size we create, but also in the community experience — the fact that you go to a theater.”
He added: “When I first went to a theater as a kid, I went with my mother. And I came to the realization that there were two worlds — one world was outside the doors, and the other was inside the theater. I was completely transfixed. It was not TV and it was not us sitting on the sofa at home. It was going to a place that was very much a temple of images. A temple where you can find an experience that you didn’t have in any other medium.”
The director of Academy Award-winning dark fantasy “Pan’s Labyrinth” said only the big screen made it possible to bring the monstrous creatures and fantasy world to life in “Pacific Rim.” The Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures movie, about humans who use giant robots to fend off an alien attack, opens July 12.
“We need the bigger picture. We need the theater,” he said. “We need the communal experience of seeing it like that, and the fact that we are sharing it with other people and validating our experience with a group of other moviegoers that love the experience.”
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