In this story, Bradley Cooper plays a “mind reader” who scams his wealthy clients by setting up charades in séances.
Guillermo del Toro’s new movie, Nightmare Alley, Set in a macabre carnival world of the 1940s, it is a modern parable about illusion, lies and greed, said the director and cast members.
The film, which premiered on Friday, is Del Toro’s first since the Oscar winner The shape of the water and stars Bradley Cooper as a “mind reader” who scams his wealthy clients by setting up charades in séances.
Del Toro’s team built a large-scale carnival stage from the WWII era, reliving “Geek shows” in which homeless people had to perform gruesome acts forced by businessmen who took advantage of their addiction to alcohol or opium.
“It’s an indictment of a certain kind of capitalism, a certain kind of exploitation of other people for your own happiness,” said co-star Willem Dafoe, who plays carnival host Clem Hoately.
“It was a beautiful world to explore, albeit a bit dark,” he added during a press conference.
The story, based on a novel by William Lindsay Gresham and previously adapted for film in 1947, centers on the mysterious Stan Carlisle, played by Cooper, who joins a carnival troupe and quickly learns the art of mentalism.
After getting tired of fooling ordinary customers through coded messages to his assistant Molly (Rooney Mara), Stan teams up with psychiatrist and fatal woman Lili (Cate Blanchett) to catch millionaire clients with promises that you can contact your deceased loved ones.
“There is a void in him and a need for more, more and more that I find pertinent” with today’s world, said Del Toro, who chose Cooper in part “because he looks like a movie star from the ’30s and’ 40s. “, he pointed.
In Shape of Water, Winning Best Picture and Best Director at the 2018 Oscars, Del Toro evoked racism through a romance between a woman and an alien in a Cold War military laboratory.
Similarly, the master of Mexican terror wanted to “imbue” his latest film “with the anxiety of this time.”
“We didn’t want to make a movie about the time. We wanted to do it about now ”, He said. “This essential moment in which we are, in which we have to distinguish the narrative truth and the narrative lie from reality, is very important.”
Director of ‘misfits’
Considered the last heavyweight among the films competing for the Oscar to be screened this year before the critics, Nightmare Alley It has received praise for the performances of Cooper and Blanchett, as well as its flamboyant set design.
“We rebuilt 100% of the carnival,” explained production designer Tamara Deverell.
Dafoe, who recalled being addicted to carnival as a child and being drawn to his world “Dark and romantic”, He said that Del Toro’s project seduced him, both for its proposal and its form.
The American actor highlighted from the Mexican director his usual work with “Misfits, monsters and people who are out of society.”
In all his films, he said, Del Toro “humanizes those people and drives our understanding and compassion.” (E)
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