Updated January 16, 2018 17:59:26

Few have done more to endear monsters to the world than Guillermo del Toro.

The acclaimed Mexican writer and director has devoted the better part of his life to telling their stories and in turn said they had "saved and absolved" him many times.

Now, after winning the best director Golden Globe for his new film The Shape of Water, he is hoping the latest creature to spring from his mind to the big screen can help others.

"The idea is to create a story about love. Not a love story, but a story about love," del Toro said.

The Shape Of Water tells the story of a lonely janitor in a secret research facility who falls in love with an amphibious creature.

In some ways it is familiar territory for del Toro.

He rose to international fame with his 2006 film Pan's Labyrinth, about a girl who escapes from the horror of the years following the Spanish Civil War by retreating into an imagined fairytale land of monsters, kings and villains.

Del Toro chose to set his latest film in 1962 as the Cold War raged and fear and division ruled.

As far as he was concerned, it was the perfect backdrop for a story about love conquering all. And it echoed the troubled times we live in now.

"I wanted to make a movie that was sort of healing for what I fear is our times right now, which is times of division by ideology that is incredibly harmful," he said.

"In 1962 people started accepting the causes of tolerance, empathy ... we are again in a moment in history in which, I think, we need to talk about these things.

"If there's an epidemic of hatred I think that we can try to create an epidemic of love and understanding.

"So it's a very healing fairy tale for very difficult times."

Del Toro is so obsessed with the idea of love that he used the word 14 times in the space of 90 seconds in this interview.

He gives the impression of having considered the idea for a long time and is keen to impress on people just how important it is.

"There's love in many ways. Love of a friend. Love of the other. Embracing the other, as opposed to fearing the other."

The central characters in Shape Of Water do not speak — one being mute and the other an elemental god-like figure from the Amazon River — and this makes perfect sense to del Toro.

"Because in love and understanding words are very, very superfluous for me," he said.

"It's about looking, it's about seeing the other.

"I think love beyond words is more pure, because words can tell lies, but looks cannot, and that's essential."

Topics: arts-and-entertainment, film-movies, australia, mexico

First posted January 16, 2018 10:36:06