Guillermo Del Toro Lists Artistic Influences that Fed ‘Crimson Peak’

Guillermo del Toro is notoriously inventive, employing a wealth of imagination culled from decades of cinema, art, literature and music that defines the work he delivers to his adoring audiences. Whether or not you’re a fan of the Mexican auteur’s dark, fantastical offerings, he’s a man devoted to the confluence of artistry and craftsmanship and bound by his love for baroque sentimentality and grim depictions of life, love and loss. (Check out @RealGDT’s recommendations on Twitter.) 

WATCH: How Cannes and ‘Crimson Peak’ Changed Guillermo del Toro’s Life (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Del Toro listed some creative undertakings that helped to shape “Crimson Peak.” Among his favored novels, Del Toro lists George Jacobs and William Stadiem’s “Mr S: My Life with Frank Sinatra (2003)” as “a ground-level report of almost every conquest, feud or struggle Sinatra went through… You can’t help but feel heartache as the book comes to a close.” He lists Netflix’s “House of Cards (2013)” Season Three as a cornerstone of the series’ brilliant direction, citing: “It is the core relationship of Claire and Francis Underwood that lends power to the show. It is a fascinating power marriage of Borgian proportions, [they] have a cannibalistic urge for power but start responding differently now that they have it in their tenuous grasp.”

READ MORE: The Films of Guillermo Del Toro, Ranked Worst to Best

Del Toro goes on to list “No Country For Old Men” (2007) as a critical film-going experience: “I was thinking of viewing a few minutes to add some questions for an upcoming interview with the Coens and it just trapped me. I ended up watching it almost twice in the same day.” To read up on the rest of Del Toro’s gothic literary inspirations, which include “Jane Eyre,” “Wuthering Heights” and “Great Expectations,” visit The Rookie, here.  

And here’s his Criterion Top 10.