VENICE: Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” is an aquatic “Beauty and the Beast,” a transgressive fairy tale about a young woman’s love for a scaly creature from the Amazonian depths.
Like the best fables, it’s also rooted in the real world: the story of a migrant from the south facing a hostile reception in a security-obsessed United States.
“I think that fantasy is a very political genre,” del Toro said Thursday at the Venice Film Festival, where “The Shape of Water” had its red-carpet world premiere. It’s one of 21 films competing for the coveted Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize.
“Fairy tales were born in times of great trouble. They were born in times of famine, pestilence and war,” he added.
Part monster movie, part noir thriller, part Hollywood musical, the film defies categorization, though Del Toro took a stab, suggesting it’s “like Douglas Sirk rewriting Pasolini’s ‘Theorem’ with a fish.”
Some critics are calling it del Toro’s best film since “Pan’s Labyrinth” in 2006. The Daily Telegraph summed it up as “an honest-to-God B-movie blood-curdler that’s also, somehow, a shimmeringly earnest and boundlessly beautiful melodrama.” Screen International called it “exquisite ... del Toro at his most poignant and sweet.”
Set in early-1960s Baltimore, the film stars Sally Hawkins as Elisa, a mute orphan who works as a cleaner at a high-security lab. She forges a bond with a captured creature who is at the center of a Cold War tug-of-war between the US and the Soviet Union.
“It’s a movie set in 1962, but it’s a movie about today,” del Toro told reporters at a Venice news conference. “It’s about the issues we have today. When America talks about America being great again, I think they are dreaming of an America that was in gestation in ‘62 — an America that was futuristic, full of promise ... but at the same time there was racism, sexism, classism.”
Del Toro said the creature — played with fittingly fluid movements by Doug Jones — is the only character in the film without a name, because he represents “many things to many people.”
For lonely Elisa, “it’s the first time somebody, something is looking at her, looking back the way you look back at the person you love.” For Michael Shannon’s ruthless US government agent Strickland, the creature is “a dark, dirty thing that comes from the south” and must be eliminated.
“I am Mexican, and I know what it is to be looked at as ‘the other’ no matter what circumstances you’re in,” the director said — and the character of the creature embodied that otherness.
The film features warm performances from Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins as Elisa’s friends — and a mesmerizing turn from Hawkins, who creates a character of depth, passion and compassion without saying a word.
Hawkins said that when del Toro first told her about the movie, she was working on her own project about “a woman who doesn’t know she’s a mermaid.” Some of those ideas fed into the character of Elisa.
“It was just synchronistic,” she said. “It was very odd. Those things rarely happen and when they do you know it’s something special.”
“The Shape of Water” features del Toro’s usual rich mix of ingredients: everything from Russian spies to musical interludes. Its overriding message, the director says, is “to choose love over fear.”
“We live in times where fear and cynicism are used in a way that is very pervasive and persuasive,” del Toro said. “Our first duty when we wake up is to believe in love.
“It’s the strongest force in the universe,” he said. “The Beatles and Jesus can’t be wrong — not both of them at the same time.”
Del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’ makes waves in Venice
Del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’ makes waves in Venice
World’s oldest person dies at 116 in Japan
- Tomiko Itooka was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya
- As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older
TOKYO: The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, has died aged 116, the city where she lived, Ashiya, announced on Saturday.
Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren, died on December 29 at a nursing home where she resided since 2019, the southern city’s mayor said in a statement.
She was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya – four months before the Ford Model T was launched in the United States.
Itooka was recognized as the oldest person in the world after the August 2024 death of Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera at age 117.
“Ms Itooka gave us courage and hope through her long life,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old mayor Ryosuke Takashima said in the statement.
“We thank her for it.”
Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.
As a student, she played volleyball.
In her older age, Itooka enjoyed bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.
Women typically enjoy longevity in Japan, but the country is facing a worsening demographic crisis as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labor force to pay for it.
As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older – 88 percent of whom were women.
Of the country’s 124 million people, nearly a third are 65 or older.
Former UK home secretary mocked for claiming she visited ‘land border’ between Italy and Turkiye
- Suella Braverman was criticized for her ignorance by social media users, public figures
- Italy and Turkiye are separated by hundreds of kilometers and share no border
LONDON: Former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman faced widespread ridicule after claiming in a radio interview that she visited a land border between Italy and Turkiye — two countries separated by hundreds of kilometers.
Speaking on LBC Radio on Thursday morning, Braverman, known for her hardline anti-immigration stance, described visiting what she said was a wall built by Italy to stem migration.
“Italy have reinforced their borders. They built a wall. I went to see that wall,” she said.
“They built a wall on the land border between Italy and Turkey. They’ve got drones. They’ve got armored vehicles. They’ve got soldiers. The numbers crossing that border have plummeted.”
The statement quickly went viral, with social media users and public figures mocking the former Home Secretary for referencing a non-existent border.
Italy and Turkiye, located in southern Europe and western Asia respectively, share no land border.
Former Conservative MP Sir Michael Take responded sarcastically, suggesting that people were overreacting and quipping that Braverman should have claimed that “Italy had built (a wall) on its border with Syria.”
How easy of you all to leap on poor Suella Braverman for a simple slip of the tongue.
— Sir Michael Take CBE (@MichaelTakeMP) January 2, 2025
She didn’t mean to say the wall Italy built on its border with Turkey.
She was talking about the wall Italy had built on its border with Syria.
Show Suella some respectpic.twitter.com/ToLZImF7cH
Food critic Jay Rayner also shared the clip, jokingly asking: “And is this wall ‘on the land border between Italy and Turkey’ with you in the room right now?”
Others criticized the apparent ignorance displayed by a senior politician who once held responsibility for national security and immigration.
Portuguese journalist and political commentator Bruno Macaes commented on X: “How did we get to a point where British politics is a global laughing stock?”
British politician, former cabinet minister says she went to see the Italy-Turkey border. How did we get to a point where British politics is a global laughing stock? pic.twitter.com/MHvNvSqOAz
— Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno) January 2, 2025
Following the backlash, Braverman attempted to clarify her remarks, admitting on X that she had misspoken.
“And, obviously I meant Greece’s land border with Turkey which I was honoured to visit,” she wrote.
Bereaved orca seen carrying another dead calf in US waters
- Scientists say whales are among the world’s most intelligent animals, exhibiting complex social behavior including self-awareness and suffering
Washington, USA: A bereaved female killer whale who carried her dead calf for more than two weeks in 2018 has again lost a newborn and is bearing its body, US marine researchers said.
Scientists say whales are among the world’s most intelligent animals, exhibiting complex social behavior including self-awareness and suffering.
The Washington state-based Center for Whale Research said the endangered orca named Tahlequah, also known as J35, was spotted carrying her deceased calf in Puget Sound off Seattle on New Year’s Day.
“J35 has been seen carrying the body of the deceased calf,” the center said in an Instagram post Thursday.
“This behavior was seen previously by J35 in 2018 when she carried the body of her deceased calf for 17 days,” it said.
When Tahlequah was carrying her previous deceased newborn seven years ago she was seen sometimes nudging its body with her nose and sometimes gripping it with her mouth, US media reported.
“It’s a very tragic tour of grief,” Center for Whale Research founder Ken Balcomb told public broadcaster NPR at the time.
The center said the loss of the latest female newborn was “particularly devastating” because Tahlequah has now lost two of her four documented calves.
“We hope to have more information on the situation through further observation,” the post said.
The center also said Tahlequah’s pod had been joined by another newborn. “The calf’s sex is not yet known but the team reports that the calf appeared physically and behaviorally normal,” the center said.
Tahlequah and her pod mates are Southern Resident Killer Whales, a population listed as endangered in the United States.
There are only three pods in the population, numbering around 70 whales. They spend several weeks of each spring and fall in the waters of Puget Sound.
Their numbers are dwindling owing to a combination of factors, including a reduction in their prey and the noise and disturbance caused by ships and boats, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Olympics-World’s oldest living gold medallist Agnes Keleti dies at 103
- Keleti joined the National Gymnastics Association in 1938 and won her first Hungarian championship in 1940
BUDAPEST: Five-time Olympic champion Hungarian gymnast Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest living Olympic gold medallist and a survivor of the persecution of Jews in World War Two, died at the age of 103 on Thursday, the Hungarian Olympic Committee said.
Born as Agnes Klein in Budapest on Jan. 9, 1921, Keleti joined the National Gymnastics Association in 1938 and won her first Hungarian championship in 1940, only to be banned from all sports activities that year because of her Jewish origin.
“Agnes Keleti is the greatest gymnast produced by Hungary, but one whose life and career were intertwined with the politics of her country and her religion,” the International Olympic Committee said in a profile on its website.
The HOC said Keleti escaped deportation to Nazi death camps, where hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were killed, by hiding in a village south of Budapest with false papers. Her father and several relatives died in the Auschwitz death camp.
She won her first gold at the Helsinki games in 1952 aged 31, when most gymnasts had long been retired, the HOC said.
Keleti reached the peak of her career in Melbourne in 1956, where she won four gold medals and became the oldest female gymnast to win gold, the HOC said. A year later Keleti settled in Israel, where she married and had two children.
Her 10 Olympic medals, including five golds, rank Keleti as the second most successful Hungarian athlete of all time, the HOC said. She has also received multiple Hungarian state awards.
Harry Chandler, Navy medic who survived Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, dies at 103
- Harry Chandler’s family says he died at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida on Monday
- He had congestive heart failure but his doctors and nurses noted his advanced age when giving a cause of death
HONOLULU: Harry Chandler, a Navy medic who helped pull injured sailors from the oily waters of Pearl Harbor after the 1941 Japanese attack on the naval base, has died. He was 103.
Chandler died Monday at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida, according to Ron Mahaffee, the husband of his granddaughter Kelli Fahey. Chandler had congestive heart failure, but Mahaffee said doctors and nurses noted his advanced age when giving a cause of death.
The third Pearl Harbor survivor to die in the past few weeks, Chandler was a hospital corpsman 3rd class on Dec. 7, 1941, when waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and fired machine guns on battleships in the harbor and plunged the US into World War II.
He told The Associated Press in 2023 that he saw the planes approach as he was raising the flag that morning at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, which is in the hills overlooking the base.
“I thought they were planes coming in from the states until I saw the bombs dropping,” Chandler said. His first instinct was to take cover and ”get the hell out of here.”
“I was afraid that they’d start strafing,” he said.
His unit rode trucks down to attend the injured. He said in a Pacific Historic Parks oral history interview that he boarded a boat to help pluck wounded sailors from the water.
The harbor was covered in oil from exploding ships, so Chandler washed the sailors off after lifting them out. He said he was too focused on his work to be afraid.
“It got so busy you weren’t scared. Weren’t scared at all. We were busy. It was after you got scared,” Chandler said.
He realized later that he could have been killed, “But you didn’t think about that while you were busy taking care of people.”
The attack killed more than 2,300 US servicemen. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona, which sank nine minutes after it was bombed.
Chandler’s memories came flowing back when he visited Pearl Harbor for a 2023 ceremony commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the bombing.
“I look out there, and I can still see what’s going on. I can still see what was happening,” Chandler told The Associated Press.
Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, he said: “Be prepared.”
“We should have known that was going to happen. The intelligence has to be better,” he said.
After the war Chandler worked as a painter and wallpaper hanger and bought an upholstery business with his brother. He also joined the Navy reserves, retiring as a senior chief in 1981.
Chandler was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lived for most of his adult life in nearby South Hadley, Mahaffee said. In recent decades he split his time between Massachusetts and Florida.
An avid golfer, he shot five hole-in-ones during his lifetime, his grandson-in-law added.
Chandler had one biological daughter and adopted two daughters from his second marriage, to Anna Chandler, who died in 2004. He is survived by two daughters, nine grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated that there were some 87,000 military personnel on the island of Oahu the day of the attack. With Chandler’s death only 15 are still living, according to a tally maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
Bob Fernandez, who served on the USS Curtiss, also died this month, at age 100, and Warren Upton, 105, who served on the USS Utah, died last week.
