Book Review: Cabinet of Curiosities by G. del Toro and M. S. Zicree

Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions by Guillermo del Toro and Marc Scott Zicree

This coffee-table tome gathers a sampling of various items created by Guillermo del Toro, or that inspired his creativity. He's the Mexican director of the first two Hellboy movies, Pan's Labyrinth, and the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water. The book title is a reference to the 19th century tendency for the rich and eccentric to gather curiosities to show off their wealth, culture, and personal experiences. Items could include things like animals from foreign lands, fine or mundane works of art from other cultures, etc. Del Toro has collected many things through the years. He's also kept notebooks where he scribbles down ideas, sketches interesting items, and draws images he might use in his filmmaking. The book is divided into three sections.

The first section is called Collections and is mostly a tour of Bleak House, the house he bought to store all the bric-a-brac he has gathered over his lifetime. In addition to personal creations, he has many books (the house has multiple libraries), collectibles, paintings and sculptures (including specially commissioned works), toys, and memorabilia from films and pop culture. He explains the significance of some of the items and shows a bit of his creative process. Some of the rooms are designed to inspire his creativity and he does work at the house too.

The second section (which is by far the longest) goes through his notebooks as they reveal ideas and designs for his movies. The book was published in 2014, so the section ends with Pacific Rim and some mentions of the then in-progress Crimson Peak. After a brief thematic description of each film, subsequent pages show sketches and ideas for various creatures, mechanisms, and sets, along with some photos from the films showing the final result. Readers get a good glimpse of del Toro's creative process and some interesting trivia.

The final section shows pages from unfinished projects, including ideas for At the Mountains of Madness, a project that was supposed to be produced by James Cameron and star Tom Cruise but financing fell through. The book does not contain anything from The Hobbit movies (a project that didn't get out of legal contentions in time for del Toro to direct) because of the secrecy around the movies.

The book also contains a smattering of testimonials from friends and artistic collaborators (including Cameron and Cruise, along with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, moviemaker Alfonso Cuaron, writer Neil Gaiman, and others). The testimonials show the respect and admiration these artists have for del Toro and his works.

The book is more like a coffee-table book, meant to be thumbed through and admired piecemeal. I read it from cover to cover since I am a fairly avid del Toro fan and enjoyed it a lot.

Recommended, highly for del Toro devotees.