Guillermo del Toro has been my favorite director since I first saw the Devils Backbone a flight to France many years ago. I fell in love instantly with the ghostly, grim beauty he built in his stories. Soon I dove into everything he'd touched and fell in love with each of them for different reasons.
When I first learned that his Bleak House, his second home filed with items of inspiration and wonder, would be available to view at museums, I waited eagerly to see where it would end up. Nowhere near me of course. As the exhibit ran its curse in California, I watched flight prices but could never find a way to get there.
When it moved to Minneapolis, I kept looking. I read article after article about it, and started looking for flights. I finally found an odd set of dates that would let me ge there. I booked the flights and found a nearby hotel. The whole trip felt surreal, I couldn't believe i was really doing this, but off and away I went with my mother accompanying me.
We arrived at our hotel, put down our suitcases and took off straight for the Minnesota Institute of Art. After about n hour of wandering to find the right bus, we finally reached the museum and headed straight into the exhibit. It was as amazing as I had hoped.
The Angel of Death greeted us as we walked in. I spent about 2 and a half hours there. I went through the entire exhibit three times. The fist time I took pictures of almost everything (seriously, I took almost 300 pictures), the second time I snapped a few pictures of things Id missed and the final time, I just basked in the exhibit.
It felt so like his films, I waited for the Faun to come to life and show me a secret. It seemed like Guillermo himself could walk through the doors at any second. It felt Ike home.
The exhibit was laid out by themes rather than by time or film. Its a fascinating exploration of childhood, loss, death, monsters, and the cross where all of that exists. If you can get to it, I highly recommend it. If you can;t then his book, At Home with Monsters, includes a lot of incredible information and pictures. So, here are some of my favorite photos from the trip:
