The Shape of Water - science fiction never felt so wondeous

It feels like it is harder and harder to do these days, but I do try to make a point of watching the films that succeed at the Oscars in the year of the Oscar ceremony when they win.  Only took me 6 months - but last weekend finally watched The Shape of Water.

Guillermo del Toro is a wonderful film-maker who's work has always been rooted in the science fiction / fantasy genre.  Pan's Labyrinth is a work of heart-felt art.  Pacific Rim is absolutely everything you would want from a classic East Asian monster movie - with Idris Elba.  He knows how science fiction works.  He knows you can tell stories about the human condition, childhood crises and love equally as well as you can create an insane world populated with container-ship wielding Godzilla rip-offs.  It's all good.  What a joy that this man was awarded the Oscar for best director this year.

If there is a story that science fiction excels at, it is the story of The Outsider.  It's The man who fell to Earth, Silent Running, Wall-E, Spock and Data in Star Trek, every character in Buffy - you name some good science fiction, I guarantee you there's an outsider.  All the characters we sympathise with in The Shape of Water are outsiders in 1950's America.  Be they a monster, black, gay, mute or a foreigner, they are all rejected by the characters representative of white, middle class, middle aged, middle of the road, male America.  All look to each other for comfort and companionship.  It is here that we see the developing love story between the mute Elisa (Sally Hawkins) and the monster from the deep being experimented upon by government researcher in the secret facility where she cleans.  Lost in a world that either doesn't see them or doesn't want them, they find each other, before rescuing each other from a world shunning them.
 
The colour and lighting in the film are astonishing, so much so that I am even more upset to have not seen it in the cinema.  Blues, greens and greys are used throughout, but the lighting pierces through the potentially drab underwater palate and infuses everything with a magical hue.  When we finally do get reds they stand out and reflect the emotional point the film has reached.  The final sequence had us both in tears.  It isn't just the stellar performance from Sally Hawkins that did that - it was everything.  Script, lighting, set design, art design, colour, editing - every element of film-making worked perfectly in unison to create a wonderful touching story with layers upon layers of emotion and depth.

It's a film that is 100% inflected by science fiction.  The tone is part steam punk, part magical realism and part McCarthyite allegory.  There are elements of body horror, government conspiracy and obviously creatures from the deep.  Science fiction wins the best film Oscar - at last.  This wasn't no sympathy award because the Academy wanted to prove it was able to give its highest honour to a genre that's different but ever popular.  This was absolutely deserved.  A true achievement in film.