The shape of water: influence or reference? Andrei Tarkovsky and Guillermo del Toro

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2025-1323

Keywords:

Russian cinema, Andrei Tarkovsky, Zerkalo, Guillermo del Toro, history of cinema, aesthetic resources, film criticism, film categories

Abstract

Introduction: In this study, two artistic films are compared: The Mirror (Zerkalo) (1975) by Andrei Tarkovski and The Shape of Water (2018) by Guillermo del Toro. Methodology: Based on the analysis of visual language, we find underlying messages that coincide in both works. Results: In 1975, Tarkovsky's The Mirror was screened at the Moscow Festival and over the years its aesthetic resources set a precedent, to the extent that the premiere of The Shape of Water seems to have been collected some references that make them converge in visual and symbolic resources that, for our time, have become artistic clichés. Discussion: Unraveling the resources of both films we found visual paradigms that allowed us to touch deeper waters. Based on the philosophical critique of Gilles Deleuze from his essay Difference and Repetition, we analyze the transfer and interdependence between the epistemological principles of one production and another. Conclusions: The visual resources of both films are presented as a phylogenetic awareness of man and are reasons to present an analysis – through the theorist Gilles Deleuze – of the possible guiding threads of two relevant moments in the history of cinema.

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Author Biography

Laura Gemma Flores García, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas "Francisco García Salinas"

Graduate, Master and PhD in History; Master in Architecture with a specialty in Restoration of Sites and Monuments from the University of Guanajuato. Master in Appraisal of Works of Art (Apostille of The Hague), Madrid, Spain. She has a Postdoctoral Stay at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium and research stays at the Nettie Lee Benson in Austin, Tx, the University of Berkeley Ca. the Biblioteque Royal de Belgique, the Societe des Bollandistes in Brussels, the CINETECA Nacional de México (2016, 2017). She was a visiting professor at the University of Valencia. She held the “Miguel León Portilla Chair of Mexican Studies” at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. She completed three academic stays at the University of Almería, Spain. National Researcher of Mexico from 1997 to date.

References

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Published

2025-01-22

How to Cite

Flores García, L. G. (2025). The shape of water: influence or reference? Andrei Tarkovsky and Guillermo del Toro. European Public & Social Innovation Review, 10, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2025-1323

Issue

Vol. 10 (2025)

Section

Book/paper review

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Copyright (c) 2025 Laura Gemma Flores García

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