Between glasses of wine, plates of Serrano ham and oysters, the intensity of the murmur of the guests at Espacio Ibercaja Delicias drops drastically and suddenly. And it is that, if fanaticism arouses shouts, admiration is silence. Because, What do you say to one of the most important directors in the history of cinema? “I wanted to tell you, although you are tired of hearing things like that every day, that…”, is the most honest thing that comes to mind when I am introduced to one of those names with which the difficult thing is to find someone who does not I have never seen any of his movies. “Well, don’t think so…”, amused Tim Burton interrupts me. What happened next will make you nostalgic.
It could be Tim Burton or Bob Dylan or a double of both hired to be able to skip the most tedious parts of their work and stay in the hotel resting, because the American director, producer, writer and cartoonist looks opaque sunglasses and a hat, despite the fact that at that time in Madrid the sun has already set.
“I wanted to tell you,” I continue what I started, “that my first favorite movie was beetlejuice“. Burton confesses to me, with a mixture of closeness and professionalism, that for him it is also the most special (“although they are all special”, he also clarifies) because it was the first. It is enough to take a look at his filmography to know that, in reality, it was the second one, but it is clear that Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure It did not have the same success and significance as the 1988 film starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin.
It’s also not surprising that my wish upon having the surreal opportunity to talk to Burton is to let him know that, I was so young when he asked to see again and again beetlejuice I don’t remember more than some blurred scene. “I just know that I loved it.” And it is that the connection with his cinema, for viewers of my generation, is deeply emotional. Movies like Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas either Corpse Bride, among others, they have formed an important part of the sentimental education of those of us who grew up in the nineties and spent adolescence in the two thousand.
“You saw it on VHS, didn’t you?” Burton follows me, who has managed to dress a large part of those attending this world premiere of the immersive exhibition that has come to present. Precisely, that is the point I wanted to get to: “I’m sure my taste for wearing black and dark aesthetics goes back to your movies from that time”, she blurted out as if she would care because yolo.
The labyrinth is a fantasy come true for anyone in love with their own inner world like the director’s. Officially, it is an exhibition in which you can admire the first sketches and drawings from which his alternative realities of childhood nightmare and eccentric characters were born. However, for the visitor it is much more than that. It’s a game. A true journey to the other side of the screen that anyone who approaches the Espacio Ibercaja Delicias de Madrid, between September 29 and December 11.
The tour is made up of 28 rooms to which It is accessed through doors that each visitor has to choose to go through among several options. All except the initial one, which randomly assigns a button. Once you cross a door, there is no turning back, so choose well beforehand.
In this way, the experience ends up being unique and personal for each person. In fact, Burton himself recommends doing the tour individually. In the labyrinth, one crosses and separates and reconnects with other visitors, as well as with faithful reproductions of the characters, scenery and costumes of his most important films: mars attack, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Batman…
Before they take you to your next small talk of the evening, I return to the theme of its aesthetic influence. The Californian also goes from head to toe in rigorous black. “It’s just that it’s the best color to wear, you never fail,” I tell him, trying to force that connection with the ones he’s told me so many times in his movies that he too has felt misunderstood.
“Besides, if you’re from Burbank, like me, the truth is that you don’t see many people walking down the street like that, because it’s very hot,” making it clear, as they point out who to talk to now, that the one that is different, is different and the one that is not, to combine colors.
Tickets Tim Burton – The Labyrinth. in Madrid
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