With thirteen nominations under its belt, “The Shape Of Water” is the current frontrunner to win big on Oscar night. Almost everyone has swooned for Guillermo del Toro‘s lovely blend of fantasy, romance, monster movie, and classical filmmaker, however, there’s one director with a bone to pick.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet has accused del Toro of stealing a scene from his 1991 film “Delicatessen,” and essentially replicating it in “The Shape Of Water.” The sequence in question involves Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard dancing in unison on a bed, while an old musical plays in the background on the television. In ‘Shape,’ Richard Jenkins and Sally Hawkins similarly do a little softshoe number while seated on the sofa, as a musical plays in the background on the television.
Jeunet brought up the two scenes to del Toro who brushed off the accusation, saying that they both have inspired from other directors, particularly Terry Gilliam.
“I told him: You have a lot of imagination, a lot of talent. Why go and [steal] the ideas of others?” Jeunet told Ouest-France (this has been Google translated). “He said, ‘We owe Terry Gilliam everything.’ According to him, he does not steal from others, it is Terry Gilliam who has influenced us all. When he stakes the scene of the couple sitting on the edge of the bed dancing with their feet, with the musical in the background on TV, it is so copied and pasted [from] ‘Delicatessen’ that there is a moment when I say to myself that he lacks self-respect.”
Jeunet says that he won’t sue for plagiarism, but that he’s mostly disappointed, because he believes, “Guillermo has enough talent not to do that.” Moreover, he won’t hear any argument that perhaps the director unconsciously copied the scene, saying, “it is obvious that he had ‘Delicatessen’ in mind.”
So, will this be this year’s big #OscarControversy? We’ll see. Guillermo del Toro has been a pretty open book about this influences for “The Shape Of Water,” but has yet to respond to this claim from Jeunet. Check out the two scenes below and judge for yourself.
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“The Shape of Water” has 13 Oscar nominations, but thanks for playing.
Hahaahaha when you need to dig up stuff like this only to harm a film’s chances at the Oscars…truly pathetic…
Shape of Water is big rip off from all other movies. I’m glad that it comes out of water. I hope Del Toro does not win Oscar.
I hope it does.
It does not look like plagiarism at all to me, though there are similarities, they are minor. But Jeunet’s scene itself is a little masterpiece and Del Toro’s is just a gag.
That’s about where I’m at.
I don’t think Jeunet has a case, but I also think SOW is an average film in a great year for cinema. Many other films/directors deserving, IMO.
It’s good that your opinion is irrelevant, Del Toro is going to win.
No need to be rude
One more time, for the people in the back: Shape of Water only notched t-h-i-r-t-e-e-n nominations. ?
DEL TORO IS A FRAUD!!!!!!! It’s been finally confirmed.
TSOW is a pile of left wing, liberal propaganda. And it will win and win big. Nuff said.
Damn those left wingers, spreading a message of inclusion tolerance and not trying to kill things you don’t understand.
Damn. Thats profound. Sally Hawkins skipping about like a sub extra from Amelie and some fish guy being given the once over. Wow. Nuanced stuff.
Shouldn’t you be apologizing for rapists somewhere
I’m pretty sure Delicatessen is not the first movie to feature a scene like that.
I don’t see the where he can get plagiarism, both scenes are similar to a very minimal degree where both scenes feature a couple watching television and something they do is in sync with it. Context-wise there really isn’t anything remotely similar at all.
I don’t know why this director, seemingly out of the blue, would make these type of accusations. Call out GDT for his black lagoon creature design looking like a more animalistic take take of Abe Sapien from his Hellboy movies but all that talk for the scene in question seems a bit much.
Shut up JPJ. Before claiming others of plagiarism, you should know you’re responsible for an abomination of a film called Alien:Resurrection.
Literally everyone’s ideas come from something, none of these people are creating things out of thin air. Just nobody tell the guy on youtube who thinks he’s cracked some conspiracy cause City on Fire and Reservoir Dogs have robberies in them and tarantino likes to lift whole shots from old movies he likes
I think the only Guillermo del Toro movie I enjoyed somewhat was Hellboy. Jeunet and Caro are geniuses, though.
‘The Shape of Water’ is a very good film and I liked it a lot, but it very clearly IS a mix of Jeunet’s three most popular films: Amélie, The City of Lost Children and Délicatessen. There’s no denying it. Anyone who’s seen any of these films will notice the influence straight away. It’s that obvious.
TEN MINUTES into this movie and I’m already googling to see if Jeunet was actually involved in the production. The influences are very obvious, both in subject and execution. To me personally, I think a little too obvious. The music, the set-pieces, even the distinctive green/red lighting palette. All very reminiscent of Jeunet’s earlier films. It’s a good thing the story is unique, because damn.