Alexandre Desplat has described Guillermo del Toro as a "passionate, generous filmmaker".

Alexandre Desplat

Alexandre Desplat

The 56-year-old film composer teamed up with the Mexican filmmaker on his latest love story 'The Shape of Water' and admitted he believes this collaboration is one of his best he has ever done.

In an interview with Variety, Desplat said: "He's a passionate, generous filmmaker. He's a very sensitive man, he's full of emotions, and when the music you play to him is right, you immediately can feel the feedback. He's moved, he's excited, he's precise in his comments when something can be adjusted. It's been a dream working with Guillermo. This movie has been one of my more beautiful collaborations through the years, and I think this movie is in the top, top list of the movies I loved working on, and I'm proud of."

'The Shape of Water' follows mute, isolated woman Elisa (Sally Hawkins) who works as a janitor in a government laboratory in 1962 but her life changes forever when she discovers the lab's classified secret is an amphibious creature known as The Asset (Doug Jones).

As Elisa develops a unique bond with The Asset she soon learns that the being's fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.

The two lead characters never speak a word to each other over the course of the plot and del Toro's decision to do this was to emphasise that love is "not about words but emotion".

The Mexican filmmaker - who previously revealed his movie was inspired by classic Universal monster movie 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' - said: "The two lead characters don't speak because love is not about words but about emotion and identifying an essence with the other and I thought it would be more powerful if they don't tell each other 'I love you' or 'How was your day?'

"Instead it was a real connection. The only way to talk about love would be through singing and there's a beautiful sequence in the movie which is a musical number where she gets to sing and all these things are related and I think that everything has been planned."

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