FLAT NOTES

How Elisa’s apartment expresses an affinity with the aquatic

wave goodBye There’s a giant mural of 19th century Japanese print “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” on Elisa’s wall… but you wouldn’t know it. They painted one, then covered it up with layers of peeling paint and stains, so only the faintest echo was left.

fIsh out of water Del Toro and production designer Paul D Austerberry also deliberately picked out a wallpaper with a pattern reminiscent of fish scales.

a floored plan Austerberry also put pronounced gaps between the floorboards so that light would play through from the cinema below Elisa’s apartment – emulating the way that light shines through or reflects off water.