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Published On: Oct 08, 2008 10:45 PM
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Published On: Oct 08, 2008 10:45 PM
"Pan's Labyrinth" Review
The Professor gives it an
A. 
IMDB.com synopsis: "Pan's Labyrinth" is the story of a young girl who travels with her pregnant mother to live with her mother's new husband in a rural area up North in Spain, 1944, after Franco's victory. The girl lives in an imaginary world of her own creation and faces the real world with much chagrin. Post-war Fascist repression is at its height in rural Spain and the girl must come to terms with that through a fable of her own.
Erm... I'm not so sure I agree with the IMDB synopsis. It's one way to look at the story, and covers the major events without spoilers, so I suppose I'll let it stand-- but the "imaginary" world has a lot of "real" world effects...
This is not a movie for kiddies. If you don't believe me, believe the R rating which it richly deserves. I am not a fan of horror or gory films in general, and there are parts of this movie during which I was peeking through my fingers at the screen.
The story is not straightforward. It can be taken on many levels -- allegory, anti-war propaganda, folk tale, ... and I'm sure this was intended. Señor Del Toro has written a story in which you can't just root for the good guys and boo the bad guys. Who ARE the good guys? The insurgents? But the film makes clear that their methods are hardly better than those of the Franco regime. The Fair Folk that Ofelia encounters? But the Unseen World has brutality that matches that of the mundane world.
Perhaps the only good guys are those who are yet too young to have gone really bad... though even they can make mistakes.
Visually, the film has a dark, brooding design which suits its difficult theme. The images of the labyrinth in particular hark back to both pre-Christian mythology and to early Christian architecture, in which the labyrinth as a spiritual tool figures prominently. Yes, it's all symbolic.
Truly the opposite end of the fantasy spectrum from the facile good/evil of Eragon and the prettified fairy tales of Disney, go to this prepared to think and wonder at its conundrums, and you will be rewarded.
IMDB.com synopsis: "Pan's Labyrinth" is the story of a young girl who travels with her pregnant mother to live with her mother's new husband in a rural area up North in Spain, 1944, after Franco's victory. The girl lives in an imaginary world of her own creation and faces the real world with much chagrin. Post-war Fascist repression is at its height in rural Spain and the girl must come to terms with that through a fable of her own.
Erm... I'm not so sure I agree with the IMDB synopsis. It's one way to look at the story, and covers the major events without spoilers, so I suppose I'll let it stand-- but the "imaginary" world has a lot of "real" world effects...
This is not a movie for kiddies. If you don't believe me, believe the R rating which it richly deserves. I am not a fan of horror or gory films in general, and there are parts of this movie during which I was peeking through my fingers at the screen.
The story is not straightforward. It can be taken on many levels -- allegory, anti-war propaganda, folk tale, ... and I'm sure this was intended. Señor Del Toro has written a story in which you can't just root for the good guys and boo the bad guys. Who ARE the good guys? The insurgents? But the film makes clear that their methods are hardly better than those of the Franco regime. The Fair Folk that Ofelia encounters? But the Unseen World has brutality that matches that of the mundane world.
Perhaps the only good guys are those who are yet too young to have gone really bad... though even they can make mistakes.
Visually, the film has a dark, brooding design which suits its difficult theme. The images of the labyrinth in particular hark back to both pre-Christian mythology and to early Christian architecture, in which the labyrinth as a spiritual tool figures prominently. Yes, it's all symbolic.
Truly the opposite end of the fantasy spectrum from the facile good/evil of Eragon and the prettified fairy tales of Disney, go to this prepared to think and wonder at its conundrums, and you will be rewarded.
Posted: Mon - February 5, 2007 at 06:23 AM | | | | |