my_daroga | Film review: Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

“It's only a word,” Ofelia's mother tells her when instructing her daughter to call her new stepfather “papa.” Of course, nothing is ever “only a word” when it comes to fairy tales, even violent and dark ones like this.

Pan's Labyrinth is the story of a young girl trapped in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Her father is dead, her mother remarried, and she is whisked away to a remote mansion-fortress in the country. She has her books—though mother is somewhat contemptuous of her attachment to children's stories. Ofelia sees bugs as fairies and sees life as a set of puzzles to solve. She becomes caught up in a fantasy world of fauns, secret doors, and giant toads. Only in such dark times would this fantasy seem preferable to reality; she is told that she is a lost princess who must complete certain tasks to be taken back, but there is no guarantee her secret world is any better than this one. It just has to be.

As Ofelia navigates between her secret trials and the uncertain quantity of mother's new husband, the rest of the household divides its loyalties and fights their own fight. Everyone has secrets, and everyone is in danger. The film is dark and violent, though gorgeous, and I wish I had seen some other of Guillermo del Toro's films before seeing this one. I might have been prepared, then, for the fact that he is less interested in exploring the fairy world Ofelia is trying to escape to than the one she's trying to escape from. I was expecting more of the labyrinth—the trailers certainly emphasized these elements—and was caught off guard by the real-world focus of the narrative. In the end, it is difficult to determine what really happened and what didn't. It is Amelie in wartime.

But it is all put together beautifully. Ofelia is wonderful, and the rest of the cast seems to move effortlessly through the strange landscape. The cinematography is brilliant as well; there is some exciting editing using the trunks of trees to hide edits between scenes and everything's awash in a gold-green glow that alternately suggests history and fantasy. The film, indeed, bridges that gap naturally. Everything fits, ugly as it may be. Fairy tales were never benign children's stories, and neither is this.

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I enjoy reading them:)

Thanks a lot! It's good to know they're being read.

Ooh, I loved this movie.

I didn't see any previews so I didn't have any expectations, but I still agree about the fantasy/rl division--it felt weird to have such a fantasy when so much more time was spent on the rl, esp. because the fantasy didn't bring forth a final truth at the end, didn't ever completely connect or reflect the real stuff, was never close enough to be directly allegorical.

But.

There were really intriguing parallels. Like the importance of keys, of "the key", in both the real story and the fantasy story. Also where the monster with the eyes in his hands was: the pile of shoes. So evocative of the images we get of the Holocaust. And there started to be more stuff like that the more I thought about it . . . although, like I said, I can't find direct significance to these things, I've found with a lot of magical realism type stuff is . . . I don't know how else to say it but under-representational, which is both frustrating and liberating (in terms of the magic allowing for so many different interpretations).

Ok, midnight ramble.

Interesting point re: under-representational; I hadn't thought of it that way but you're right. There's a fine line between a considered-but-subtle parallel and just assuming your audience will be in awe of the magic for its own sake.

But I don't understand about the pile of shoes--explain, please?

When Jews were being shipped off to concentration camps, they had to leave a lot of their possessions at the train stations. You often see piles of eyeglass or suitcases to represent the sheer numbers being sent off to die, since you can actually get more glasses in a photo than bodies. Similarly, at concentration camps, when people were killed their clothes and shoes and whatever remaining possessions were harvested--so you often see piles of clothes and shoes in representations of the horror of the Holocaust. Or at least, I have. It's possible that the images that've stuck with me are different than those of others.

Anyway that may actually have nothing to do with the hand-eye-monster and the pile of children's shoes in this movie. I just found the image very evocative, so much so that I found it difficult to believe it wasn't done on purpose. To what purpose, I don't actually know.

Oh, I see what you're saying. I forgot about the shoes in that scene, see? Though of course I'm aware of the connection to the Holocaust. My memory is faulty at best.

Anyway, I think it's reasonable to assume that the resonance of such an image would not have escaped someone like del Toro; what sort of an allegory, if any, it's meant to be is another question.

Did you love the "King of the Dead" scene? Everything in it was *perfect.*

Do you mean the end? Everything's muddled in my head now.

I finally saw it tonight. Though it wasn't what i necessarily expected based on the trailer, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Like you, I agree that I thought a lot more of it was going to take place in the fantasty world, however the fact that it wasn't didn't ruin it for me.

It's definately something I'd like to watch again and for sure intend to get when it is released to dvd. I feel like it's one of those movies I'll get a lot more out of it the second time around detail wise.

Agreed. I don't think it ruined it for me, but it wasn't as good as I was hoping. That said, I've now seen another of del Toro's movies (The Devil's Backbone) so I think that when I go back and watch PL again I'll get more out of it.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant Ofelia's second "trial," where she had to draw the chalk "doorway" in the wall, and go into the spooky "underground" with the red walls. There she found herself in a great dining hall, where the table was all bedecked with red food. The Faun had instructed her not to eat any of it, but she took a few grapes anyway, and that woke up the "King of the Dead" - the guy who had to put his eyeballs into the palms of his hands to see her.

I thought that scene was great, personally ... I think it was the Greeks who had the idea that all the food in Hades's domain was red...

Oh, okay. Yeah, I didn't have a name in my head for the eyeball guy. I thought that was fantastic; it was beautifully done and nicely detailed. Her defiance seemed OOC to some extent, in the sense that she usually has more sense than that, but not in the sense that she doesn't take orders well. I hadn't noticed the colors so explicitly. Thanks.

I thought this film was just about perfect.

I'm glad. I need to see it again.

Film review: Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

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