Pan's labyrinth

[alexandral]

I had a chance to see "Pan's labyrinth" in the National Museum of Media yesterday. Yay! I am glad I did because this was a film that is definitely worthy of the bid screen. I did a double – I also watched "Notes on Scandal", but I have to think more about the latter film before I can write.





Synopsis Film takes place in the fascist Spain of 1944. Ophelia is a step-daughter of psychotic fascist Captain. One day she meets a fairy and a faun and is told that she is a daughter of the King of Underworld. To claim her birthright she must complete 3 tests.

Strange and interesting film
My main impression throughout was that "Pan's labyrinth" is a film that in a large degree is influenced by "Narnia", only with the big doze of horror in it. "Pan's labyrinth" and "Narnia" share the same time-frame, the same visual representation , they share similar characters and they share the same themes originated from Christianity – sacrifice of the innocent blood, three thrones in the kingdom of Underworld, mother with the child, choices one has to make.. This was the weakest point in the film for me – that however unforgettable and interesting "Pan's labyrinth" was, it wasn't original. I am not trying to criticise, it is just what I felt.

But I did like the film very much!!! Mainly because there was an interesting thing going all throughout it – there were contradictions placed everywhere and in everything, I am not sure was this done intentionally or not, but the whole impression these contradictions left on me was very strange. It was like if the film was saying – Nothing, nothing is what it seems.

Contradictions or everything is not as it seems

I was trying to write down all contradictions I noticed:

1. War wasn't scary, but the Fairytale world was. War as presented in the film was beautified and happening somewhere beyond the horizon. Beautiful clouds of fire were coming up somewhere far far away behind the beautiful forest, and of course the good guys won and the good maiden Mercedes was saved and none of them died (apart from unlucky stuttering man). There were scenes of torture, but they never held any real horror for me somehow, they were too beautifully filmed to seem real.
On the other hand, Fawn, fairies, Root That You Must Feed with your own blood, Pale Man scared the life out of me. Even at the end, when we saw three thrones in the kingdom of Underworld the whole set up looked quite strange. May be because the way Ophelia's mother held the baby was as if baby wasn't alive. ** shudders **

2. Good ending felt like a tragic one. It was meant to be a good ending, right? But at the same time it felt that Ophelia is really dead and everything she sees is just her pre-death visions. Plus again, the kingdom of Underworld looked like it had some dark shadows behind the yellow light.

3. Good guys were presented with some darkness/shadow visually. Fawn was one of the scariest thing I have seen in fairytales. Mercedes also sometimes looked as if in another life she could have been a scary maid from some Gothic film. And the mandrake root under Ophelia's mother's bed looked so scary that I was afraid that it is going to harm the baby.

Cinematography Was gorgeous. It seemed to serve "Nothing is what it seems" theme very well, everything was drenched in a beautiful yellow light, but at the same time there were shadows, dark shadows everywhere. Amazing!

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

May I remind you that I live in another country. One in which movies usually are released many, many months later. In this case some time in June. ;)
But good to hear that it's fabulous.

I guess I just forgotten, LJ makes you feel as if the world is “one big place”. :D But not as much at the moment – China decided to block LJ.
Germany’s situation with releases seems to be unfair. ** shakes her fist ** But if you ever come to England!! ;D Even my husband liked ”Hot Fuzz”.. I think I liked it enough to make icons for myself, Pegg/Frost pair was incredible. I will have to watch “Shaun of the dead” now.

But I've seen two other movies over the weekend from countries that you have special interest in, so I wanted to ask you if you've seen them:
Nightwatch and Memories of Murder by Bong Joon-ho.

I have seen “Nightwatch” and I have slightly mixed feelings about it, mostly because my eyesight didn’t allow me to enjoy their special effects in full, I can’t tolerate much of flashing (especially on the big screen).. What did you think? This film was a bigger hit in box office in Russia then “Lord of the Rings”.

“Memories of Murder” is on my watch list .. Did you like it?

[trailer-spot.livejournal.com]

Things would be so much easier if movies would be released around the world within a couple of weeks.

China decided to block LJ.

Yes, I've heard about it. They've decided to de-friend us. ;)

I didn't particularly like both movies.

This film was a bigger hit in box office in Russia then "Lord of the Rings".

I had heard about that. I remember when I saw the first trailer, I was totally 'wowed'. It took more than the year until the movie finally made it to theatres here. By then I had read I few sceptic reviews so I didn't watch it at the theatre. That's why it took me so long to finally see it. It was now shown on TV.
I like movies that look good visually a lot. Sometimes I'm wondering if I like them too much. But when I saw 'Nightwatch' I realised there are limits. I thought it was just too many camera tricks. It was still nice to look at but it started to distract from the real story.
The story itself is very intriguing but I also thought it should've made for a better movie. I thought it was a lost opportunity.

And I really didn't like Memories of Murder. Maybe my expectations were too high. I didn't like the 'funny' elements. Yes, I can see how the imcompetent detectives can be seen as a metaphor for the Korean regime back then but I still thought it didn't make a lot of sense and I didn't find it funny at all.
It was nice to see how some characters changed during the movie, and I liked the ambiguous ending, but all in all I thought I had wasted my time.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I like movies that look good visually a lot. Sometimes I'm wondering if I like them too much.

I am very similar – good visuals can sometimes "make" the whole movie for me, but never entirely.

But when I saw 'Nightwatch' I realised there are limits. I thought it was just too many camera tricks. It was still nice to look at but it started to distract from the real story.

This is what I felt as well, plus these particular camera tricks (even though quite original) mage my eyes ill and my head hurt. But this is just me – I easily notice blinking on the old type monitors and can't really tolerate blinking icons. But this doesn't apply to your lovely icons of Snoopy at all! Hee! I am an old lady, I guess!! After the first half of "Nightwatch" I was just waiting for the film to end.

There was another thing I noticed – subtitles didn't really give the good justice to the dialogue. The dialogue was quite clever and contained black humor and a fair share of Russian cultural and fairytale references. This seemed to be largely lost in subtitles. But I think it must have been difficult, cultural gap makes some things to lose their meaning.

The story itself is very intriguing but I also thought it should've made for a better movie. I thought it was a lost opportunity.

I liked the story and the main actor, Khabensky. And the ending came as unexpected surprise for me!!

And I really didn't like Memories of Murder. Maybe my expectations were too high. I didn't like the 'funny' elements.

I want to see it and compare it with "Host" , but I hear your warning!!!

[trailer-spot.livejournal.com]

subtitles didn't really give the good justice to the dialogue.

I saw a dubbed, german version, but I doubt that they were able to translate some specific russian meanings and humour.

And sorry for writing so much about MoM. When I started writing I knew that you haven't seen the movie, but later I forgot. Sorry about that. I think I remember that you once said that it's not a very big problem for you if you already know things. But still.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

And sorry for writing so much about MoM. When I started writing I knew that you haven't seen the movie, but later I forgot. Sorry about that. I think I remember that you once said that it's not a very big problem for you if you already know things. But still.

Oh, NO!!! I am a spoiler person to start with, and I love to read reviews, and I enjoy your thoughts always!! In fact, your comment made me want to watch MoM NOW (or yesterday :D) to be able to discuss it with you! I wonder how it compares with “Host”. But this is sadly, my working side of the week. ;(

I was wondering if you had a trailer for “Shaun of the dead” somewhere.. Please don’t worry if it is difficult for you to find the old post, I was just wondering. :D

[trailer-spot.livejournal.com]

The Host will come out at the end of this month here. So maybe in a couple of weeks we can have a Bong Joon-ho discussion. :)

I think the movie came out before I had the blog, but I sure know where to find a trailer (http://www.focusfeatures.com/clips/shaun_of_the_dead/trailer-480x202.mov). And some more clips can be found here (http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2004/STUVWXYZ/Shaun-of-the-Dead/trailer-page.html). :)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I think the movie came out before I had the blog, but I sure know where to find a trailer. And some more clips can be found here. :)

You are awesome!! Thank you so much! As you can see, I am still in love with “Hot Fuzz”. :D I remember when “Shaun of the dead” was everywhere I didn’t think much of it – the posters looked as if this is something very stupid and bad-taste.