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]

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.