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

-More plot spoiling below-

[tightenmycorset.livejournal.com]

First, thank you for making this post and valid points about the contradictions and your opinion of the film.

I can't say I agree with the first one about the war because it was post-war, fought mostly in a guerilla style and far from beautiful from what I saw. The first scene that came to mind was the commander beating a man's nose into his skull with the butt end of a bottle, killing him and his father because they just might have been spies. The sound of it, let alone the sight was grotesque. There was also a scene were a man has his leg cut off because the revolutionaries are held up in a cave and don't have proper medical supplies. That same doctor is shot in the back by the Commander after giving the tortured man a mercy death. Even the 'shoot out' scene after the revolutionaries try to steal supplies had haunting scenes where the soldiers put bullets in the heads of dead or nearly dead men. I remember feeling horrified by some of the images or just the sounds.

I do agree the ending was more tragic since you see that Ofila is dead, but I liked the fact that they didn't dress up the reality of it. There was a rawness throughout the film as well as darkness that Narnia didn't have even if they shared similar themes.

I also agree there was some confusing imagery with fawn and the root being more scary than the monsters she had to face. I expected the root would actually cause her mother to miscarry and kill her mother, giving Ofila all the reason she needed to return to the underworld kingdom. I didn't like that the queen was her mother either, it gave impression she had gone to heaven rather than the dark underworld that the beginning of the movie described.

Did I still enjoy it, yes. The imagery and costumes were remarkable and I have recommended it to others. I did fill it was shot darker than it needed to be, but I think it was done intentionally. It gave the film the feel of doom, which might have made the good guys winning a little contradictory, but it was a fantasy.

[trailer-spot.livejournal.com]

1. The other commentator already made the points why I also think that war was protrayed 'bad' enough. So I don't have to repeat that.

2. To me it is in a way a good ending (but maybe not 'happy'). Ofelia is re-united with her mother in death (where that takes place, I don't know. The underworld, a 'twilight' world or maybe even some sort of heaven).

3. I don't know if it was because of the fact that I had seen pictures of Pan and the Pale Man before, but I never was really scared by all the elements of the fantasy side. The giant toad (?) was a bit nasty. :)

Since I wrote my review (http://trailer-spot.livejournal.com/133105.html) discussions with other people here on LJ made some things clearer to me.
Pan is testing Ofelia. Three tasks of complete. She does the first thing without asking. During the second one she already starts to disobey the orders she's been giving (she eats grapes) and when it comes to the third task she refuses to give Pan her brother. Which is just what Pan is excpecting from her.
That the movie itself is about disobedience/rebellion is made clear by the doctor in his final words when he tells the captain that he refuses to follow orders without thinking.

So since I first wrote my thoughts things are much clearer now to me. I still have some issues with the plot development of the war part, but it now leaves a much better overall impression.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I still haven't seen this, but I ordered the DVD from the UK (where it comes out pretty soon), so I can see it at home, at least, even if the screen is small. (Mostly, with my bad vision, I'm just worried about being able to read the subtitles.)

Sorry for the late comment.

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a chance to read much this week so far. Busy busy bzoppa!

When I watched this, I took the fantasy elements at face value. Then I went to imdb and read the following in a summary:

The girl lives in an imaginary world of her own creation and faces the real world with much chagrin. Fascist repression towards the end of World War II (1944) is at its height in rural Spain and the girl must come to terms with that through a fable of her own.

I never went back to rewatch it so there could've been a hard and fast clue that this isn't a possibility, but it made me think of her adventures as wholly imaginary on her part. It makes her ruining the dress to confront the toad even more sad and hurtful towards her mother. Not that Ophelia didn't truly believe she was fulfilling a task, but her mother was then right that she was acting out.

In this light, her death at the end to me isn't a matter of her going to heaven or hell or reuniting with her family. Instead it's her dying creation that she succeeded in her tasks and believed herself to becoming a princess. When, really, she'd just been tragically and stupidly killed.

trailer_spot made a brilliant observation above, about her rebellion escalating through the three tasks. Wonderful point.