Pan's Labyrinth

[intertext]

This was an amazing movie; it's going to haunt my dreams. I was warned about the violence, and it was rather violent, but I didn't find it gratuitous. Strangely, I think I found the scene where the creature with the eyes in its hands ate the fairies almost worse than the casual brutality of the fascist captain - don't know why. I wasn't expecting it to be as sad as it was. I was glad I went with Kelly - we sat side by side, dumbstruck, sniffing and wiping our eyes at the end and that was okay. It had the most intense, sustained, uniform artistic vision of anything I've seen for a long time; there was nothing out of step, no unecessary subplots or side business. It was beautiful, brilliant, dreamlike: to coin a phrase, awesome.

There were things about it that I need to think about. I found it interesting that in many ways the morality of the fantasy world seemed more ambiguous than that of the "real" world - at least as it was presented in the film's vision. In the "real" world the good were good and the bad were BAD. I can't say a lot about how things worked themselves out without massive spoilers, but this ambiguity seems even more interesting when considered in light of the way some people are interpreting the fantasy world as Ofelia's "escape" from the "real" world. If the fantasy world is a reflection of the internal life or wish-fulfillment of a child, you'd think it would be more black and white.

I think it's a testament to how well fantasy, when it's presented with the kind of respect for audience that this film is, can treat serious themes, in fact can get to the heart of serious themes in ways that perhaps other genres can not.

Comments

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Well kind of (people accept the fantastic)... Mercedes says she used to believe in fairies but doesn't any more now she's grown up. And really noone sees the fantastic creatures except Ofelia (and us, of course...). I came out thinking - of course, WE want to believe the fantasy part is "real" because it offers some hope; otherwise, it's all just too harsh.

And I think the non-conformity theory tied in in a slightly better way than I articulated to my thoughts about the ambiguity of the fairies and the faun (although I do think it's a bit too simplistic). Like the episode with the keyholes - Ofelia had been told to follow the lead of the fairies, right? Yet remember what happened? That's the ambiguity I was thinking about and where you could say that her NOT being unquestioningly obedient was a positive thing, even though the fairies were theoretically "good."

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Well, without too many spoilers, Ofelia does get out of the room...and the mandrake really existed ... And when she really didn't listen to the fairies (as opposed to ignoring them when they were not sure), that's when things went bad. I don't know that I saw the fantasy part as offering hope, though. For me, it was entirely separate. She just happened to show up near the gate to faery because she was supposed to -- because we all know that's what happens.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Well, the only part where it really offered real hope was at the very end and I can't expand on that without spoilers (drat) but you probably know what I mean...

And yeah, you're right about the mandrake. And she had to have used the chalk to have escaped from her room at the end, too. So the magic must have been real. Yes.

Yes. It was a very cool movie. And I need to see it again, I think :)

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

It was amazingly good. But I don't know if I can do the violence again ...