Pan’s Labyrinth

June 15th, 2007 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

Not sure where I heard of this movie, but I finally got the opportunity to watch it this afternoon. The Apple trailer website for the film describes Pan’s Labyrinth¹ as “a gothic fairytale set against the postwar repression of Franco’s Spain. Harnessing the formal characteristics of classic folklore to a 20th Century landscape, [Guillermo] del Toro delivers a timeless tale of good and evil, bravery and sacrifice, love and loss.”

After the movie, my brother and I talked about it and decided to both give it a rating out of ten. My initial reaction was eight, but the more I think about it the more I want to give it a nine or a ten. The movie is basically a fairy tale for adults, which is partly what makes the movie so moving. It’s a fairy tale that feels real. The next part might have some spoilers, so if you want to see the movie (and you should), maybe you should hold off reading the rest until you’ve seen it. If you’ve (a) already seen it or (b) don’t care, just click below.

During dinner last night, my mom mentioned something about how Ofelia created the fairy tale to cope with the harsh reality of her life, something which hadn’t even occurred to me. The movie does leave it up for interpretation, so she made her case (Ofelia created the fairy world) and I made mine (the fairy world was reality). If you’ve seen the movie, what is your personal opinion? Leave a comment below.

In addition, I found the underlying religious themes to be particularly compelling. Take for example, the story of Princess Moanna told to Ofelia by the faun:

A long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Princess who dreamed of the human world. She dreamed of blue skies, soft breeze, and sunshine. One day, eluding her keepers, the Princess escaped. Once outside, the brightness blinded her and erased every trace of the past from her memory. She forgot who she was and where she came from. Her body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, she died. However, her father, the King, always knew that the Princess’ soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for her, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning.

If nothing else, that is a rather poetic telling of the Gospel. Check it out:

Anyway, Pan’s Labyrinth is a great film and I’m sure it will impress me even more the next time I watch it. Please leave a comment if you’ve seen the movie!

1. The original Spanish title is El laberinto del fauno, which literally translates as “The Labyrinth of the Faun”. ↩
2. Don’t forget that the biblical writers didn’t know the world was round and thus wouldn’t have used this phrase. ↩