Jump to content

Guillermo Del Toro's 'Pan's Labyrinth'

Roboplegic Wrongcock

By Roboplegic Wrongcock,
in Film, TV & Radio

 Share

Recommended Posts

DC Lemon

DC Lemon

Posted
Posted

Well.. I think at this moment I'd place it in my top ten favorite films of all-time so what else is there to say really? Cinematic genius is self-evident.

I felt the same way when I came out of the cinema. It feels wrong for us mere mortals to try and articulate why the film is so brilliant, we just have to register our approval and humbly move on. Oh, if only I had the skills of Paul Ross :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shoes

Shoes

Posted
Posted

I felt the same way when I came out of the cinema. It feels wrong for us mere mortals to try and articulate why the film is so brilliant, we just have to register our approval and humbly move on. Oh, if only I had the skills of Paul Ross :P

"It's Pan-tastic!" - Paul Ross, This Morning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
CrispinG

CrispinG

Posted
Posted

I saw it tonight with Shoes. After Kermode's lavish praise, the Oscar nominations and Shoes himself placing it in his all-time top ten and naming it the best film of 2006, my hopes were sky high. And honestly, I have to say I was a little disappointed.

There were really only two scenes I'd describe as 'fantastical' - the frog and the banquet - with the rest of Ofelia's story consisting of brief conversations with the faun, so I did feel a little betrayed. I was hoping to be shown an entire magical kingdom, but we really only see three closed sets in the fantasy world: the court at the end, the inside of the fig tree and the banquet hall. Everything else takes place in Spain.

I also found it difficult to watch after "The Devil's Backbone", because there were so many similarities that I began to wonder if Del Toro hasn't just recycled half his characters from the earlier film. The Captain, the doctor, Ofelia and Mercedes all bear striking resemblance (not physical) to equivalent characters in "The Devil's Backbone". This tackled a lot of the same themes, too: childhood abuse, being orphaned, even the Spanish Civil War setting is identical.

I did like it. I liked it a lot. I thought the entire cast was always convincing, especially the guy playing the faun, who does an amazing job of expressing that character with the way he moves and gestures. The set design is amazing, as was the lighting and camera work. It was technically excellent, just like "The Devil's Backbone" - which I didn't particularly care for. Again, both films are exceptionally cruel and bleak, though "Pan's Labyrinth" less so, and as a director I find Del Toro pretty cold, which doesn't work for me when he deals with material as emotionally charged as this, because there's so much suffering and abuse that it really needs a convincing emotional pay-off to make all the suffering worthwhile. And I haven't found that in either "Pan's Labyrinth" or "The Devil's Backbone". Both movies have very logical, fitting conclusions, but I just felt empty after watching them.

I'll probably try to organise my thoughts on it a bit more later, because it's a film I was excited about for a long time and I'm still thinking about it.

"United 93" is still the best film of 2006.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Andsom

Andsom

Posted
Posted

I saw it tonight with Shoes. After Kermode's lavish praise, the Oscar nominations and Shoes himself placing it in his all-time top ten and naming it the best film of 2006, my hopes were sky high. And honestly, I have to say I was a little disappointed.

There were really only two scenes I'd describe as 'fantastical' - the frog and the banquet - with the rest of Ofelia's story consisting of brief conversations with the faun, so I did feel a little betrayed. I was hoping to be shown an entire magical kingdom, but we really only see three closed sets in the fantasy world: the court at the end, the inside of the fig tree and the banquet hall. Everything else takes place in Spain.

I also found it difficult to watch after "The Devil's Backbone", because there were so many similarities that I began to wonder if Del Toro hasn't just recycled half his characters from the earlier film. The Captain, the doctor, Ofelia and Mercedes all bear striking resemblance (not physical) to equivalent characters in "The Devil's Backbone". This tackled a lot of the same themes, too: childhood abuse, being orphaned, even the Spanish Civil War setting is identical.

I did like it. I liked it a lot. I thought the entire cast was always convincing, especially the guy playing the faun, who does an amazing job of expressing that character with the way he moves and gestures. The set design is amazing, as was the lighting and camera work. It was technically excellent, just like "The Devil's Backbone" - which I didn't particularly care for. Again, both films are exceptionally cruel and bleak, though "Pan's Labyrinth" less so, and as a director I find Del Toro pretty cold, which doesn't work for me when he deals with material as emotionally charged as this, because there's so much suffering and abuse that it really needs a convincing emotional pay-off to make all the suffering worthwhile. And I haven't found that in either "Pan's Labyrinth" or "The Devil's Backbone". Both movies have very logical, fitting conclusions, but I just felt empty after watching them.

I'll probably try to organise my thoughts on it a bit more later, because it's a film I was excited about for a long time and I'm still thinking about it.

"United 93" is still the best film of 2006.

Del Toro made Pan's Labyrinth as a kind of companion piece to Devil's Backbone. I wasn't let down at all by it, but I do understand why you were expecting more fantasy. It was marketed pretty badly in that respect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kerraig UK

kerraig UK

Posted
Posted

I finally saw this last night and my feelings about it exactly mirror Crispins. In fact, he did a great job of explaining what I was having trouble putting into words.

SOME MILD SPOILERS

Fairy tales are bleak and violent for a reason. 1. to warn kids away from danger and 2. to make the inevitable payoff all the more satisfying.

This failed for me because Ofelia was more or less a perfect child. more than that she was actually quite a blank canvas. The scene where she ate the grapes made no sense to me at all. Are they saying she's greedy? or was she intoxicated by the look of the fruit? i dont get it.

Also, the 'payff' at the end is not remotely satisfying. For one it is suggested that it could all just be in her head. A childs way of blocking out the horrors of war/ On top of that, we leave poor Mercedes heartbroken.

It just seemed to me like Del toro was reluctant to let even a happy ending spoil the mood. Which I thought was a real shame.

I still thoroughly enjoyed it and found it beautiful and captivating. But I was a bit confused by it.

I also found the torture scene and the bit with the guy hunting the rabbit to be completely gratuitous and crass. I dont mind a bit of gore but just thought that in a film with such a fantastical feel it really wasn't neccessary. It's a film i wanted my 7 year old daughter to watch but those 2 scenes mean I cant, despite them not adding anything to the plot (the captain is villain enough without them).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
superfunk

superfunk

Posted
Posted

I also found the torture scene and the bit with the guy hunting the rabbit to be completely gratuitous and crass. I dont mind a bit of gore but just thought that in a film with such a fantastical feel it really wasn't neccessary. It's a film i wanted my 7 year old daughter to watch but those 2 scenes mean I cant, despite them not adding anything to the plot (the captain is villain enough without them).

Just those two? I was amazed the film was a 15. There was the rabbit glassing scene, The torture scene, the shooting of the young resistance guy in the head through his hand, the slitting of the guy's cheek etc etc. Is was more brutal than anything I've seen in, say, a Scorcese movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shoes

Shoes

Posted
Posted

Just those two? I was amazed the film was a 15. There was the rabbit glassing scene, The torture scene, the shooting of the young resistance guy in the head through his hand, the slitting of the guy's cheek etc etc. Is was more brutal than anything I've seen in, say, a Scorcese movie.

The Pale Man is the scariest thing I've seen in years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CrispinG

CrispinG

Posted
Posted

This failed for me because Ofelia was more or less a perfect child. more than that she was actually quite a blank canvas. The scene where she ate the grapes made no sense to me at all. Are they saying she's greedy? or was she intoxicated by the look of the fruit? i dont get it.

I interpreted that as just a fairy tale convention, [academic]and possibly a reference to Genesis[/academic].

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DC Lemon

DC Lemon

Posted
Posted

Havent seen this yet but really want to, trying to avoid reading too much about it. I've ordered the Del Toro set off HMV that has Cronos, ..Backbone and Pans in. Only £18 :lol:

It's currently listed as only having 3 discs, while the standard Pan's Labyrinth DVD is a 2-disc release.

Exclusive play.com sleeve & art cards: http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=20047&a=1043213&g=606309&url=http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3257088/Pan_Lab...th/Product.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Straps

Straps

Posted
Posted

Saw it, loved it.

One of the most emotional endings I've seen in ages as well (my eyes were very nearly watering when Ofelia died). I took it as a sweet tragedy, that things were solely in her head (a couple of things, mainly the shot where Vidal sees her talking to no-one) - She wanted to "leave this place", and the only way she could get there was through death itself. I think I might have missed the point judging by the last few pages, though. Oh well, I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CurryKitten

CurryKitten

Posted
Posted

One of the most emotional endings I've seen in ages as well (my eyes were very nearly watering when Ofelia died). I took it as a sweet tragedy, that things were solely in her head (a couple of things, mainly the shot where Vidal sees her talking to no-one) - She wanted to "leave this place", and the only way she could get there was through death itself. I think I might have missed the point judging by the last few pages, though. Oh well, I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway.

That seems to be the logical explanation yes, but I have to say this film made me want to believe in magic - that everything Ofelia saw was real and she did

pass the tests, and take up her throne next to the king

I was totally mesmerised by the fairy-tale part of the movie, the civil war part (of which I don't know the historical reference really) I was less interested in. Though managed to created a geniuinly frightening character in the Captain

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shoes

Shoes

Posted
Posted

Isn't there a voice over which says something like 'there were signs of her passing, for those who knew how to look'? Doesn't that suggest that some people - possibly adults - can't see the magic? That would explain Vidal's shot of Ofelia talking to no-one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Graham S

Graham S

Posted
Posted

What a disappointment. I expected that bloody Mark Kermode would over-rate a movie like this, but I was still expecting much more. It looked lovely, and I really enjoyed the violence and torture, but the rest of it seemed very average: a half-decent, pedestrian, slow-moving kid's film with some added spice. Fascists are bad. I get it. The Captain was as interesting and complex a villain as a wicked headmaster in a kid's TV show or an Australian soap-opera. Unless I'm missing something hugely important, the fantasy elements didn't really cast any interesting new light on the "real" story. There was an empty hole where the heart of this superficial movie should have been.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Paradigm

Paradigm

Posted
Posted

I thought it was absolutely fantastic. For me it was all about what I thought was the analogy of Franco's Spain and its creation/destruction etc. - I don't know if that's general theory about the movie but I haven't read anything about it. (Though reading up a bit some people think the magic is actually magic, so obviously it's open to interpretation!) Thought the little girl was magical in it and it looked stunning. It's a story about the average person during war, to me, and that's what I took away from the film.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
JohnC

JohnC

Posted
Posted

Only just seen it on DVD, without knowing anything more than just seeing the trailer. I was expecting maybe something like a darker Narnia story with the tree replacing the wardrobe, but it was completely different. But it was great, and in the end better than I expected. Wasn't expecting it to be as grim, despite the 18 rating it got here. I wasn't disappointed that it had less fantasy stuff than I expected, which some here seem to have complained about. I thought both sides worked out nicely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Professor Puzzles

Professor Puzzles

Posted
Posted
Saw it, loved it.

One of the most emotional endings I've seen in ages as well (my eyes were very nearly watering when Ofelia died). I took it as a sweet tragedy, that things were solely in her head (a couple of things, mainly the shot where Vidal sees her talking to no-one) - She wanted to "leave this place", and the only way she could get there was through death itself. I think I might have missed the point judging by the last few pages, though. Oh well, I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway.

The magic had to be real as Ofelia escapes from her room near the end by drawing a magic door with some chalk. We don't see her do it, but there are guards stationed outside her door and later on we see a new chalk door drawn on the bedroom wall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cheeko

Cheeko

Posted
Posted
What a disappointment. I expected that bloody Mark Kermode would over-rate a movie like this, but I was still expecting much more. It looked lovely, and I really enjoyed the violence and torture, but the rest of it seemed very average: a half-decent, pedestrian, slow-moving kid's film with some added spice. Fascists are bad. I get it. The Captain was as interesting and complex a villain as a wicked headmaster in a kid's TV show or an Australian soap-opera. Unless I'm missing something hugely important, the fantasy elements didn't really cast any interesting new light on the "real" story. There was an empty hole where the heart of this superficial movie should have been.

o/\o

I score pans labyrinthe: Disappointed/5

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Use of this website is subject to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Guidelines.

  I accept