Pan's Labyrinth

furrypedro · Post by **furrypedro** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:21 pm

I had a group of my friends gush to me on a number of occasions about this, and I thought it would be right up my street. Then I made the mistake of agreeing to watch a downloaded copy with said friends (all of whom had seen it before and proceeded to talk over the whole thing). It seemed like the kind of thing that would be right up my street and I think I ruined my first exposure to it. So you know my opinion is less than well informed.

I thought this would have worked well as a pure Spanish civil war film; it doesn't give much insight into the bigger picture, but we know how it turned out so this does well to focus on the personal level. It is very gritty in places but thankfully refrains from any full-on gore which I was definitely not in the mood for when watching the film. The characters were good too, they create tension and make you unsure (in places) who to root for which I appreciate as I don't like being told "here are the good guys", and that is absolutley not to say it has any fascist sympathies.

On the fantasy side, I was left severely wanting, and I attribute this mainly to the circumstances in which I watched the film so don't take what I say as a well informed opinion (crucially, I've been told, I missed the toad bit). This part revolves around the protagonist and her 3 tasks, at the end of which....what? I was left with a feeling that there was a lack of resolution, not much point, and nothing really acheived. I don't require a perfect conclusion to events by any means, in the form of a happy ending or return to a status quo, but I wanted more than that. At least a warm fuzzy feeling a la Spirited Away, but no. This is almost definitely a result of my less than complete viewing experience, so I plan to go back for more, and on another level the fusion of fantasy and real life civil war was a pioneering step that I found both refreshing in the friction it gave between the parallel storylines.

no grade yet, but if you're gonna watch this do it at the cinema, for the love of god.

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:43 pm

Furrypedro wrote: no grade yet, but if you're gonna watch this do it at the cinema, for the love of god.

I think that goes for just about any movie. Computers are shit for watching just about anything.

furrypedro · Post by **furrypedro** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:57 pm

Not all movies need a theatre. I didn't watch this on a computer.

Mogosagatai · Post by **Mogosagatai** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:45 am

I dunno Dan, I just saw "Citizen Kane" on a laptop.

PS in case y'all didn't know, that's a pretty good movie.

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:22 pm

limited release and I don't get to see "the best movie of the year".. what, like seattle is a backwater?

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:14 am

This movie wasn't what I was expecting.

I expected an english-language fantasy movie aimed at young-adults. Instead I got a nerve-wracking and occasionally sadistic subtitled war movie, with some fantastical elements. That said, it was quite enjoyable. It's a grim[m] story with lots of beautiful imagery and some heart-wrenching drama. I agree with Dan's sentiments that most movies deserve a theater, and that goes double for this one.

A-. It's very pretty, but the pacing feels lumpy (yeah, that's right, lumpy) and I'm still digesting the ending.

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:59 am

The commercials make me want to see this one. But alas, Muncie isn't screening this one.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:18 pm

Art Direction is incredibly beautiful. Characters are very thin. Bad guy is ridiculously unambiguous.

I wanted the fairy tale logic to be more consistent, or to have some allegorical link to what was happening in "the real world."

I don't really understand the critics' hysterics over this one. Caro / Jeunet do this genre much better, IMO.

I give it a B or B+.

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:47 pm

I read all about this one, and nobody mentioned that it was entirely in spanish. Not that I minded - as you watch on, it's almost like you don't even need to read. I love that feeling. The guy with the eyes in his hands freaked me out, especially the paintings above his table of him eating babies. I loved it though, through and through, but I'm no film critic. A!

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:35 am

ok so I did get to see this after all.

gorgeous and terrible and grotesque, like an honest to god old-school medieval fairy tail. Dificult to digest and leaves you with a not quite bright sense of the world. But boldy drawn.

Did anyone else find those drawings in the room with the eyeless creature cartoonishly humorous or am I just demented?

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:50 am

Yes, the pictures were very funny! They were a nice breath of black humor in a not-so-funny movie. Come to think of it, that's another reason I prefer Caro-Jeunet. I like my fairy tales with a little more dark humor... Like Roald Dahl!

raisedbywolves · Post by **raisedbywolves** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:49 am

This is my favorite movie of last year. I'm somewhat obsessed with it. I love its horrible violence and unambiguous bad guy. Fairy tale bad guys shouldn't be ambiguous. This is dark dark dark. It probably goes on my all time fave list. If you haven't seen it, you really must. <b>A+</b>

raisedbywolves · Post by **raisedbywolves** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:51 am

BTW, I also love Caro-Jeunet. City of Lost Children is pretty high on my list of favorites.

WesDavis · Post by **WesDavis** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:07 pm

I enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth. I didn't know a damn thing about it going in aside from the fact that there was a dude with horns in it. So the Spanish, the mostly real-world plot, the time period, the completely glorious violence -- these were all surprises to me. I don't think it was the best movie ever made by any stretch, but it was certainly enjoyable, and a pleasure to look at. I too, don't think the bad guy should've been more ambiguous. I liked that he was a complete bastard.

Egg · Post by **Egg** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:15 am

I thought the Pan part of the story matched really well with the "real" part of the story. But I didn't have subtitles, and my Spanish could be better.

THEMATIC SPOILER!!
And I noticed Pan's rhetoric was becoming more and more similar to the fascists as the movie went on. So I was really hoping that there would be some kind of realization that you can't trust a faun who asks you to march blindly through a maze because it is your birthright. Hell yeah! The fantasy escape IS LIKE a fascist nightmare.

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:50 pm

I cannot stress enough how much I loved this movie. Best movie I've seen in a long time. A+

mr_lostman · Post by **mr_lostman** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:49 pm

I really dug this movie too. Way violent though. That surpirsed me. But it truly was glorious. The mandrake baby freaked the hell out of me. I'm still having some trouble seeing how the fantasy and the real world mirrored each other.

*spoiler*
But the baby-eater guy had a funky walk like the captain did at the end. I think its a connection (you get me?).

anyways great movie. Expect the unexpected. It just happens.

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 2:52 pm

Yeah, it was really violent at parts, but what I loved about some of the violence is that it actually was emotionally satisfying.

SPOILER
I'm thinking of the two acts of against the Captain. The first being Mercedes destroying the Captain's face. The second being when Mercedes tells the captain "He won't even know your name," before the soldier shoots him through the cheek.

That was just the best and most well-earned violence I've ever seen. I can't wait til this is played in the dollar theatre so I can go see it again.

And yeah, the mandrake baby was pretty creepy.

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Tue May 29, 2007 9:02 am

Gorgeous. Though the reach-around at the very end felt like it was tacked on after receiving the preview audience test cards. I'm happy that the Jeunet brothers (sp?) now have imitators of their own.

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Tue May 29, 2007 2:53 pm

mr_lostman wrote:But the baby-eater guy had a funky walk like the captain did at the end. I think its a connection

That's really interesting. I like the idea.

fodroy wrote:Yeah, it was really violent at parts, but what I loved about some of the violence is that it actually was emotionally satisfying.

I totally agree. It's the first time I've been glad to see a man have his face slashed open on the big screen.

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth

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