Pan's Labyrinth

[lesbiassparrow]

Last night I saw this and wow! People had warned me it was dark, but no one told me how dark



I left the cinema reeling from a few of the scenes, but in particular the one of the captain having his cheek cut open and then SEWING IT UP. That scene went on forever and was perhaps the most gruesome thing I've seen in years (normally I avoid horror films of that type). Visually it was quite gorgeous though, which probably made the violence stand out even more.

The film killed people off with gay abandon, didn't it? I really thought poor old Mercedes and her brother were for it too, especially when the fact that she was helping what was left of the Republicans came out. But yay for her trusty knife! That's what years of chopping veggies for fascists does for you: builds up those stabbing skills. I guess there's some sort of justice in that.

All of the acting was superb - I don't think there was single wrong note in all the film - but the girl who played Ofelia was astonishing. She went from wonder to terror to sadness so perfectly.

Favourite scenes:

The Doctor telling Captain Vidal that he couldn't just follow orders like him and then walking away so sad and you know he knows he's going to get shot, but he just keeps walking all calm and doomed. The captain is calm also but it's the calmness of someone with no soul at all.

Mercedes telling the captain that his son will never grow up to know who he was and the stone cold look on her face as she says it - so different from how she had been with the dying Ofelia.

Ofelia meeting the faun and the final scene (which I comfort myself is the truth and she's managed to make it home. Yes) with the look on her face and seeing her father and mother and everything is suddenly perfect.

Comments

I liked it, but it was dark.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm glad that the Captain can't see the faun: Evil lacks imagination! You can read my review here: http://americasyoungtheologian.blogspot.com/2007/01/film-review-of-pans-labyrinth.html

Re: I liked it, but it was dark.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to your review.

And the Captain could not see anything that didn't revolve around his limited sense of honour.

[queenthesixth.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a fantastic film. The effect of the Captain sewing up his face was brilliant and horrible at the same time. And the bit where he's about to interrogate the rebel who stammers and the guy is trying to say the sentence without stammering so he'll get away - plain broke my heart! Then there was the suspense and terror of what was going to happen to him without any need to show us him being beaten and interrogated at all. That's my problem with a lot of movies like Hostel, they're just gore fests and I have no involvement with the characters so I don't care if they're about to lose an eye in the most graphic detail.

I tell myself the same thing about the final scene as well. Otherwise I'd have bawled my eyes out in the cinema and lost all credibility. :-) It's a pity it didn't win the Golden Globe. It's on the shortlist for the Oscar nominations - hopefully it'll get the nom and the win.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I thought it was marvellous - it's just that although I knew that it was dark but not quite so bloody (I am currently blaming my sister for telling me about the darkness but not the violence!). I agree that everything worked; I didn't think any of it was just there to shock, but still I left the cinema quite traumatized.

And yes on the ending - I hoped that Ofelia was finally happy and the partisans escaped to France with the end of the Nazis and that some of them got to have happy endings as well. Particularly Mercedes who was so wonderful and risked so much and in the end was there for Ofelia.