Mike Buska Buska
1
Professor K. Mirrer
Film Theory
October 23, 2012
Pan’s
Labyrinth (2006)
Writer/Director-
Guillermo Del Toro
Genre:
Drama, Fantasy, War
The film is set in mountainous 1940’s
Spain. It tells the tale of young girl
who leaves her city home to come to the country with her pregnant mother, in
order to be closer to her step father when the baby is born. There is an
overlying sense of fantasy and wonder that surrounds the protagonist “Ofelia”
that seems to stem from her negative feelings about her step father and her new
home. She stumbles upon a labyrinth in the woods and delves into a journey that
provides her with a great escape from her harsh reality. Drama ensues when
Ofelia has trouble juggling her human life with that of her mythical life as a
princess, which makes for a great story.
To compare the movie with another would
be difficult as it bridges the gap between multiple Genres. Though there are
elements of Pan’s Labyrinth that definitely show signs of Realism vs. Antirealism.
As mentioned in the text “An interest or concern for the actual or real” vs.
“an interest in the fantastic or abstract” takes place. I would argue in that
aspect that the film is similar to Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Edward
Norton. In both films there are
depictions of
very mundane or depressing real life situations and elements of fantastic
fantasies that no one knows about except the protagonist.
When It comes to theories, I feel there
is an Eisenstein esq aspect to the movie. It does a good job of narrating and foreshadowing,
while fragmenting some scenes such as when Ophelia goes into the dungeon with
the pale man. She looks around seeing the paintings of him devouring children
and she remembers what the faun says about not eating the food or else. It is
definitely much more advanced due to modern technology compared to that in
Eisenstein’s day so things are nowhere near as choppy, but there are
similarities none the less.
As stated in Roger Ebert’s Article for
the Chicago Sun Times, "Pan's Labyrinth" is one of the cinema's great
fantasies, rich with darkness and wonder. “Ebert goes on to compare the film
with the likes of Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of OZ. He does a great
job of giving words to the emotions I felt while watching this movie, and I
feel that his comparisons are spot on.
Another Article, written for film
quarterly in the University of California press journals takes a more
analytical approach to discuss how the use of factual, historic situations
mixed with a compelling story can make a film a success all over the world even
in countries that do not speak Spanish.
“Pan’s Labyrinth reveals that, given sympathy and attention, films based
on local events can have immediate and profound significance for global
audiences.” This is a great point to be made as it shows you don’t have to be
the grandson of George Lucas and have a baptism by fire into the film industry
to produce a successful movie; however those connections certainly wouldn’t
hurt.
I personally had mixed feelings about
the film. It was definitely out there as far as the fantasy aspect goes, and
usually that’s not my cup of tea; now adding on the fact that the entire film
was in a foreign language and I have a recipe for disaster but somehow I
couldn’t have been more enthralled in the plot. I always love a movie that you
just can’t look away from and Guillermo Del Toro did an outstanding job of
creating just that. The biggest impact I got from the whole experience however
had to do with the second article I referenced, and how powerful a story can be
regardless of where it comes from. I’ve seen movies where they dub over the
actors voices with English, and it totally destroys the dramatic experience.
Even if you don’t understand the words themselves, being able to hear the tone
in which an actor is speaking is plenty powerful enough and makes watching a
movie with subtitles almost no different than one in English.
Works
Cited
Ebert, Roger “Pan’s Labyrinth” The Chicago Sun Times, rogerebert/suntimes.com, December 29, 2006
Smith, Paul Julian “El Labertino del fauno” Film Quarterly, University of California
Press journals. www.jstor.org,
Summer 2007
Barsam, Richard. Monahan, Dave “Looking At Movies,
an introduction to film” W.W. Norton Company Publishing
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