sneak: el laberinto del fauno (pan's labyrinth)
[feb 12 2007, 22:58]
what happens when someone like guillermo del toro makes a fantasy movie? what if said movie is produced by alfonso cuarón? what kind of movie does this turn into? well, not a fantasy movie at all.
it's 1944 in spain and fascism is all around. a young girl named ofelia travels to her pregnant mother's new husband, a spanish general. she, being used to flee the bleak reality by reading fairytales, stories about princesses and roses, discovers another world, with its own history, its very own set of creatures and a secret she has to uncover.
this does sound like a fairly typical fantasy movie following in the footsteps of narnia or eragon – but it isn't. what we see is a horribly detailed vision of what human beings can do to another through the eyes of a young girl. it's a war movie which touches themes like hope, sincerity and fear a lot more than drifting off into a fantasy world.
it's a really brave thing to produce a movie that somehow does fit into the fantasy drawer but is clearly and absolutely not suited for children. the movie is rather gory with scenes of interrogations, torture and murder. these scenes however were, at least in my opinion, the harmless ones. what really got me were the scenes where the everyday war situation was shown.
just like when the general's men picked up an old man and his son, suspected to be rebels. they keep affirming that they were just hunting rabbits, nothing more, when the general beats the kid to death with a wine bottle, then shoots the old man only to discover the two dead rabbits in their bag.
the movie felt a lot like a ghibli-anime (along the lines of 'nausicaä' or 'princess mononoke'), mixed with a good portion of 'saving private ryan' and 'silent hill'.
it was dark, it was dreary, it was creepy, it was horrible... and it was clearly one of the best movies i've ever seen.
so, if you get a chance, grab someone you love by the hand (because comfort may be direly needed after watching this), head out into your local cinema and watch this movie, without any expectations or premonitions. just let it overwhelm you like it overwhelmed me. and if you've got a tear in the eye at the end, you'll know what i mean.
charon
it's 1944 in spain and fascism is all around. a young girl named ofelia travels to her pregnant mother's new husband, a spanish general. she, being used to flee the bleak reality by reading fairytales, stories about princesses and roses, discovers another world, with its own history, its very own set of creatures and a secret she has to uncover.
this does sound like a fairly typical fantasy movie following in the footsteps of narnia or eragon – but it isn't. what we see is a horribly detailed vision of what human beings can do to another through the eyes of a young girl. it's a war movie which touches themes like hope, sincerity and fear a lot more than drifting off into a fantasy world.
it's a really brave thing to produce a movie that somehow does fit into the fantasy drawer but is clearly and absolutely not suited for children. the movie is rather gory with scenes of interrogations, torture and murder. these scenes however were, at least in my opinion, the harmless ones. what really got me were the scenes where the everyday war situation was shown.
just like when the general's men picked up an old man and his son, suspected to be rebels. they keep affirming that they were just hunting rabbits, nothing more, when the general beats the kid to death with a wine bottle, then shoots the old man only to discover the two dead rabbits in their bag.
the movie felt a lot like a ghibli-anime (along the lines of 'nausicaä' or 'princess mononoke'), mixed with a good portion of 'saving private ryan' and 'silent hill'.
it was dark, it was dreary, it was creepy, it was horrible... and it was clearly one of the best movies i've ever seen.
so, if you get a chance, grab someone you love by the hand (because comfort may be direly needed after watching this), head out into your local cinema and watch this movie, without any expectations or premonitions. just let it overwhelm you like it overwhelmed me. and if you've got a tear in the eye at the end, you'll know what i mean.
charon