The Juice Bar

My muses, thoughts, ideas, and whatever

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth

I recently saw a fascinating film called Pan's Labyrinth. It's a dark fantasy directed by a Mexican director named Guillermo Del Toro. The film is set in the early 1940s, during the time of the Spanish Civil War. A twelve-year-old girl has a father who is a cruel war leader who tortures his prisoners. Her mother is sick with a disease, and the mother and daughter live in a camp established by the fascist army in which their father is involved with. The girl finds a stone labyrinth, and explores it to get away from her father. There she sees strange fairy-like creatures that kind of look like buzzing dragonflies. They lead her to a strange-looking blue faun-like creature. The faun tells the girl she must perform three tasks, and if she passes them, she will become a princess. The tasks have some parallel with what's going on in the real world as well, as far as helping her mother get better, and with his father fighting a rebel army.

The imagination and creativity of this fantasy world is amazing, as well as some of the other creatures she encounters, who are both terrifying and alluring. As I said, the film is quite dark, and the war scenes that the girl's father are a part of, are quite violent. But, the creatures are fascinating. It's the best film I've seen over the past year.

There are some really cool photos from the film at these links:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pans_labyrinth/photos.php
http://www.deltorofilms.com/Features_PanPictures.php

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