Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

[Scott]

PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006) - This Spanish film with subtitles has really good production values for a foriegn film. The story is also very good and takes place in 1944 Spain during the war which involves the resistance. All this is the backdrop to a young girls fairytales and an encounter with fairy mythical type creatures. The Spanish Army Captain is especially cruel and you can feel how the young girl may have escaped into her fairytales to the point of experiencing them and true to life when it comes to the other worldly things those in the real world most notably those viewing the film don't know if she was fantasizing or what?


(8 out of 10 Stars) I'm starting a new post here as Andrew's older post promted me to start a new one since it was over 90 days ago.



[youtube=425,350]http://youtube.com/watch?v=EqYiSlkvRuw

[trekgeezer]

A beautiful and heart-breaking film.  Guillermo del Toro is a great film maker.  I liked the fact that you couldn't buy a dubbed version of the film, dubbing can be very distracting.

[Khaz]

This movie sits on the top of my good movie list. The story was excellent and just disturbing enough without going overboard. Same goes with the effects (the scene with the razor at the corner of the mouth still gives me the willies) All in all, this one is a must own.

[indianasmith]

This was indeed an EXCELLENT film.  My wife even liked it, and she is NOT much of a horror fan . .  it was on that fine line between horror and fantasy.  The evil beast that nearly caught the little girl . . . the one with the eyes in its palms . . . was one of the creepiest creatures in the history of cinema!

[Snivelly]

I must have watched this one a dozen times in the past few months and I find something new about it every time.  But as much as I love this one, I do think I prefer an earlier film del Toro did, The Devil's Backbone.

[Neville]

Great movie. I like the combination of grim "real" scenes with the fantastic perils of the little girl. The acting is great too, Ivana Baquero, the girl, is awesome, and Sergi López does one of his best work ever as the Captain.

It always strucks me how Del Toro manages to put all the pieces together. He's one of those directors who likes to handle lots of genres and influences at the same time, but he always manages to fall on his feet. I'd swear some moments in this movie (Vidal's men on horseback, the maquis' attack to the train) have some Spaghetti Western flavour.

And no, I'm not alucinating, it's been months since I saw my last SW.

[HarlotBug3]

It still disgusts me that so many people who fancy themselves film buffs refuse to teach themselves to read subtitles. If you're one of those people, this movie will show you what you're missing, if not, then you should have seen this one by now, really.

[Neville]

So true, there's a whole world out there, and you can't expect distributors to pay a dubbing for a movie they consider minor. Not to mention it often ruins the acting.

[Snivelly]

It still disgusts me that so many people who fancy themselves film buffs refuse to teach themselves to read subtitles. If you're one of those people, this movie will show you what you're missing, if not, then you should have seen this one by now, really.

Karma for you.....dubbing ruins films, and a film like this one HAS to be heard in the original to appreciate the acting.  I hate dubbed movies.     

[HarlotBug3]

On the other hand and a lighter note (and to bump a movie that didn't get nearly enough attention) there is some good dubbing in Anime (10-5%) that helps give characters more distinct voices---also, Dragonball dubbed in Spanish is hilarious. 

[Rev. Powell]

Just saw PAN'S LABYRINTH.  This is a great movie, and a great good movie for lovers of bad movies.   Who was scarier, the Pale Man or El Capitan?

Del Toro's DVD commentary is the best I've ever heard, and takes the viewer deep inside the creative process.  The logic of the imagery in this movie is amazing, and much of it works on a subconscious level.  Without this commentary I would have never consciously noticed the fact that the tree Ofelia climbs under to rescue the key from the frog resembles a uterus, with the dead branches representing the Fallopian tubes.  Or that the shape of the tree echoes the shape of the faun's horns.  Del Toro provides many other examples of how the imagery echoes (or as he says, "rhymes") throughout different parts of the film, as well as explaining the logic behind his use of color schemes to represent interior and exterior, the magical world and the mundane worlds, and how the schemes start to bleed into one another as the film continues.   Brilliant. 

[Scott]

El Capitan was extremely cruel.

[Torgo]

***1/2 out of ****.

A fantastic movie but just a small amount of pacing issues at times keeps me from giving it a perfect score.  One of the most visually stunning and imaginative movies that I've seen in eons. Terrific performances all around.  This feels like something that Terry Gilliam would have been interested in thematically.

[dinosaur_jr.]

i had to travel a long distance to watch this movie in the only theater showing it...and i´m glad it didn´t dissapoint me.Great acting,story and good special effects.Hope i can buy the movie soon.

about the subtitles,it depends on the movie  ...sometimes is bad, because if they say something funny(not talking about this movie)you start laughing before they say it completely(at least is weird in the theater,if you are reading faster than the others to not miss much about the movie,acting etc)...but is better than dubbed(usually).I recently buy a movie called Day of the beast ..by Álex de la Iglesia,Didn´t notice it wasn´t in spanish .And the english version is terrible.



 

[Fausto]

Without this commentary I would have never consciously noticed the fact that the tree Ofelia climbs under to rescue the key from the frog resembles a uterus, with the dead branches representing the Fallopian tubes.  Or that the shape of the tree echoes the shape of the faun's horns.   

I remember thinking that before - not about the tree, but in the scene when the book starts bleeding, the blood seems to form the shape of a uterus and fallopian tubes, which makes sense when you consider what it predicts.