Pan's Labyrinth

"Pan's Labyrinth" (otherwise known as "Laberinto del Fauno, El") was a film I had been waiting to see for a long time, having heard many great things about it. It was voted second best film of 2006 by Empire Magazine, recieved six Oscar nominations and won three awards, and even picked up a supposedly twenty minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival - therefore, it had to be worth watching.

The film is directed completely in Spanish by Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro ("Blade 2", "Hellboy") as it is set during the Spanish Civil War. With it partly being a war film, "Pan's Labyrinth" obviously contains that background context and Del Toro sets up a scenario in amongst all that is going on where a brutal Falangist Captain is tasked with routing out the remaining leftists from the woods and hills of Northern Spain. However, 12 year-old Ofelia(played to absolute perfection, by the then 11 year old, Ivana Baquero) is brought to the camp under is power when her pregnant mother agrees to marry him, as well as carrying his son. Ofelia is uncomfortable with her new surroundings, suspicious of her stepfather and desperately concerned about the worsening condition of her mother; particularly when realising the sheer monstrousness of her new stepfather. In dealling with the situation, she uncovers a strange alternative world, and the chance to escape forever the pain and uncertainty of her everyday life.

I was actually surprised by the amount of violence and brutality that the film contained; half-expecting it to be aimed at a slightly younger audience due to it's make-believe, fairytale-like story, however, I thought that the contrast set up by the graphic violence against the beautifully magical creatures of the Labyrinth was a really nice effect. The film alternates between the world of Civil War Spain and the strangely mysterious world of Pan's Labyrinth which succeeds in becoming increasingly bizarre as the film progresses. This corresponds with the increasingly corrupt outside world - as reality worsens so the Labyrinth becomes more beautiful.

Huge emphasis is placed on the stark victories of the child which are heightened by the failures of the adult world. This idea of youth and innocence is a recurring theme throughout; not only is the film seen through the eyes of a child, whose duty is to protect another child (her yet-to-be-born baby brother) but even the entrance to the Labyrinth resembles the shape of a womb. The contrast between this childhood dream-world and the film's brutal imagery of the Spanish Captain massacring people - many whom are innocent - is very powerful and allows us to sympathise with young Ofelia, to the point at which we prefer imagation to reality.

Unsurprisingly, this is a film in which imagination really does prevail, with the mind of Del Toro being explored at its fullest. There are indeed Narnia-like qualities to its set up, however, there is a lot more realism about it in the sense that the Labyrinth is not neccessarily portrayed as actually being there. We are shown it through the mind of the young girl, however, whenever any other character is brought within its territory we suddenly are reduced to an image of nothing. This allows the character's who appear within the Labyrinth to be a lot more striking and in many cases personal. Del Toro, who supposedly hallucinated Fauns when he was younger, uses the Faun as almost a mentor to Ofelia, in fact claiming to be her father. He sets her challenges to be fulfilled in which she encounters other fascinating and terrifying creatures, including the wonderfully disturbing Pale Man who I felt was more frightening than most things seen in horror films these days. However, what we do realise is that the Labyrinth is a world set up for Ofelia, after losing her father, preparing her for the eventual death of her mother at the end of the film, and eventually herself. Sad as this may seem, the film's ending is in fact shown in a positive light, with her re-united with her family in what seems to be a heavenly extended version of the Labyrinth. She is now living in her imagination for eternity.

I would agree that this is probably one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen, despite its graphic brutality, which I felt was well reflective of the period of time in which this was set. As I concluded when anylising "Amores Perros" and "Children of Men", the trademark of a Mexican director is to depict a great deal of realism in the film's they direct, and here I believe the case to be the same. There is no excess violence in this Civil War/ Fantasy Drama, however, the violence is just right in highlighting the monstrousness of the adult world against the beauty of purity and innocence. In a way, "Children of Men" carried a similar message. There often seems to be morals at the end of these films, which I feel is not a bad thing, as a moral allows there to be a point to a film. In Mexican Cinema, the morals are mainly reflective of what has been learned growing up in Mexican Society, hence the reason why Mexican films are said to be political representations of their own culture. Maybe this film is not as reflective of Mexico as perhaps "Amores Perros", however, the style, the influence and the effect are all still there.