on the path…”pan’s labrynth”
Last night my friend Tim, aka Riles, and I went to see Pan’s Labrynth at the Vista Theatre. I love the Vista. it’s an old Art Decco theatre with a bunch of active neon lights outside, and an L.A. landmark. It’s probably the biggest screen I’ve seen too. So I thought “Pan’s Labyrinth” would be a good movie to see there.
Fantasy movies are hit & miss with me but this one was really good without being cheesy. In fact unless I missed something, it’s one of the saddest movies I’ve seen over the past 13 months. And I’ve seen some pretty heavy bleak stuff!
-WELCOME TO TANGENT #1
Take the movie called “Children of Men” for example. Children of men stars Clive Owen who is fast becoming one of my favorite actors and was THE bleakest and saddest movie I’d seen, but there was an underlying thread of collective hope in it.
Plus it featured “In the Court of the Crimson King” by King Crimson. In my book the music supervisor deserves an award for that alone! Essentially, “Children of Men” was about a newborn baby with the collective hope, that because of it’s existence, humanity could be preserved in a time of war, famine and destruction.
-WELCOME TO MY POINT:
The baby in “Pan’s Labrynth”, also represents the possibility of carrying on the human species. But the hope is unclear. Only a hint. I guess I wanted to see more undeniable hope.
Was it well done, though? Yes. And that’s all I know about film making.
I thought the the little girl was adorable. She did a great job with her character (I talk as if I know something about acting). I’ll say this. That little girl held my attention. And she got in trouble a lot, which made her character very believable. That’s all I know about acting.
The Soundtrack and sound design, however, was brilliant! Tim and I talked about those aspects a long time. I’d mention the composer’s name but would be unable to spell it. The music was so appropriate for this movie though. Most pointedly, it was dominated with woodwinds and strings, which I liked very much. Very little brass - that I remember, anyway. The music completely clarified what the woods were meant to sound like for me. It renewed my respect for “Peter and the Wolf.”
As far as Fantasy movies go this one set a high benchmark. My mistake was going into it with the thought:
“Oh how lovely, movie about a little girls imagination and fairy’s.”
It’s the muddiest, and squishiest fantasy movie I’ve ever seen. Did Del Toro study with Terry Gilliam? anyone?
The biggest surprise for me was that this movie was about War. I thought the war was supposed to be the backdrop; I found it to take more center stage. This is a departure from what critical reviews say about this movie.
Overall all though I thought it was a fantastic movie. But it made me squirm. And I became completely attached with hope to the little girl trying to save her mother, newborn brother, her friend and lastly herself.
I felt like I needed to watch something about penguins afterward.
Stephen A. Thomas
February 13th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Del Toro got his start making horror movies…pretty gruesome ones at that. It’s where he made his name. The he moved up (or laterally, depending on your point of view) to Hellboy (which is a great flick, btw), then to Pan. I’ve read good things, but I don’t think it’s playing here. The last thing of Del Toro’s I saw, incidentally, was a Hellboy animated movie he produced. The guy is heavily into Hellboy.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Jeff thanks for clearing that up. Because I tend to stay away from horror films. The closest thing to horror film I saw last year was a rental of Sin City. That makes perfect sense that Del Toro made horror movies. Those aspects of Pan’s were phenomenal to watch.