Review of “Pan’s Labyrinth”
There’s an audacious new film that has mesmerized most all that have seen it.
The title is “El Laberinto del Fauno.” Which title translates for all not fluent in the native tongue as “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
The film is an anomaly. Rarely are foreign language films, ones with subtitles, found in suburban cineplexes. The average American moviegoer is disinclined to see a foreign language movie, especially one that hasn’t been dubbed in English.
So, from the get go, the wide release of this film in Spanish is a testament to its excellence.
Guillermo del Toro directs. He, along with two Mexican cohorts, Alejandro Inarritu (“Babel”) and Alfonso Cuaron (“Children of Men”), are ascending to the upper echelon of international film directors. Their films are routinely unique and excellent.
“Pan’s Labyrinth” is an extremely dark film, figuratively and literally. It graphically deals with trauma, psychological and physical. It is violent. Some would say to artistic effect, others would say to a fault.
Ivana Baquero is an eleven year old who travels to the countryside outside Madrid as the Spanish Civil War is ending. She is accompanying her mother who is pregnant with the child of an evil Nationalist captain, played by Sergi Lopez.
He’s an egocentric sadist. To escape her reality, the girl breaks loose into a fantasy world of her imagination inhabited by fawns, buzzing angels and a monstrous toad. It too is dark, and demanding, but in a more palatable way which allows her to cope with her grim day to day life.
The parallel story is that of the dictatorial captain who continues with his men to do battle with rebel Loyalists who inhabit the hills around the compound.
This is a truly captivating film, albeit foreboding. It is fantastic in the truest sense of the word.
“Pan’s Labyrinth” is surely among the finest movies released in 2006.
It is often called an adult fairy tale. Do not be confused by that designation. Adult is the operative word. This one is not for the kiddos.
It is unlike anything most filmgoers have ever seen, and is a must see for anyone who considers him/herself a cineaste.
(This is a capsule of my review which aired on WFPK-FM on 1/23/07.)
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