Pan’s Labyrinth is a sumptuous feast of a film, a wonderful and intense delight to be experienced several times over. Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth is an Academy Award winning Spanish language film from 2006. It was distributed by Mexico’s Esperanto Films and was produced by Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron. The film premiered at Cannes in 2006 and enjoyed a limited release at the end of December in 2006. Pan’s Labyrinth had its wide release in January of 2007, but still qualifies as a 2006 film.
Pan’s Labyrinth takes place in 1944 Spain, just after the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil War was a conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d’état committed by parts of the army against the Spanish Second Republic government. The Civil War in Spain ran from July of 1936 to April of 1939 and devastated the country. The combatants in the war were the Republicans, who supported the Republic of Spain, and the nationalists, who had the support of Fascist armies and leaders of the time, including those in Nazi Germany and Italy. The Republicans received support from Mexico, America, and the Soviet Union. Eventually, the Civil War in Spain increased tensions leading up to the Second World War, which was the deadliest conflict in human history and began in 1939.
With this historical context in mind, Pan’s Labyrinth opens with Francisco Franco firmly in power. He was a dictator. The tale in the film involves a young girl, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), who loves fairly tales. Ofelia is travelling with her pregnant mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil) to meet Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez i Ayats). The captain is the girl’s new stepfather and the father of her unborn brother. He is also a ruthless Fascist and is on assignment to root out and destroy any anti-Fascist rebels. Ofelia, throughout the course of the film, creates a fantasy world to deal with the harsh realities of the situation she is in. She takes comfort with Mercedes (Maribel Verdu), the captain’s housekeeper, and develops a world in which she finally has some control. This world is demonstrated in various fantastical sequences that display the vigorous imagination of the young girl.
Without giving away too much, Ofelia’s world involves a number of tasks that she must complete. She eventually learns about sacrifice and getting through fearful situations, as she defeats her fear of the captain and learns a valuable lesson about innocence and true compassion. As the hunt for anti-fascists rages violently and often gruesomely against the palette of Ofelia’s fantasy world, we are reminded of the texture of our world and our fantasy worlds and how they all can come together when we least expect it. Ofelia’s escapism is her means of survival, as it often is with us, and her courage during the trying and violent times of post-Spanish Civil war is incredible.
This is Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece. The film was taken from his notebooks, which are said to be filled with twenty years worth of doodles, drawings, ideas, and plot points. The original story was said to be about a pregnant woman who falls in love with a faun, but went through some changes before the final production. The film has strong connections to del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone and the director has said that Pan’s Labyrinth is somewhat of a “spiritual sequel” to it. Pan’s Labyrinth also draws on elements of Lewis Carroll’s ideas for Alice in Wonderland and Francisco Goya’s works. Guillermo del Toro used pieces of work from his favourite writers to comprise the story, which is original, and explored the figure of the god, Pan, and the symbolic nature of the labyrinth.
Pan’s Labyrinth is a beautiful vision of a film, but it is also very dark and bleak in many areas. The reality of Ofelia’s terrifying life is brought to life in vivid realism and shocking violence as the actions of the captain are spared nothing. The film is bloody, violent, and gory, so it’s certainly not for children. But it does represent tenderness and sacrifice, so the thematic value is impeccable. It is most certainly a fairy tale for grown-ups, however, and this allows Guillermo del Toro’s film to be treated with maturity and passion. The director has invested a great deal of energy and time into this project and it shows on the screen in the incredibly moving visions.
This is one of cinema’s greatest fantasies of all time. There are many comparisons, needlessly and incorrectly, to the Lord of the Rings saga. Pan’s Labyrinth is an entirely different animal, however, as the fantasy in this film is implanted in reality and is an escape, whereas Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga is treated as though it were reality. The elements of the film are different. In fact, there is more in common with Lewis’ Narnia than with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Themes of obedience and childhood’s lost innocence are explored here and del Toro, once asked to direct the Narnia films, appears to be well aware of this.
The cinematography here is amazing and often dizzying. The ability of cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, who also worked on The Devil’s Backbone, to create force of motion here is incredible. Scenes unfold at an almost maddening pace, despite the relatively decisive and slower actions of the characters on screen. The film moves like it’s in overdrive, yet doesn’t lack the warmth to deliver a conscious and agonizing story. Guillermo del Toro’s ability to direct some of the madness on screen is stunning and certainly one of the best directorial jobs I’ve seen. The passion of del Toro for his project and for his ideas is evidenced in each beautiful shot.
Pan’s Labyrinth is an incredible film, worthy of several repeat viewings. The film explores themes of obedience, religion, politics, war, and imagination with a depth and a courtesy that is often left out of Americanized films. This is a stunner of a picture and each scene unfolds with passion and a blossoming vision of fantasy that will leave viewers speechless. The effects are astonishing and staggering, all at once, as the combination of CGI and complex puppetry makes them memorable. Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is one of the best fantasy films I’ve ever seen and is one of the best films of 2006.
9.6/10
Trailer:
