PAN'S LABYRINTH
Mexico, 2006, 112 minutes, Colour.
Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ivana Vaquero, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro.
Del Toro has two diverse groups of admirers: those who wish he made more films like the powerful dramatic story of children and teachers at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone, and those who admire him for his comic book actioners: Mimic, Blade II, Hellboy.
With Pan’s Labyrinth, he goes quite a way towards satisfying both niche markets. The setting is the Spanish countryside, a small company trying to root out Communist guerrillas in the forest. The drama is powerful with Sergi Lopez (who usually plays genial characters) excellent as a ruthless commander who will let nothing stand in the way of his will in all things. Maribel Verdu appears as Mercedes, who looks after him like a housekeeper but whose sympathies are with the rebels.
The comic-book fans will be intrigued by the vivid fairytale that comes to life in the imagination of the central character, Ofelia, whose mother has married the Captain, is pregnant and has travelled to be with her new husband. Ofelia is urged to call him ‘father’, but is immediately alienated. She has read a story of a subterranean kingdom where the princess has come up to earth, her memories are obliterated by the sun and she lives as a human being, joys and sufferings. Throughout the film, Ofelia takes refuge in this magic kingdom, led by a grotesque faun and some tough Tinkerbell fairies.
Del Toro brings these two seemingly irreconcilable strands together, creating satisfying parallel universes.
As Ofelia, Ivana Barquero gives quite a natural performance that makes her imagination and her actions believable.
1. The impact of the film? Perspectives on war, perspectives on the imagination? Two different styles of film blended into one?
2. The re-creation of Spain in 1944, the sense of realism, the forest, the headquarters, the fighting of the guerrillas?
3. The world of the imagination, the labyrinth, Pan, the pale man, the fairies, the labyrinth itself? Décor and costumes? Special effects? The musical score?
4. The framework of the dying Ofelia, her eyes, her imagination? The meaning of the princess story as dramatised at the beginning? Ofelia as the new princess?
5. The journey, Carmen and Ofelia in the car, Carmen ill, her pregnancy? The danger to her health in travelling? Ofelia and her relationship with her mother? Her dead father, the tailor? Her love of stories, taking the books, her imagination? The forest, seeing the grasshopper, the labyrinth, the grasshopper turning into the fairy?
6. The captain, hard, his treatment of his troops, style? The embodiment of fascism in the Franco era? His meeting the car, fifteen minutes late, asking his wife to sit in the wheelchair for his sake, Ofelia offering her left hand and his rebuke? Her mother wanting to call him 'father'?
7. The background of the Spanish civil war, the dictatorship of General Franco? The regime of the wartime government and representatives amongst the squad? In the house? He officers and their relationship to the captain? The captain's room, his shaving? The officers taking the two hunters, the brutality, the interrogation, shooting them and finding they were telling the truth about hunting rabbits? The meals and Mercedes serving him? His playing music? His orders, control? His concern about his pregnant wife - even to letting her die for the son to live? His wife dying, his reaction?
8. Mercedes, the staff, the doctor? Their work for the group? Their contact with the guerrillas? The guerrillas, Mercedes' brother, the man with the broken leg, the amputation, his courage? The physicality of the presentation of life in the forest? Pedro, the man with the stutter? The raids - the explosions of the trains, the captain coming too late, the wreckage? The motivation? The confrontation and the shootings? The taking alive of the stuttering man, challenging him to
count to three without stuttering, the torture? His agony, the doctor coming to him, the doctor injecting him and letting him die? Mercedes being found out, her always concealing the knife in the apron, the attack on the captain? Her wounding him, stabbing his mouth? The chase? Mercedes and her being pursued by the officers on their horses, the guerrillas and the attack, the slaughter? The second-in-charge and his return?
9. Ofelia and her story, the labyrinth and her fascination, putting the eye back in the gate? The fairies, taking her to the faun? The mandrake and its magic powers, the baby, in the milk, the drops of blood, under the bed? The captain and his discovering of the mandrake, his anger, Carmen and her horror, burning the mandrake? The vision of Pan, her getting the book, the pages coming alive to tell her what to do? Her going into the labyrinth, drawing the door in the wall, the décor of the corridors, going into the spacious room, the banquet, the pale man with no eyes? Her getting the key into the lock, getting the knife? Her decision to eat the grapes, thinking no-one would notice? The hourglass and her time running out, the escape? The appearance of the faun, his rebuke? His giving her another chance?
10. Mercedes, the attack and the chase, Ofelia and her wanting to save the baby, Mercedes and her protection?
11. The final confrontation, Ofelia taking the baby, going to the labyrinth, the wounded captain and his pursuit, getting lost in the labyrinth, the branches parting for Ofelia to pass through? Pan and his wanting the baby sacrificed? The full moon? The captain, going out to the guerrillas, the final confrontation, the legend of his father breaking his watch so that his son would know at what time he died, the guerrillas refusing this, the guerrillas refusing to let his son know his name? Their shooting him? Ofelia being shot, the close-up on her eye, the vision as she died? Her going into the palatial room, her parents enthroned? Her returning home - and the successful princess?
12. The finale, the background of D- Day in France? Spain to continue under fascism for another thirty years?
