Pan's Labyrinth

[child_of_God85]

I saw Pan’s Labyrinth last friday with my family, and that has to be one of the most beautiful movies I’ve seen in a long time. It’s not your regular fantacy movie. I wish hollywood would make more movies like this that actually has a plot.
This is definately not a movie to take children to though, because it is very violent and disturbing in some parts. And there is the fact that it’s in subtitles.
But I would highly recomend this movie. The actors are wonderful (especially the young girl), the music is beatiful, it’s just over all a great movie.

 

[rayne100]

I agree, I saw it on Sunday night and loved it!
You forget there are subtitles about five minutes into the movie.

My friend and I had a debate on the way home about it. It had alot of symbolism, not necessarily of any one particular religion but there was several parts that reminded me of something else.

Our debate was whether or not what she was seeing was really happening or if it was just her imagination and if the last scene was her idea of Heaven.

It was an altogether lovely movie, despite some of the disturbing violence.

 

[Lissla_Lissar]

Saw it on Tuesday. I think it was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, but really disturbing in its violence. I think the tension and violence were necessary, but… man.

Anyway, a truly lovely dark fairy tale, with layers of meaning and a fascinating story. The acting was terrific. I was terrified every single time the Captain was onscreen.

Spoiler ahead! Be warned!

How much of the Labyrinth world did you think was real, and how much Ofelia’s imagination? My husband and I left hoping that she really did get back to the faerie kingdom, but it could have just been an ambiguous metaphor. There were parallels all through (like the key to the storeroom/key in the monster’s lair)

 

[child_of_God85]

Saw it on Tuesday. I think it was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, but really disturbing in its violence. I think the tension and violence were necessary, but… man.

Anyway, a truly lovely dark fairy tale, with layers of meaning and a fascinating story. The acting was terrific. I was terrified every single time the Captain was onscreen.

Spoiler ahead! Be warned!

How much of the Labyrinth world did you think was real, and how much Ofelia’s imagination? My husband and I left hoping that she really did get back to the faerie kingdom, but it could have just been an ambiguous metaphor. There were parallels all through (like the key to the storeroom/key in the monster’s lair)

I didn’t notice that about the key (silly me). I think the end it basically left to the viewers imagination. I like to think she got back to her kingdom. I still cried at the end though.

 

[ALotLessThumb]

WARNING POSSIBLE SPOLIERS:

I saw the movie last Friday, definately one of the better movies of the year.

I am apt to think the girl’s fantasy, though manifest in the most visible way, was rather unimportant. Every character was living in their own fantasy as the realities of war culminated upon them. The protagonist was merely the device in which the explain the behaviors of the adults because a child’s imagination tends to be more vivid and expressive. S her fantasy was both real and imagined like that of the Captain, the maid, the rebels, the mother,etc. Because of this and the way it was directed, I found it a bit forced to become attached to the little girl; but to deny that it wasn’t moving at all would be a lie. Overall the feelings were a bit too fleeting and I left with the impression that another director (with a style similiar to Clint Eastwood) would have been able to improve and complete the experience. But perhaps this is too nitpicky; and in general I would recommend this and I certainly will be looking to purchase it on dvd.

 

[Lissla_Lissar]

Spoilers!

Huh. I didn’t really notice a convergence of realities. You see things from Ofelia’s and Mercedes’ perpectives, and a little bit from the Captain’s, I think, but I think the only real options offered are Ofelia’s, and ‘reality’.

Reasons why my husband and I thought Ofelia’s world and destiny might be real, as well as being a coping mechanism:

-The book bleeding to tell her that her mother was starting to miscarry.
-The mandrake root’s reality. She was handed it by the faun, but it was clearly real. Not only did the Captain see it, but it had grown over the bowl to an unnatural degree.
-The chalk was also real
-The chair she left in the monster’s lair disappeared
-She got out of the locked room
-In the maze, at the end, Ofelia walks through a solid wall. The Captain comes to the same point, and there’s no opening.
-I’m a hopeless romantic

I loved the story that she told her brother, but I don’t remember there being an ending to it. Interestingly ambiguous. I loved the tiny little loaves of propaganda bread. Also that the fairy world, although dark and violent, was a lot less horrible than the real world of Spain’s war.

I cried, too.

 

[child_of_God85]

Spoilers!

Huh. I didn’t really notice a convergence of realities. You see things from Ofelia’s and Mercedes’ perpectives, and a little bit from the Captain’s, I think, but I think the only real options offered are Ofelia’s, and ‘reality’.

Reasons why my husband and I thought Ofelia’s world and destiny might be real, as well as being a coping mechanism:

-The book bleeding to tell her that her mother was starting to miscarry.
-The mandrake root’s reality. She was handed it by the faun, but it was clearly real. Not only did the Captain see it, but it had grown over the bowl to an unnatural degree.
-The chalk was also real
-The chair she left in the monster’s lair disappeared
-She got out of the locked room
-In the maze, at the end, Ofelia walks through a solid wall. The Captain comes to the same point, and there’s no opening.
-I’m a hopeless romantic

I loved the story that she told her brother, but I don’t remember there being an ending to it. Interestingly ambiguous. I loved the tiny little loaves of propaganda bread. Also that the fairy world, although dark and violent, was a lot less horrible than the real world of Spain’s war.

I cried, too.

Wow, your way better at spooting things than I am. I’ll have to see it again. But you have me convinsed now that it wasn’t in her head. You made some goo points.

 

[Lissla_Lissar]

I do think it was still supposed to be ambiguous. You don’t know for sure.

Someone who speaks Spanish said that when the faun asks Ofelia for her brother’s blood, she says, “I sacrifice myself!”, which is very different from the English tranlastion, “I won’t!”, and makes snese of his speech to her when she enters the Underworld (“You have chosen to sacrifice yourself rather than spill the blood of an innocent…”)