7/27/2019 Pan's Labyrinth 2006
1/1
Free Preview Screenings of
STRANGER THAN FICTION 12A
MEXICAN film-makers are currentlyin the ascendant, working
together andabroad. The year opened with TommyLee Joness modern
western, The Three
Burials of Melquiades Estrada, scriptedby Guillermo Arriaga.
Alfonso CuaronsBritish dystopian thriller Children ofMenis still
running. Alejandro GonzalezInarritusBabel(scripted by Arriaga)
willbe released in January. And Guillermodel Toros remarkablePans
Labyrinth(El laberinto del fauno), which Cuaronhas produced,
appears this week. Itsdel Toros sixth film, and his best to
date,and like the others its a horror moviethough much less of a
genre picture thanhis Hollywood output.
His previous Spanish film, The DevilsBackbone(2001), was set
towards the end
of the Civil War at a remote orphanage,and the events which
include the ter-rible brutality of Francos troops and aghost that
issues warnings of forthcomingcatastrophe are seen through the eyes
ofa sensitive young boy. We inevitably thinkof an earlier Spanish
movie, Victor EricesmasterlySpirit of the Beehive, which takesplace
in the immediate aftermath of theCivil War.Pans Labyrinthis set six
yearsor so later, in 1944, very precisely in Junewhen news of the
Allied invasion of Nor-mandy arrives in an authoritarian statewhere
a party of left-wing guerrillas, thelast remnants of the Republican
army, arehiding out in the mountains.
They are, perhaps fortunately,unaware that Franco will remain
dicta-
tor for a further 30 years. Hunting themdown is a detachment of
soldiers led byCaptain Vidal, brilliantly played by thehandsome,
menacing Sergi Lopez, bestknown in this country for playing
thepsychopathic killer in Dominik MollsHarry, Hes Here To Help and
the evilhead porter of a London hotel in StephenFrearssDirty Pretty
Things. Vidal is aruthless sadist, an archetypal fascistbully
trying to live up to the expecta-tions of his father, a military
hero killedin North Africa. This would be an excit-ing thriller in
itself, but there is anotherstory of a quite different kind.
Vidal has married the widow of a tai-lor (the man who made his
uniforms),and shes come, heavily pregnant, to thisSpartan military
outpost at what appearsto be an old mill with her 11-year-old
daughter Ofelia (the appealing IvanaBaquero). Vidals putting his
wife indanger because he believes that his son(hes convinced it
will be a boy) shouldbe born near his father. I want my sonto grow
up in a new, cleansed Spain, hesays. Ofelia hates Vidal, but as an
avidreader of fairy stories she is fascinated bythe mysterious
atmosphere in the forestsurrounding her new home. From thestart del
Toro creates a sense of wonderthat contrasts with the rigid,
unimagina-tive world inhabited by the Captain.
Shortly after arriving there, Ofelia isapproached by a
fluttering insect rather
like a large cricket, which turns into afairy and leads her to
an undergroundworld. In this labyrinth she meets a giantfaun
(played by the American mime art-ist Doug Jones), a commanding
figure,frightening in appearance but essentiallykindly, the
opposite in fact of the Captain.We learn shes a princess from a
subter-
ranean kingdom, and in characteristicfairytale fashion shes
given three tasksto perform before the full moon.
Ofelias alternative life is composed ofthe gothic materials of
the horror movieand is beautifully realised by the design-ers who
draw, as del Toro has said, onGoyas black paintings and the
Britishchildrens book illustrator Arthur Rack-ham (one of the
favourite artists of theyoung Charles Addams). Theres a gianttoad
from which Ofelia must obtain acrucial key, and a bizarre creature
whoseeyes are in the palms of its hands.
But this nightmarish world, whichOfelia can enter merely by
drawing theshape of a door with magic chalk, is amoral universe, a
place of intellectual andemotional learning. The true horrors
aretaking place in the everyday life of Fran-cos Spain where the
vicious Vidal (insome ways not unlike a monster from a
Grimm fairy tale) delights in torturing hisprisoners, kills
people without compunc-tion, humiliates all those around him
andkeeps the peasants at starvation level sothey cant assist the
guerrillas. However,
to discover kindly people and examplesof good conduct Ofelia
does not have toescape from the world around her. As inThe Devils
Backbone there is a servantwoman and a doctor who put themselvesin
danger both by standing up to the Cap-tain and covertly helping the
guerrillas.The symbolic key Ofelia has to obtain ismatched by the
actual key to the militarystoreroom that the servant (the
strikingMaribel Verdu, star of CuaronsY tu mamatambien) gets for
her guerrilla lover.
In this magical and immensely mov-ing film del Toro presents
both the nar-rative strands as equally real, equally
plausible. Theres no attempt to rational-ise Ofelias parallel
universe by suggest-ing its a dream or a fantasy . In fact thetwo
sides of the film come together toconstitute an allegory about the
soul andthe national identity of Spain, and in awider sense about
the struggle betweengood and evil, between the humane andthe
inhumane, the civilised and the bar-baric. Ultimately in a dramatic
sense thatstruggle comes to turn on the boy whobecomes Vidals son
and Ofelias brotherand whose fate and future unite the fairystory
and so-called everyday reality.
feast for
the eyesA darkly atmospheric fairy story set against grimreality
in Francos Spain, Pans Labyrinth continuesa tide of fine movies
made by Mexican directors
From the start thedirector creates asense of wonder incontrast
with a rigid,unimaginative world
Pans Labyrinth(112 mins, 15)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro;starring Sergi Lopez, Maribel
Verdu,Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones
PHILIPFRENCH
Heres looking at you, kid: Ivana Baquero is confronted by an
eye-popping spectacle.
THE VISION THING
Mark Kermode interviews the directorGuillermo del Toro about his
fabulousimagination and his influences at:
observer.co.uk/review
