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| Incredible Gothic imagery teases on this poster for Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth |
Ofelia is a girl in General Franco's fascist Spain a few years after the civil war, who is so horrified deeply by the effects of the war, her pregnant, ill mother's plight, and her Falangist captain father's ways that she disappears into a dark fairytale.
Pan's Labyrinth is written and directed by Guillermo del Toro (Cronos (1992)). The original Spanish title translates to, 'the labyrinth of the faun'.
The escapist adventure of Ofelia is strange, and I appreciate it in segments but also feel that I need to revisit Pan's Labyrinth. It fails to bawl me over emotionally, which is likely because the film's symbolic expressionism becomes too thick for my tastes. The banality in the film, (purity and innocence meeting darkness and evil), is almost too much.
But the fantasies and creature effects of Del Toro and team are undeniably beautiful and fascinating. The ending is left up for interpretation, SPOILER though I personally found it deeply tragic.
Related posts:
Guillermo del Toro: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) - Øvredal's ascent to big budget moviemaking gets by on weird horror sequences (co-writer)
The day after the day after ... the 2018 Oscars
The Shape of Water (2017) - Toro's strange monster romance is mostly an amusing fantasy
Pacific Rim (2013) or, The Monster Resistance
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Jackson's megalomania gives birth to the first third of an enormous fantasy whopper (co-writer)
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010) or, What Creeps in the Dark (co-writer)
Julia's Eyes/Los Ojos de Julia (2010) - Decent Spanish horror with good craftsmanship, little else (co-producer)
Hellboy (2004) - Del Toro's super-antihero is a tiring blast
Blade II (2002) or, The Vampire Ass-Kicker 2
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The Devil's Backbone/El Espinoza del Diablo (2001) - The excellent Gothic genre-mix that is Del Toro's best film so far
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 19 mil. $
Box office: 83.8 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.41 times its cost)
[Pan's Labyrinth premiered 27 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 120 minutes. Del Toro passed on directing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) to make Pan's Labyrinth. Shooting took place from July - October 2005 in Spain, including in Madrid. The film opened #21 to a 568k $ first weekend in 17 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 1,143 theaters (different weeks), grossing 37.6 mil. $ (44.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 11.7 mil. $ (14 %) and Mexico with 6.8 mil. $ (8.1 %). The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning for Cinematography (Guillermo Navarro), Art Direction and Makeup. It lost Best Original Screenplay to Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine, Score (Javier Navarrete) to Gustavo Santolalla for Babel and Foreign Language Film to The Lives of Others. It also won 3/8 BAFTA nominations, was nominated for a Golden Globe, won 7/13 Goya award nominations, was nominated for a Grammy and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #137 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between Casino (1995) and Unforgiven (1992). The film additionally made in excess of 55 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. Del Toro had plans for a sequel but scrapped them to make Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), which was his next film. Ivana Baquero (Sister of Mine/Demonios Tus Ojos (2017)), who plays Ofelia, returned in The Anarchist's Wife/La Mujer del Anarquista (2008). Pan's Labyrinth is certified fresh at 95 % with a 8.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Pan's Labyrinth?
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